The Art of Travel
Seeking a Master Work in Naples
Hey! You can’t be in here!! The words echoed from the church’s majestic barrel vault before raining down on my head in a shame-inducing scold. Rather than skulking away, however, I presented my defense. ART. This is, after all, Naples, where cultural pride and an appreciation of beauty reign supreme. After explaining that the front doors – which had been consistently padlocked during the three years I had lived in Italy – had been cracked open and that I was on a mission to see the Giacinto Diano altarpiece that lay within, all was forgiven. The foreman, whose all-male chorus of workers had stopped to gawk, gave me a thumbs up and asked only that I pull the door closed on my way out. With that, he and his men turned back to their decades-long project of trying to save the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata Maggiore, one of the city’s greatest 18-century Neoclassical churches, which sits on the edge of the gritty centro storico (historic center).
Twenty-three years earlier, I had hit the academic equivalent of the lottery: a two-year prix de Rome at the American Academy in Rome This allowed me to live in one of the Academy’s residences atop the Janiculum Hill, home to a community of scholars and creatives. During my time at the Academy, I completed research for my doctoral dissertation, Cultural Politics in Bourbon Naples, 1734-1799: Antiquities, Academies and Rivalries with Rome. Among the artists I encountered was Giacinto Diano (1703-1831), who was born in Pozzuoli (SW Naples) and spent his professional career living and working in the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.” Little did I know that, nearly a quarter century later, I would reconnect with Diano; this time, as the Beaux Arts Director and Chief Curator at the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum.
Founded in 1950, the Lowe was our region’s first art museum; today the nearly 19,000 works entrusted to our care represent 5,000 years of human creativity. Among the museum’s treasures is a painting executed while the Bourbon Kings of Naples were in power, Diano’s The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, a preparatory sketch for an important commission the painter received in the mid-eighteenth-century.
I had the privilege of returning to Naples last September to see the final version of this painting at the San Raffaele Arcangelo church – as well as others by Diano, whose works remain in several Neapolitan palaces and churches, including the aforementioned Annunziata. The week I spent in Southern Italy, laying the groundwork for the Lowe’s upcoming cultural tour of Puglia and Naples (October 14-26, 2025), reminded me why this part of the world has such a grip on my heart. A true palimpsest, its layered history stretches back nearly 2,500 years, enabling one to toggle back and forth between past and present. The region’s beauty is captivating, whether one is on the Tyrrhenian or Adriatic Coast, or anywhere in between. And then there’s the food … Mamma mia, the food!
Left to Right : Giacinto Diano’s The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine on the walls of San Raffaele Arcangelo Church. Visit the Lowe Museum to see the preparatory sketch of this painting. Locally baked crusty bread. Spaghetti alle vongole. The author Jill Deupi, left, with friend in Matera.
This fall, on my first morning in Naples after so many years, I indulged in an exquisitely golden, domed brioche, accompanied by a perfect caffé macchiato (espresso “stained” with hot milk) at Scartuchio in the heart of Spaccanapoli, the ancient “cut” that runs through the heart of the old city. I still think about that prima colazione with equal measures of fondness and longing, just as I think of Neapolitan pizza (born in late-nine- teenth-century Naples), taralli, and spaghetti alle vongole whenever I crave seriously savory carbohydrates. Given its geographic
location, seafood also abounds in Naples, just as it does in Puglia, which occupies the heel of Italy’s “boot.” The latter is also famed for its land-based specialties, including orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta), pasticciotto, pane di Matera, caciocavallo … the list goes on. And did I mention the olive oil? And the wine? Suffice it to say, Southern Italy gives the peninsula’s more famous gastronomic regions (I’m looking at you, Tuscany) a run for the money. Hungry for more?
Come experience the artistic, cultural, and gastronomic wonders of Bari, Alberobello, Trani, Lecce, Castel del Monte, Locorotondo, Matera, Pozzulo, Baia, Salento, Caserta, and, of course, Naples with me and our tour operator, Arrangements Abroad, this October. For further information, contact 305-284-6981 or email membershiplowe@miami.edu. Meanwhile, be sure to visit our Giacinto Diano painting, on view in the Lowe’s Samuel H. Kress Galleries (see lowe. miami.edu for details). A presto!
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY JILL DEUPI, JD, PHD – CHIEF CURATOR, LOWE ART MUSEUM
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