View of Pizzofalcone from the beach of Chiaia

Executed, like other views in the Medinaceli collection, in the same year that the 9th Duke of Medinaceli left the viceroyalty of Naples, shortly after having put down the philo-Austrian rebellion known as the Macchia conspiracyAs the inscription on a pole in the lower centre of the painting indicates, this view could be identified with the View of the Castle of El Huevo, described in number 203 of the inventory of the property of the 10th Duke of Medinaceli, painted in 1702. The foreground of the view depicts a stretch of the beach at Chiaia, recognisable by the church of La Victoria, so called in commemoration of the victory of Lepanto, located on the far left of the painting. From there, in the background, he draws the hill of Pizzofalcone, with its conventual and civil buildings, and finally, on the far right of the painting, the islet on which the Castell dell'Ovo stands. A preparatory drawing of this view is in the Museo di San Martino in Naples (G. Briganti 1996, D 265).