An English Alabaster in Aragonese Naples

This research seminar centers on a monumental English alabaster altarpiece of the Passion now held at the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. Made in central England in the second half of the 15th century and shipped in a custom case to a patron in Naples, the alabaster is first documented in the late 17th century in the church of San Giovanni a Carbonara. The project presented here asks how the Capodimonte alabaster—of exceptional scale, quality, and condition—reached Renaissance Naples, and how (and where) it would have engaged its first beholders. Among the issues at stake are the role of courts in the circulation of English alabasters to Italy, collecting practices at the Aragonese court, and the tactile nature of alabaster as a medium.

Sarah K. Kozlowski is Associate Director and Head of Scholarly Research & Programs at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, and Director of the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities "La Capraia" at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte. Focusing on medieval and Renaissance art in Naples and its broader European and Mediterranean worlds, her research asks how artworks’ materials, movements, and formats create meaning.

Scientific Organization: Nora Lambert, Tanja Michalsky

Please follow the event also online on our Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/event/4590347

_{Image: Central England, Triptych with scenes from the Passion, second half of the fifteenth century, alabaster with polychromy and gold, case in oak with polychromy, gold, plaster relief, and verre églomisé, 165 x 306 x 10 cm (overall), c. 230 k. Naples, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, inv. A.M. 10816.Photo © Archivio dell’arte – Pedicini fotografi}