Federico I d'Aragona and Isabella del Balzo
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Authors
Altobello Persio, attr.
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Federico I d'Aragona , Isabella del Balzo , portrait
Alternative Title
Abstract
These under life-sized painted wood sculptures depict the king and queen of Naples, Federico of Aragon and Isabella del Balzo, who reigned over a whole swath of southern Italy. Federico, who came into power in 1496, died in 1504, and Isabella died in 1533, so when these sculptures were made in 1540, the rule of Federico was long over, and both monarchs were dead. By that point, the city in which these sculptures are located, Ferrandina in Basilicata, was no longer ruled by a king in Naples but instead by the viceroy of Spain. Federico, however, was the founder of Ferrandina, named in honour of his father Ferdinando I, and so surely the monarchs are being honoured in that capacity. Now displayed in Santa Maria della Croce (photographs here taken in an exhibition in Palazzo Lanfranchi in Matera), it is not clear in which context these sculptures were originally placed. The use of gold leaf and imported red lake pigments add to the royal splendour of these works. Both monarchs wear crowns, they both step forward with one foot, and they are almost exactly the same size, but gender differences are subtly apparent in the queen's gentler, more inward gestures, as opposed to the king's projecting fist with the scepter. The queen's dress also modestly covers her entire lower body, pooling onto the floor around her advancing foot. Her slightly tilted head, with her large almond-shaped eyes and carefully carved curling hair are attributes of beauty. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Chiesa Matrice di Santa Maria della Croce, Ferrandina, Basilicata
Citation
Dora Catalano, Matteo Ceriana, Pierluigi Leone de Castris, and Marta Ragozzino, Il rinascimento visto dal sud: Materia, l'Italia meridionale e il Mediterraneo tra '400 e '500, exh. cat. (Matera: Palazzo Lanfranchi, 2019), cat. 1.29a-b, p. 227.