SCUOLA NAPOLETANA, CIRCA 1760

NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL, CIRCA 1760 ROMAN IMPERIAL BATTLE SCENE Pen and brown ink, sepia watercolor on laid paper with "La Briglia" watermark ca. 1760 25 × 30 cm / 9.8 × 11.8 inches, with antique frame 40.5 × 45 cm / 15.9 × 17.7 inches This highly animated drawing, executed in pen and brown ink with sepia wash, evokes with striking theatricality the violence and movement of ancient warfare. A whirlwind of rearing horses, warriors launched in attack, fallen bodies, and fluttering banners converges in a swirling scene, structured but intentionally chaotic — a composition reminiscent of the great battles of Antonio Tempesta or the virtuosic exuberance of Luca Giordano. However, upon closer observation, both the graphic technique and the material evidence indicate a later dating. The laid paper bears the "La Briglia" watermark, a famous Tuscan paper mill active from the mid-eighteenth century, whose products were widely used by Italian artists in the second half of the 18th century. Despite the archaic appearance of the paper, this watermark provides an unequivocal terminus post quem and becomes key to correctly dating the work. Stylistically, the drawing shows a marked archaizing tendency, in which the artist — probably trained before the affirmation of Neoclassical purism — takes up the energy and compositional dynamism of the late-Baroque war imagery. The generalized treatment of the forms, particularly in the musculature and drapery, reveals a post-Giordano hand, perhaps active in Naples around 1760, where theatrical grandeur and historical revival continued to thrive. Of particular iconographic interest are the Roman eagles (aquilae) placed at the top of the military standards. Their presence clearly places the scene in the symbolic universe of imperial Rome, as the eagle became the emblem par excellence of the legions starting from the reign of Augustus. The precise episode remains uncertain — the scene could refer to a battle of Caesar's or Trajan's campaigns, or represent a heroic allegory of Roman power, as was in vogue in academic and antiquarian circles of the time. Rather than a simple preparatory work, this sheet seems to have had an autonomous function, conceived perhaps as a finished presentation drawing or part of a private collection aimed at celebrating the greatness of Roman antiquity — an intellectual pastime very common in Enlightenment Italy.