Design for an Arch for Alfonso I of Aragon, King of Naples

Author: Rosie Razzall

This design for an arch is connected to a project for King Alfonso I of Naples (1396-1458), whose equestrian portrait is placed in a niche at the centre. The Aragon coat of arms and mottos are represented on the large medallion above the arch at ground level, in the open book and sheaf of millet on the pilasters either side, and with the row of five shields with bars on the uppermost level.^[1] However, the precise relationship of this sheet to lost or surviving architectural structures in the city of Naples has been intensely debated.

The most convincing interpretation of the subject is still that proposed by Plansicig when he saw the drawing in the Franz Koenigs collection in 1933.^[2] He assumed that the drawing is related to the triumphal arch of Alfonso I at Castel Nuovo in Naples, a white marble structure serving both as the entrance to the castle, and as a permanent celebration of the king’s triumphal entry into Naples in 1443.^[3] Work on the arch began in 1453 and was completed by 1468 (fig.). The essential layout is the same as in the Rotterdam drawing: a tall, thin structure consisting of two large, superimposed arches flanked by pairs of half-columns and decorated pilasters, surmounted with a sequence of niches containing sculptures. However, there are significant differences between the drawing and the completed arch, notably the replacement of the large medallion and coat of arms with a frieze depicting the king’s triumphal procession, and the reduction of five niches to four above the equestrian statue. Various Gothic elements, such as the twisting columns^[4] and archway at ground level or the tracery at the very top of the arch, were altered to a decisively classical design. The equestrian statue was never executed, but it was probably in this niche that in 1466 Alfonso’s son Ferrante hung a gilded case containing his father’s heart, adapting the arch as a sepulchral monument.^[5] In the absence of a more convincing alternative, several scholars have settled on the conclusion that the drawing is an early design for the arch by Pisanello himself or by a member of his workshop.^[6] Pisanello arrived in Naples in 1448 and completed various other projects for Alfonso. Apart from this drawing, however, his work on the arch is entirely undocumented, whereas payments are recorded to a number of other architects, sculptors and stone masons. No consensus has emerged over the identity of the architect who took over the design but it was probably a team that included Pietro di Milano (c.1410-1473),^[7] and Francesco da Laurana (c.1430-1502).^[8] The names of Onofrio di Giordano (d.1456)^[9] and ‘Bono da Ravenna’, who appears in the inscription at the lower edge of the sheet are more contested. The latter was associated by early scholars with the name of Francesco Bonomo, who administered the works at Castel Nuovo from 1444-48.^[10] As the inscription was added in the seventeenth century, his involvement as designer of the arch is now generally discounted.^[11]

Another theory was put forward by Hersey in 1969, who proposed that the drawing relates instead to an earlier project or stage design at the Castel Capuano.^[12] Hersey based his argument on a description by the humanist scholar Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) of a painting in the castle depicting the king armed and on horseback, surrounded by the Four Virtues.^[13] He suggested that the Rotterdam drawing is a design for a painted scenographic arch matching this description. He also identified the figure in a niche above the equestrian statue as Parthenope, patron of Naples, and assumed that the upper half of the arch was intended as her cenotaph.^[14] Hersey’s suggestions have been accepted by a number of scholars but dismissed by others as highly conjectural.^[15] Not only are they based on Valla’s rather vague written description, there are inconsistencies too, such as the fact that the equestrian statue in the drawing is surrounded by seven niches rather than the four mentioned by Valla. Moreover, the identification of the sculptures depicted in them is far from conclusive. Hersey relied his theory on the drawing having been made in 1446,^[16] before Pisanello’s arrival in the city, a matter he accounted for by suggesting that a member of his workshop had gone on ahead of him.^[17] Hersey nonetheless did not rule out the possibility that the design was later adapted for the arch at Castel Nuovo. This option was also kept in play by Di Battista, who otherwise proposed that the Rotterdam drawing is a design for a painted scenographic arch erected at the entrance to Castel Nuovo.^[18] She argued that this temporary arch was made for the wedding of Frederick III of Austria (1415-1493), later Holy Roman Emperor, to Alfonso’s niece, Eleonora of Portugal (1434-1467), which took place by proxy in Naples in 1451, or to celebrate the groom’s arrival in the city the following year. The arch’s design was then made permanent, with alterations, in the marble monument that is still in place today.

Pisanello’s authorship for this drawing has not always been agreed upon, though most scholars place the sheet in his environs,^[19] and, following Dominique Cordellier, it is attributed to the artist himself here.^[20] There are stylistic affinities with other drawings that the artist made for the King of Naples, as seen in the oblique hatching surrounding the arch which can be compared to a design for canons with Aragon emblems in Paris.^[21] Nevertheless, the precise relationship between Pisanello’s work for the king and the projects described above may never be fully resolved.