Roman influences in the architecture of domes in Naples at the turn of the XVIth century

In trying to assess the impact of sacred architecture over the dense urban scene of Naples in the modern age there emerges that, from the mid 16th century onwards, domes acquired an increasing weight within the scope of the construction of visual hierarchies in the urban landscape. Their increased presence – recorded in different views of the city such as Jan van Stinemolen’s (1582), Alessandro Baratta’s (1629) as well as in Didier Barra’s painting (1647) – provides evidence about the many construction sites of the Counter-Reformation, where a rich studio was taking shape, which was destined to influence the architecture and the urban setting of the viceregal capital. However, notwithstanding the profound changes imposed by the Tridentine reform, during the greater part of the 16th century the architecture of Naples seems to have clung to the classicist imprint, uniquely marked by Renaissance domes, in primis those of the Caracciolo di Vico Chapel (circa 1516), evidently built in the style of Bramante, and of Santa Caterina a Formiello (circa 1519) which saw the active involvement of the Tuscan Romolo Balsimelli, whose presence in Naples is documented from 1505 onwards. These are simply-structured Renaissance models replicated in the churches of San Severino e Sossio, of Santa Maria di Regina Coeli, of Santa Maria di Donnaromita as well as in the church of San Gregorio Armeno – amongst the earliest constructions inspired by the Tridentine upgrades – whose volumes seem to be in keeping with the pauperist language made successful in Rome by Giacomo Della Porta and Martino Longhi the Elder. The one-canopy model erected on windowed tambours, although with volumetric evidence, emphasized in some instances (S. Caterina a Formiello) and reduced in others (S. Maria del Popolo agli Incurabili), appears to map out a typological guideline which was reproduced during the whole century, both before and after the Council of Trent, and replicated in plenty domes that crowd together in bird’s eye urban views painted from the sea or the hills