The Evolution of History Painting: Masaniello's Revolt and Other Disasters in Seventeenth-Century Naples

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

6-1-1993

Department

Art and Art History

Abstract

This article focuses on history painting of contemporary events at the mid-seventeenth-century site of its intersection with the development of popular genre and the image and idea of the artist as revolutionary. Analysis of representations of three events in Naples—the eruption of Vesuvius, the plague, and Masaniello's revolt, in which several painters were said to have participated—provides a framework for examining issues surrounding the visualization of history as narrative, the function of such works as documentation and propaganda, their audiences, and subsequent interpretations.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

The Art Bulletin

Volume

75

Issue

2

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