Ancient Wonders and a Modern Queen: Queen Maria Carolina of Naples-Sicily (1752–1814) and Her Patronage of the Arts in the Artistic and Cultural Exchange between Naples and Vienna

Cigdem Özel

The reign of Maria Carolina (1768–1814) coincided with a cultural flourishing in the Kingdom of Naples-Sicily, which became a fixed destination for Grand Tour travelers thanks to the excavations in the Vesuvius cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Although there is an extensive literature devoted to female patrons of the 18th century, there are few contributions dealing specifically with their patronage of art. This dissertation project is dedicated to art commissioned by Maria Carolina and focuses on three objects or groups of objects that have a close connection to Vienna, the queen’s hometown and most important biographical reference point: the stone centerpiece with the temples of Paestum in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the family portraits in various genres, and Heinrich Friedrich Füger’s frescoes in the Queen’s library in the Reggia di Caserta. In addition to an examination of the creation process and the reception of the works, the network involved in the initiation and realization of the commissions will be reconstructed. The selected works will be examined as “relationship symbols” illuminating Maria Carolina’s role as a client and networker in a familial and political context. The project will investigate to what extent the location of Naples-Sicily and the exchange with Vienna played a role in the decision-making process for the commissions and to what extent Maria Carolina’s art patronage helped shape both the image of her as queen and the image of the kingdom.