During the two centuries which transpired between the beginning of the 1500s and the early 1700s, the Kingdom of Naples was a possession of the Spanish Empire ruled by powerful viceroys who behaved, by right and de facto, as the monarchs’ alter ego.

Following the unification of Italy (1861), historians tended to consider the viceroys’ rule as the root of Mezzogiorno’s principal problems. This vision has changed in recent decades, in which scholars have highlighted the complexity and diversity of the problems with which the viceroys had to contend.

The multimedia project Sguardi Incrocciati focuses on one of the most visible dimensions of the viceroys’ rule: their activity as patrons of art and culture. The majority of these viceroys were members of the high Castilian nobility, creating, in Naples, one of Europe’s most splendid courts, which aspired to compete with those of the Roman pontiff and even the King of Spain.

The results of this activity can still be perceived, in the urbanism and architecture, civil and religious, in both the capital and the key cities of the provinces. Its consequences reached – and had a remarkable impact – as far as Spain itself. Indeed, at the end of their stay in Naples the viceroys took with them a great quantity of works, such as paintings, sculptures, furniture and books, which they had acquired (at times through means of dubious morality) in the city. Thanks to them, Naples became, in many senses, the true cultural centre of the Hispanic Monarchy.

Many of these pieces came to form part of their private collections. On returning to Madrid or to their home towns, many viceroys built dedicated galleries to exhibit them in their palaces. But their lavish lifestyles meant that on no few occasions they, or their heirs, were forced to sell them in order to settle their numerous debts. As a result, many collections soon became dispersed, with the works of Neapolitan artists ending up in the most unexpected places.

In other cases, the pieces the viceroys sent to Spain were destined for churches and convents under their direct protection. A number of these, even today, represent true Neapolitan microcosms embedded in the heart of the Iberian Peninsula.

The viceroys, however, worked not only on their own collections. One of the missions expected of them was that they would contribute to fulfilling the monarchs’ insatiable thirst for works of art. In some cases, they did so through valuable gifts with which they hoped to obtain some manner of recompense. In others, they acted on the express instruction of their masters, who charged them with procuring works by the most renowned Italian artists with which to decorate their residences. This latter took place most noticeably during the 1620s and 1630s, at which time King Philip IV was building his recreational palace, the Buen Retiro, on the outskirts of Madrid. In this manner, the Italian aesthetic contributed enormously to creating the public image of the Spanish Monarchy.

For the majority of the viceroys, Naples was the final stage of a lengthy journey. On their route towards the kingdom’s capital, many of them carried out a tour of the Italian peninsula, which frequently began in Genoa, occasionally passed through Florence and Venice and almost always involved an important stay in Rome. In fact, before serving the monarchy as viceroys of Naples, many had previously done so as ambassadors to the Holy See. In Rome they had the opportunity to meet some of the most celebrated Italian and European artists of the day and to be infected by the climate of visual effervescence characteristic of the Counter-Reformation.

To reflect the intensity of this circulation of works of art that the viceroys propelled, between Italy and Spain, the project Sguardi Incrociati has been designed as a two-way journey. Through diverse maps and plans, we have attempted to indicate the various sites in which their activity as patrons was evident.

Although the viceroys admired the work of the foremost Italian artists – and, indeed, enthusiastically acquired it – their attitude was not merely passive. Many of them were expert connoisseurs with refined tastes and a very specific idea of what they wished to obtain. Their patronage, therefore, was the result of the intersection between their expectations as patrons and the possibilities of formal language offered by Italian artists, hence the title of this project: Sguardi Incrocciati.

This multimedia project has been carried out by the research group “Poder i Representacions” of the Universitat de Barcelona, in the framework of the European ENBACH project (European Network for the Baroque Cultural Heritage), coordinated by Professor Renata Ago of Rome’s Università “La Sapienza”.

The composition of the 150 files which make up the current project has involved the collaboration of 36 scholars of diverse nationalities, among whom are teachers and researchers from five different European countries.