katherine ruckle

Department of Art History
Guiliano Fellow, Fall 2022 
“Salvator Rosa, Masculinity, and Economic Mobility” (Naples, Italy)

I came to Naples with two major objectives in mind toward my project. First was to expand my knowledge of the culture and methods of researching the Accademia degli Oziosi during its inception and rise in the early to mid 17th century. The second, was to gain a more concrete understanding on the status of metaphysical eye contact in intellectual culture in 17th century Naples. My experience in Naples allowed me to fulfill these goals, however the city itself played a major role in providing crucial insights toward my research and would lend my chapter thesis, “Salvator Rosa, Masculinity, and Economic Mobility.” I expand on how Salvator Rosa’s Soldier can be interpreted as a fascinator (a person who is a natural conduit for disastrous luck), a solid research-based foundation. 

The Accademia degli Oziosi, although included among its membership many of the elite in the city,  is considered a relatively niche topic in the study of Italian academies. Only one major full-length study has been written on it. The study, Girolamo de Miranda’s Una quiete operosa: forma e pratiche dell’Accademia Napoletana degli Oziosi, is difficult to find in the U.S. This important book was among many I was able to access at the Lucchesi Palli Library at the Bibliotecha Nazionale, which holds rare books on the cultural history of Naples. De Miranda’s book contained a full account of the major players, motivations, and practices of the Oziosi as it was forming and pointed toward crucial primary and secondary sources for further investigation.

At the Lucchesi Palli Library, I was also able to find a wealth of studies by Michele Rak, a major scholar on Giambattista Basile who was a member of the Oziosi. Basile was among the forefront of the academy’s mission to demonstrate the excellence of Neapolitan literary culture abroad, a mission Rosa himself was also deeply invested in. Basile himself was deeply influential on Rosa personally. Rak’s scholarship, along with translations of Basile’s letters and Neapolitan language editions of his folk tales were valuable in highlighting the atmosphere to which Rosa was responding.

Beyond the libraries and public archives, being in the city itself was an illuminating experience. Completely unlike any other city in Italy I’ve been to, Naples drove home the sentiment once expressed by the actress Sophia Loren, “Non sono Italiana, sono Napoletana! È un’altra cosa!” (“I am not Italian, I am Neapolitan! It’s another thing!”). Naples is completely distinct in its modernity, its raucousness, and its singular natural landscape. However, one of the most distinctive and fascinating aspects is the unabashed presence of superstition at every turn. Every business had some kind of altar or charm present, such as cornicelli, garlic, or smorfia numbers (hung on walls and doorways, cash registers, and the handlebars of motorbikes). This circumstance demonstrated to me that there exists a uniquely Neapolitan perception in which the compatibility between folk magic and modernity is completely natural. It is one of the many aspects of culture that persisted despite centuries of colonization and compulsory unification. I was seeing it unfold in a very contemporary context.

One key extension of this that made a significant impact on my research is the use of the malocchio (evil eye) symbol as part of the crest for the flag supporting S.S.C. Napoli, which had won a title while I was visiting. Walking through the streets, which were covered in ribbons and streamers and lined with flags, the image of the malocchio was ever-present. It was during this time that I made a curious discovery while reading a physical description of Rosa. The biographer described him as having blue eyes. However, every self-portrait I had ever seen of him, he had painted himself with brown eyes. I was shocked as I went through the art historical record and confirmed this– with the exception of one early self-portrait, in which he does paint himself with very dark blue eyes, he depicts himself as brown-eyed. Why might this be? One answer surrounded me on the streets of the city– the malocchio symbol is a blue eye because blue eyes in many Mediterranean cultures, including in 17th century Neapolitan culture, were “bad luck”, an indicator of a fascinator. Perhaps the Soldier is not singular as a depiction of a fascinator, but part of a body of work which included Rosa’s self-portraits, in which the artist is referencing the Neapolitan impetus to fold eye-eye beliefs into an intellectualized, modern context. This new development lends art historical support to and expands my original argument.

This key insight and the materials I was able to access were contingent upon my presence in Naples. Thus my experience in Naples has underpinned and shaped the direction of my current dissertation chapter in a vital way that would not have been possible without the
support of the Giuliani Fellowship.

                                                                                                             

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