A Comparative Reading to Move Beyond a Historiographic Paradigm
The Approach to the Protection of Artistic and Archaeological Heritage in the Kingdoms of Naples and Spain in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century
abstract
The essay reconsiders a historiographic paradigm that often tends to emphasise the role of the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii in the affirmation of a generalised interest in the protection of antiquities, and the reflection it had in Spain, in the years that saw the alternation of a sole sovereign, Charles of Bourbon. With this purpose, it proposes a comparative reading of the ways of considering the archaeological heritage that characterised the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Spain in the Neapolitan years of the sovereign (1734-59) and in those immediately following his transfer to Madrid (1759-61).
Keywords: Protection of cultural heritage • Pompeii • Heritage • Herculaneum • Kingdom of Naples • Kingdom of Spain • Carlos III