ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to complement the wealth of studies on the Feast of Corpus Christi in the Spanish Habsburg Empire by analysing the way the ceremony unfolded in Palermo, capital of the kingdom of Sicily, at the dawn of the seventeenth century. Figurative and archival evidence on the ephemeral apparati erected on such occasions unveils the important role played by the Viceroy Juan Francisco Pacheco (Madrid, 1649–Vienna, 1718) Fourth Duke of Uceda (in Italy better known as Uzeda or Usseda) 2 in promoting the artistic workshop of Giacomo Amato (1642–1732) on many public occasions, 3 including the erection of large altars in the main courtyard of the royal palace to celebrate the festivity of the Corpus Christi. The analysis of four presentation drawings produced for the viceroy in 1690 and 1694 allows for a reconsideration of Amato’s personality as that of a court architect, convinced of the importance of collaboration and co-production in the workshop, open to Spanish influences, versatile and receptive to different declinations of the late international Baroque, rather than inhabiting a purely classicizing and ‘Romanizing’ niche, and as a friar–architect. 4 Similarly, the presence of architectural motifs of possible Spanish origin in both his projects, as well as in Paolo Amato’s calls for a more unified and osmotic vision of their activity under Spanish patronage. Ultimately, it is hoped that beyond unravelling the functioning of festive public patronage in a capital port of the Mediterranean, this study will contribute yet another argument to the contextualization of southern Italian art production within the broader discourse on artistic exchanges and stylistic transfers between Spain and Italy in the early modern era.
