DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0175
MASANIELLO’S REBELLION.
133
accounts of this Compagnia, perhaps it is best not to
reason too much about it, lest we lose this very pictur-
esque feature of their lives. Men who did not hesitate to
murder, but would yet religiously earn their daily bread,
offer so curious and interesting a phenomenon of human
nature that they should be preserved in the annals of their
time. A few wearied of this peculiar life and left the
band; but most of them were more and more enamored of
their strange profession, especially when they knew Masa-
niello, and he smiled on them.
Several of these masters made portraits of the Captain-
General of the people. Salvator Rosa repeated his por-
trait many times, and both he and Aniello Falcone escaped
to Rome when Masaniello fell. The latter went to
France, where his battle-scenes won for him the favor of
Louis XIV. ; and after Castrillo became viceroy, at the
intercession of the powerful Colbert, Falcone was per-
mitted to return to Naples.
During the remainder of the century there was little
occupation for artists. Occasionally a chapel was deco-
rated, and the new apartments added to the royal palace
afforded an opportunity to a few painters. The Duke of
Onate intended to have the portraits of all the viceroys
since the time of Ferdinand the Catholic painted in the
great saloon by Massimo Stanzioni, an idea which was
carried out under his successors. But art, literature,
science, and all the gentler pursuits of life had received
such blows as could not be healed while every other
human interest was prostrated, while the heel of the
oppressor was inexorably treading out the very life-blood
of the people. Shakspeare makes the Duke say in the
forest of Arden: —
11 Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”
133
accounts of this Compagnia, perhaps it is best not to
reason too much about it, lest we lose this very pictur-
esque feature of their lives. Men who did not hesitate to
murder, but would yet religiously earn their daily bread,
offer so curious and interesting a phenomenon of human
nature that they should be preserved in the annals of their
time. A few wearied of this peculiar life and left the
band; but most of them were more and more enamored of
their strange profession, especially when they knew Masa-
niello, and he smiled on them.
Several of these masters made portraits of the Captain-
General of the people. Salvator Rosa repeated his por-
trait many times, and both he and Aniello Falcone escaped
to Rome when Masaniello fell. The latter went to
France, where his battle-scenes won for him the favor of
Louis XIV. ; and after Castrillo became viceroy, at the
intercession of the powerful Colbert, Falcone was per-
mitted to return to Naples.
During the remainder of the century there was little
occupation for artists. Occasionally a chapel was deco-
rated, and the new apartments added to the royal palace
afforded an opportunity to a few painters. The Duke of
Onate intended to have the portraits of all the viceroys
since the time of Ferdinand the Catholic painted in the
great saloon by Massimo Stanzioni, an idea which was
carried out under his successors. But art, literature,
science, and all the gentler pursuits of life had received
such blows as could not be healed while every other
human interest was prostrated, while the heel of the
oppressor was inexorably treading out the very life-blood
of the people. Shakspeare makes the Duke say in the
forest of Arden: —
11 Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.”