Sovrani all’antica. L’incidenza del mondo classico nei ritratti borbonici della Restaurazione

The speech aims to reflect on the presence of references to antiquity and classical culture within the portraits of the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies produced starting from the return of Ferdinand I to the Neapolitan throne. Recurring in the last decades of the Eighteenth century and in the early nineteenth century, so much so as to become peculiar of Bourbon iconography, the references to the ancient world will decrease significantly starting from the age of the Restoration until they disappear completely in the last years of the power of that dynasty. To understand the reasons for this progressive disappearance, we will focus on some exemplary cases.