Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T10:34:41.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Maria Carolina as Cultural Patron and Icon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2020

Anthony R. DelDonna
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

The last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century in Naples witnessed a profound transformation. At the center of this process of innovation, change, and upheaval was Queen Maria Carolina, the consort to King Ferdinand IV. Thanks to the influence of her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, Maria Carolina was not to be a mere spouse or observer; rather, she was destined to be the driving force for sweeping change within the Kingdom of Naples. Despite her well-documented limitations and even ineptitude, Maria Carolina established a formidable presence within contemporary artistic life. Unlike her husband, she possessed cultural sensibilities that were astute, and she was an engaged patron of art, music, and dance. This chapter focuses on Maria Carolina within the artistic sphere of her reign, namely as a cultural icon, with a specific emphasis on her role as a musical patron. Working from diverse sources – including historical research, surviving diaries, and personal correspondence, as well as related documents – this chapter establishes a portrait of Maria Carolina’s musical interests, with a specific focus on the cultivation of instrumental music at court, thereby shedding light on a largely unknown, yet important, sector of Neapolitan artistic life at the end of the eighteenth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Instrumental Music in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples
Politics, Patronage and Artistic Culture
, pp. 93 - 116
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×