* Viviano Codazzi (Bergamo 1604 - 1670 Rome) and Domenico Gargiulo (Naples 1609/10 - 1675)

We are grateful to Dr. David Marshall who, on the basis of photographs, confirms the present painting to be by Viviano Codazzi with staffage by Domenico Gargiulo.  Dr. Marshall dates the picture to 1642 or 1643, around the same time or a little earlier than another view of the Villa in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Besançon (see D. Marshall, Viviano and Niccolò Codazzi and the Baroque Architectural Fantasy, Rome 1993, p. 104, cat. VC 27, illustrated p. 105). 

The present veduta is one of few representations of the Villa Poggioreale built by the Florentine architect Giuliano da Maiano for Alfonso II of Aragon (begun 1487, now destroyed).  The Villa represented one of the most important examples of Florentine quattrocento architecture outside of Tuscany, and was not only highly influential in Naples but even as far north as Rome.  In the present composition the Castel dell'Elmo, with part of the Certosa di San Martino (where Codazzi was working at the time) is visible on the hilltop in the distance.  While the distances between the Villa and the Castel dell' Elmo are compressed, the topographical relationship is quite correct. 

There are some differences between the present composition and one in Besançon which may be due more in part to artistic licence than anything else.  In fact, an engraving of 1629 by A. Baratta (see fig. 1) shows the loggia of the Villa with eight archways, while the present canvas shows six, and the Besançon picture shows seven.   

The Villa functioned as a popular and semi-public playground.  The Count of Benavente made the villa more accessible by englarging the streets leading to it and decorating them with fountains.  Both the upper and lower classes could pass their days walking and picnicking in the gardens and even fishing in the peschiera (fishpond).  This is shown in the present canvas as filled with saltwater and could be stocked for the crowd's amusement.  As one eyewitness noted: "Essendo il ragazzo in tempo del Duca di Medina de las Torres, Vicère, la vidi piena d'acqua e vi si fece una belissima pesca, avendovi posti i pesci ivi portati vivi dal mare in certi tini e botti piene di acqua marine [being a boy in the time of the Duke of Medina de las Torres, Viceroy, I saw it full of water and one could do some lovely fishing, having stocked it with fish carried there live from the sea in certain pails and barrels full of seawater (see D. Marshall Literature above, p. 106, note 7)."

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