Michelangelo Cerquozzi
(Rome 1602-60)
The Revolt of Masaniello
Oil on canvas, 184×186 cm
This work, famous for its absolute historical importance, is the equivalent of a 17th-century reportage, illustrating with extraordinary vividness and attention to detail the revolt that led Masaniello to guide the Neapolitan people against the Spanish viceroys in 1647.
The painting belonged to the collection of Monsignor Virgilio Spada (1596-1662), the younger brother of Cardinal Bernardino. The work was commissioned to the great Roman artist Michelangelo Cerquozzi, who executed it between late 1647 and early 1648 without ever leaving Rome. The timeliness of the story is due to what the artist was told by his painter friend Viviano Codazzi, who was in Naples at the time of the riots and who painted the buildings in the background.
