THE LOCAL EYE: FORMAL AND SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS IN LATE QUATTROCENTO NEAPOLITAN TOMBS

The importation of foreign sculptors to Naples was a common phenomenon which both led to the amalgamation of divergent artistic forms of expression and also paved the way for innovative combinations which fulfilled the desire of the local nobility for hybrid, palimpsest‐like tombs. This article examines the broader historical sensorium through which fifteenth‐ and sixteenth‐century Neapolitans drew distinctions between local traditions and imported innovations when choosing artists, types and decorative styles for their funerary monuments. It demonstrates that the Neapolitan nobility was able to assimilate new and imported representational styles because it was accustomed to distinguishing between different styles and forms. A network of visually related monuments and surviving contracts testify to the typological rigour of the visual frameworks and to the recognized potentiality inherent in reinterpretations of earlier formulae.