Resumen de Riflessioni su un reliquiario napoletano in ebano e avorio del 1598 per Giovan Antonio Scodes
This study is dedicated to a Neapolitan architectural reliquary in ebony and engraved ivory, dated 1598 and now preserved at the Archbishop's Palace in Naples. A stylistic analysis of the reliquary is carried out to contextualize this rare artefact, so far unknown to studies, in the Neapolitan manufacture of ebony and ivory furniture. The first part of the essay is focussed on examining from an historical-social point of view the cloth merchant and fervent devotee Giovan Antonio Scodes, who commissioned the artefact. The analysis of documents and sources related to this merchant offers some evidence of the widespread cult and trade of relics, which was typical of the Counter-Reformation devotion. The Scodes reliquary is also compared to some coeval sacred furniture, and the engraved ivory plaquettes are compared to some engravigs be renowned authors, as Giovanni Battista De Curtis.
