ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein's portrait of Anna Amalia provides a lens through which to explore the Neapolitan milieu that fostered her embrace of science and archaeology and her cultivation as a "scientific lady". It suggests that Tischbein's portrait of Anna Amalia challenges and subverts the gendered norms of scientific and archaeological inquiry, while also materializing the complexity of her participation within the scientific circles in Naples. By hosting salons, Anna Amalia brought together intellectuals, artists, and connoisseurs who often engaged in Geselligkeit, or sociability, by looking at and discussing prints and paintings together. Anna Amalia immediately became a central figure within the Gesellschaft, or community, of German-speaking artists living in Naples. Anna Amalia's portrait at Pompeii's Herculaneum Gates is an image of a female antiquarian whose investigation of these archaeological sites and ancient artifacts situated her within male institutions of higher learning.
