Resumen de Wenzel Cobergher tra Napoli e Roma
Wenzel Cobergher (1557/61-1634) was one of the most important figures forming part of the numerous colony of Flemish artists residing in Naples in the last decades of the 16th century. Painter, architect, engineer and collector, Cobergher, a native of Antwerp, worked in the city between 1580 and 1597. In this article, in the light of new documentary evidence, we examine the lengthy sojourn in Naples of this artist, who for the first time is being attributed with the central panel of the ceiling of the Neapolitan church of San Gregorio Armeno, representing ‘Saint Gregory, bishop of Armenia, blessing Tiridates, his wife and the royal court’, previously attributed to Cornelis Smet, and the completely unknown ‘Madonna del Rosario’ from the church of the Trinità at Piano di Sorrento (Na). The article also contributes to clarifying aspects connected with the chronology and patronage of other significant Neapolitan works by the Antwerp master, such as the canvases of the Cappella della Passione in the church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, requested by Alfonso de Herrera, bishop of Ariano, and the ‘Resurrection of Christ’ displayed above an altar belonging to the Carafa family in the Cappellone del Crocifisso in San Domenico Maggiore, with which Francesco Carafa wanted to pay homage to the memory of Paul IV, pope between 1555 and 1559. The final part of the article focuses on the artist’s shorter stay in Rome (1597-1604), a period during which he even worked with the celebrated Paul Bril. A remarkable portrait is attributed to this period, that of Cardinal Francesco Maria Tarugi, a painting formerly ascribed to Girolamo Muziano. Cobergher had known the cardinal from years of his residence in Naples, and it must have been Tarugi who encouraged his relations with the community of the Oratorian fathers of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome, the context for which the Flemish artist executed a lost ‘Pentecost’ intended for the chapel belonging to Diego del Campo, privy chamberlain to Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini.
