Opening today at Gallerie d’Italia in Naples, Donne nella Napoli Spagnola: Un altro Seicento is the first exhibition devoted entirely to the role of women in the arts of 17th-century Naples, curated by Denunzio, Morselli, Porzio, and Straussman-Pflanzer, under the patronage of the Embassy of Spain in Italy and the City of Naples.With over 100 works, the exhibition features portraits, still lifes, theatrical scenes, and devotional masterpieces.

We are delighted to have loaned our Giovanni Battista (Battistello) Caracciolo, Portrait of a Noblewoman for this landmark show.

A significant recent addition to Battistello’s oeuvre, the work displays his signature pale, modelling light, granting the young sitter a refined and sculptural presence.

Given the portrait’s courtly, elevated character, the sitter—an adolescent of high rank—may be linked to the Medici circle, though it is even more plausible that the painting was executed in Genoa, where Battistello worked in the service of Marco Antonio Doria.

This context further enhances the relevance of the canvas, particularly considering the near-complete disappearance of early 17th-century Neapolitan portraiture, including works attributed by archival and literary sources to major specialists such as Battistello himself.