Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569)
Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples
c.1551–1553
Oil on panel, 42.2 x 71.2 cm
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Roma
The extraordinary panel shows the port of Naples, in which a naval battle, probably invented, takes place. Bruegel, protagonist of Dutch painting and founder of a family of artists, was in Italy from 1551 to 1553, passing through Rome, Naples and Messina. The work was performed in Italy and represents an absolute novelty in the genre of sea battles and storms, although stylistically it is linked to the sources of the sixteenth-century Flemish landscape. The meticulous description, faithful to the reality of the places, and the elevated point of view, from a bird’s eye, are in fact typical of that world. The whole hosts a quantity of details and micro scenes, which can hardly be seen with the naked eye. Two ancient citations record paintings by Pieter perhaps to be linked to ours: one is in the 1607 inventory of Cardinal Perrenot de Granvelle, governor of the Netherlands and collector of the artist’s paintings, the other concerns the pieces owned by Rubens (1640) . The work, however, belonged to Prince Camillo Pamphilj together with several other examples of Flemish painting, which he greatly appreciated. (GDP)