Neapolitan Art in Imperial Vienna
In the wake of the War of the Spanish Succession, Naples and southern Italy fell to the Habsburgs and in the years 1707–1734 were governed by Austrian viceroys. During this period, magnificent Neapolitan paintings are known to have found their way into the Vienna palaces of viceroys Wirich Philipp Lorenz Daun and Alois Thomas Raimund Harrach, and also into Prince Eugene’s Upper Belvedere and the Stallburg imperial gallery. This large-scale transfer of art and culture from the Sebeto to the Danube was by no means confined to the years of Austrian rule in southern Italy, however. The goal of the project is to document, for the first time in systematic fashion, the Neapolitan art that reached Vienna and Central Europe from the 17th century up to the end of the Habsburg monarchy, and thereby to analyze important collectors, agents and art dealers and the primary and secondary avenues by which their acquisitions crossed the Alps. The project is generously supported by the Fondazione De Vito.
