Ricerche battistelliane

This article offers an account of research carried out by the author on archival and published sources relating to key works by Battistello Caracciolo such as the Immaculate Conception in Santa Maria della Stella in Naples and the Virgin of Purgatory with Saints Francis and Clare formerly in Santa Chiara in Nola and now in temporary storage in the Capodimonte Museum. A review of documentation known thus far (of which the appendix provides the first full transcript) allows for a clearer chronology, and — especially as regards the second altarpiece — the definition of a likely context for its execution, based on the onjunction of historical data and iconography. As for the lost fresco cycle in San Gaudioso in Naples (one of projects cited most prominently in written sources on the artist), a hitherto unpublished bank statement securely dates it to 1616 and reveals its patronage. The article concludes by finally disentangling the complex critical and attributional wrangles regarding the two versions of the Lamentation over the Body of Abel i n the Capodimonte Museum and the Galerie G. Sarti in Paris.