Charles of Bourbon Visiting Pope Benedict XIV at the Coffee House del Quirinale

Charles of Bourbon Visiting Pope Benedict XIV at the Coffee House del Quirinale (1746) by Giovanni Paolo Pannini

Charles of Bourbon Visiting Pope Benedict XIV at the Coffee House del Quirinale is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian painter Giovanni Paolo Pannini, commissioned by Charles of Bourbon in 1746 and completed the same year. It depicts Charles' visit to Rome after the Bourbon victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Velletri in 1744 – he and pope Benedict XIV were already friends and had signed a Concordat in 1741.

It originally hung in the Capodimonte Palace in Naples and in 1806 was moved to the Palazzo degli Studi. In 1943, just before Allied troops arrived in Naples, German soldiers of the Hermann Goering Division took the painting and presented it to the Italian Social Republic. It was returned to Naples after the war to join the collection of the National Museum of Capodimonte, where it still hangs with its pair Charles of Bourbon Visiting St Peter's Basilica.

Bibliography

• Antonio Spinosa, Salò, una storia per immagini, Segrate, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1992. ISBN 978-88-043-6620-1
• Mario Sapio, Il Museo di Capodimonte, Napoli, Arte'm, 2012. ISBN 978-88-569-0303-4
• Touring Club Italiano, Museo di Capodimonte, Milano, Touring Club Editore, 2012. ISBN 978-88-365-2577-5