Fashioning the Certosa di San Martino: Ornament, illusion, and artistic collaboration in early-modern Naples (Italy)

The Carthusian monks' residence in Naples began in the fourteenth century when their monastery, the Certosa di San Martino, was established upon the wishes of Charles of Anjou. In the late sixteenth century they began to sponsor an ambitious series of decorative campaigns that continued without interruption until the mid eighteenth century, transforming the Certosa into one of the premier architectural, pictorial, and sculptural monuments in Naples if not all of Europe.; The present study focuses on the decorative ensemble created by these decorative campaigns and approaches the Certosa as a monument that engages the history of ornament. The Certosa di San Martino provides the opportunity to view ornament as the product of an extraordinary collaborative effort of artists and patrons, as the product of a sophisticated workshop dynamic, and as a catalyst for early-modern thinking and theory about decoration, perception, and morality.; Beyond the monastery, these approaches to ornament deliver insights into how art was produced and witnessed in early-modern Naples. The visual forms of Baroque Naples were the result of sophisticated social and professional relationships between patrons and artists and between artists themselves. Furthermore, this art and architecture responded to a common interest in expressing wealth. The effect of wealth was universally acknowledged by the early-modern observers of Neapolitan art: it was both appreciated for its splendor and metaphorical resonance, and harshly criticized for its decadence, poor taste, and social irresponsibility.