CHAPTER NINETEEN THE POLITICS OF COUNTER-REFORMATION ICONOGRAPHY AND A QUEST FOR THE SPANISHNESS OF NEAPOLITAN ART Sebastian Schütze In early modern Europe politics and religion are insoluble parts of a binary system, and so are political and religious iconography. The two categories were simply not conceived as two distinguished or even distinguishable ones. The fusion between political and religious iconography is nowhere more evident than with the Spanish Hapsburgs. Key issues of Counter-Reformation theology and pillars of Catholic orthodoxy—such as the Eucharist, the Trinity or the Immaculate Conception—were adopted and indeed incorporated into the dynas- tic imagery of the Catholic Kings, representing their piety and devo- tion, and, therefore, undisputed role as foremost defenders of the Catholic faith and legitimate rulers of the world. It might be sufficient here to recall such emblematic images as Charles V and his wife Isabella adoring the Trinity in Titian’s monumental Gloria for the emperor’s private oratory in Yuste, Rubens’ spectacular series of Eucharist-Tapestries commissioned by Isabella Clara Eugenia d’Austria for the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid or Claudio Coello’s scenographic Sagrada Forma for the sacristy of the Escorial, showing Charles II kneeling in front of the miraculous host (Figure 19.1).1 1 The present contribution retains the format of the initial paper presented at the American Academy in Rome, with the addition of endnotes restricted nonethe- less to basic and most recent bibliography. I would like to thank Thomas Dandelet, John Marino, and Ingrid Rowland for their kind invitation to the conference, as well as their encouragement and help throughout the preparation of this paper. For Titian’s painting see Harold E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian. Complete Edition, 3 vols. (London, 1969–1975), 1:165–167, no. 149; Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos, “Carlos V paradigma de pietas austriaca,” in Carlos V: las armas y las letras, catalogue of the exhibition, ed. by Fernando Marías e Felipe Pereda (Madrid, 2000), pp. 243–260; Christian Hecht, Die Glorie: Begriff, Thema, Bildelement in der europäischen Sakralkunst vom Mittelalter bis zum Ausgang des Barock (Regensburg, 2003), pp. 347–351. For Rubens’ tapestries see Nora De Poorter, The Eucharist Series, Corpus 556 sebastian schütze The iconography of the Catholic Kings was indeed dominated by religious imagery and widely diffused through painted copies and a myriad of printed images. Some of the most explicit representations were in fact printed images, such as Rubens’ monumental thesis illus- tration of St. Francis Seraphicus Atlas, supporting the Immaculate Conception (Figure 19.2).2 The highly elaborate iconography presents St. Francis, the Franciscan Order and the Spanish Hapsburgs as the main sup- porters of the cause of the Immaculate Conception, including images of the reigning king Philip IV and his family, as well as those of his ancestors Charles V, Philip II and Philip III. In Pedro Villafranca’s 1672 engraving of Charles II and his mother Mariana d’Austria, the transfer of the regency occurs under the guidance and protection of the Immaculate Conception, Patrona Hispaniae, and the Eucharist, Patrocinium Austriacum (Figure 19.3).3 The following considerations address questions that have been mostly avoided in art historical literature: whether and how the pol- itics of Counter-Reformation iconography in Hapsburg Spain had an impact on Naples and the Spanish dominions in Southern Italy, and also how far the production and consumption of art was, directly or indirectly, shaped by these politics. Considering the range and complexity of the problems encompassed, it is the intention here to define the field of investigation and provide a methodological frame- work rather than to come to any definite conclusions. Naples has been described as the “real capital of the Counter- Reformation.”4 The core of the city was dominated by an ever-growing number of churches, convents, and confraternities and a vast num- Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard II, 2 vols. (London and Philadelphia, 1978). For Coello’s altarpiece see Edward J. Sullivan, Baroque painting in Madrid: the contribution of Claudio Coello with a catalogue raisonné of his works (Columbia [MO], 1986), pp. 215–217. For the Eucharist in Hapsburg iconography in general see also Marie Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas. The Hapsburgs and the mythic image of the emperor (New Haven/London, 1993), pp. 207–222. 2 For this large scale thesis, engraved by Paulus Pontius, see J. Richard Judson and Carl Van De Velde, Book Illustrations and Title-Pages, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard XXI, 2 vols. (London and Philadelphia, 1978), pp. 349–355, No. 85. 3 For Villafranca see Mark P. McDonald, “Pedro Perret and Pedro de Villafranca: printmakers to the Spanish Hapsburgs,” Melbourne Art Journal (2000), pp. 37–51. 4 Romeo De Maio, Pittura e Controriforma a Napoli, (Rome and Bari 1983), pp. 23–38; for a summary in English see Romeo De Maio, “The Counter-Reformation and Painting in Naples,” in Painting in Naples from Caravaggio to Giordano, catalogue of the exhibition, ed. by Clovis Whitfield and Jane Martineau (London, 1982), pp. 31–35..