Naples
City of southern Italy that was the capital
of a kingdom covering the southern re-
gions of the peninsula and the island of
Sicily. Naples had been a thriving port city
from the time of the ancient Greeks, who
founded the metropolis and called it Ne-
apolis or “new city.” After the fall of the
western Roman Empire, the Byzantine
Empire made Naples a key port. Trade
from southern Europe to Greece and the
Middle East brought great wealth to the
city and made it a valuable prize for the
Normans, who established a kingdom in
southern Italy and the island of Sicily in
1039.
During the Renaissance, the kingdom
of Naples was contested by the Angevin
dynasty, which had its roots in northern
France, and the rulers of the Spanish realm
of Aragon. The Angevin dynasty was
granted Naples by Pope Clement IV in
- Angevin kings brought important
Italian artists, including Giotto and Si-
mone Martini, to the city to decorate
churches, palaces, and buildings belonging
to the Franciscans, an order of monks es-
tablished in the thirteenth century.
In 1373, when Queen Joan I renounced
the Angevin claim to Naples, she named
Duke Louis I of Anjou as her heir. The ri-
val of Louis, the Prince of Durazzo, took
his vengeance by murdering Joan and con-
quering Naples in 1382, when he was
crowned as Charles III, king of Naples. Al-
though Naples was seized by Alfonso V of
Aragon in 1442, the Angevin dynasty did
not give up its claim to the kingdom.
Alfonso celebrated his victory by rais-
ing one of the most famous monuments
of Naples, the Arco di Trionfo di Constan-
tio, a monumental arch inspired by the ar-
chitecture of ancient Rome. Under the
Aragonese dynasty Naples became an im-
portant center of painting, with a re-
nowned school established in the city by
Colantonio del Fiore. Neapolitan kings
commissioned works by Pisanello, Dona-
tello, and Michelozzo, all artists of Flo-
rence and Tuscany, while noble families of
Naples hired these and other northern
painters to decorate their private chapels
in the city’s leading churches. A unique
Neapolitan style of painting and sculpture
developed in the late fifteenth century; its
leading artists were Diego de Siloé and
Bartolomé Ordonez, both Spaniards.
In the meantime, the Angevin line died
out in 1481, and the French claim to
Naples was taken up by the Valois dynasty.
The Valois was given support by Pope In-
nocent VIII, who saw the Aragonese as a
serious threat to his own authority in cen-
tral Italy. When Alfonso’s son and heir Fer-
rante died in 1494, the pope invited King
Charles VIII to invade Italy with the goal
of seizing Naples and allying it with the
Papacy. The French troops defeated the
Aragonese but facing a much stronger
army sent by Ferdinand II of Aragon,
Charles soon retreated from Italy. The Ara-
gonese remained in control of Naples
while the kings of France made unsuccess-