ABSTRACT
The tenure of Gaspar de Haro y Guzmn, seventh marquis del Carpio, who ruled Naples between 1683 and 1687, represented high point within long process that was not halted by the Austrian takeover in 1707. Carpio's much-publicized good government was marked by decisive administrative reforms which resulted in increased political leverage of ministers and magistrates belonging to civic class. In the pursuit of Don Gaspar's politics of art, recent scholarship has overlooked its ultimately limited cultural effect in Rome and Madrid. In other words, emphasis on Carpio's politics of art has contributed to deflect attention from Carpio's far more effective cultivation of art of politics' in his late years. It is no small matter: marquis's vision to promote cultural policy in Rome conflicted with Madrid's utter disinterest. Haskell quite clearly understood that Carpio's success had much to do with development of the necessary cultural disposition towards new forms of rational criticism, itself precondition for reforms both cultural and political.
