Fifteen Eighty Four

The mythical siren song of Naples, which drew travelers to the shores, manifested itself centuries later in the reality of the Grand Tour. Generations came, lured by the urban expanse and broad culture of the city as well as the natural beauty of the surrounding paesi and regions further south. In his own Italienische Reise, Goethe famously proclaimed:

I won’t say another word about the beauties of the city and its situation, which have been described and praised often. As they say here, “Vedi Napoli e poi muori! – See Naples and die!” One can’t blame the Neapolitan for never wanting to leave his city, nor its poets singing its praises in lofty hyperboles: it would be wonderful even if a few more Vesuviuses were to rise in the neighborhood.

Although Goethe underlined the natural beauty of the kingdom and its halcyon effect on virtually all who visited, Naples had long achieved a stature among the most important cultural capitals in contemporary Europe. Nowhere is this historical point more evident than in the dense musical infrastructure of the city, whose theaters, conservatories, churches, aristocratic homes, artistic associations, and diplomatic residences resounded with music in all genres as well as dance. The theatrical genres (heroic and comic opera as well as related vocal forms), instrumental music, and sacred spheres have long been the focus of scholars. My book focuses instead on social dance and the history of celebratory balls (feste di ballo) within the broad culture of Naples in the long eighteenth century. It offers a wide-ranging understanding of social dance genres and their myriad roles within Neapolitan society while elucidating evident ties to and distinctions from theatrical genres and dance.

The presence of social dancing and in particular the role of the feste di ballo within the same artistic, political, and social spheres of the court had been present even prior to the Bourbon dynasty. This tradition kept abreast of contemporary artistic developments, while also being shaped as a malleable expression of regal power, one that could accommodate occasions of state and dynastic celebrations, while retaining its essential form as entertainment. Social dance also developed significantly in transmission of its technique and theory throughout the eighteenth century. Naples remained the sole locus for two of the most important publications on contemporary social dancing. In particular, Giambattista Dufort’s Trattato del Ballo Nobile (1728) acknowledged even prior to Bourbon rule that the genre of the minuet and also the feste tradition had long been rooted in local artistic culture. Gennaro Magri’s Trattato teorico-practico di ballo (1779) drew upon his vast experience as one of the premiere practitioners of the grottesco style and his standing at the Neapolitan court as well as his first-person witness to the transformation of local dance culture with the arrival of Charles LePicq and the ballet d’action. The feste di ballo celebrations transcended mere standing as aristocratic pastime, facile entertainment, or element within the broad-based humanistic education of the ruling elite. In comparison to stage genres, whose tragic-heroic form avowed unquestionably the ancien régime, or comic types that often dismantled its inherent pretensions, the feste posited deep ties to and played a fundamental role within the broader sector of autoreferential spectacle patronized by the absolutist Bourbon monarchy. This tradition remained distinct, however, from the other contemporary genres, by virtue of the direct participation of the monarchy (first Carlo di Borbone, then his son Ferdinando IV) in its conception, illustration, and representation. The physical embodiment of the monarchs and their respective queen consorts as protagonists within the feste di ballo underlined a transcendent agency in a stunning first-person construction of Bourbon identity and authority throughout their reign.

In the third year of his rule (1737), Carlo di Borbone ordered extensive feste di ballo be organized at the Palazzo Reale of Naples. These feste and bestowal of various honorifics were the most public and effective manner to shape policies reconciling the local nobility to Carlo di Borbone’s agenda and vision of the new independent Kingdom of Naples. An anonymous account, titled Relazione delli festini fatti a Corte nel Carnevale di quest’anno 1737, provides information on the customs and relations of the Neapolitan nobility, the associated etiquette, and the specific content of the feste di ballo. The presence of a clear social etiquette emerges as the narrator recounts:
The feste began with a minuet between His Majesty and the Marchesa di Solera, other minuets followed of which His Majesty danced two, with Princess Stigliano and Lady Gioacchina respectively. Then there were contradances, of which His Majesty had the pleasure [to participate in]; beyond those contradances, he did not dance other minuets, although there were others danced in between the [aforementioned] contradances.

Disegno della Gran Festa da Ballo in Prospettiva fattasi nel Real Teatro di S. Carlo [Design in perspective for the large festa di ballo held in the Royal Theater of San Carlo]; Plate iv, Narrazione delle solenni reali feste fatte celebrare in Napoli, 65–66.

These feste di ballo, although neither the first organized for his reign nor the solitary occurrence for the city of Naples given the Spanish and Austrian legacies, were a decisive moment for Carlo di Borbone. They established a transparent framework and series of standards for the projection and perception of Bourbon sovereignty. Similar to the mechanisms of stage drama or celebratory cantatas, these feste were carefully curated in every aspect ranging from the select collection of nobles invited, the coordinated attire of masks and costumes, to the etiquette for the dancing itself. Of particular significance is how each festa could only be initiated by the sovereign himself, placing the king (in effect) center stage of the evening. The anonymous chronicler also underlines how his status as monarch (no less a bachelor) undoubtedly played a role in the total number of dances in which he participated. There is also the evident importance of specific forms of social dances, the minuet and contradance, which by this time represented the aristocratic genres par excellence. These events also provided a template for the future, which could then be replicated in subsequent years, whether for occasions of state during Carlo di Borbone’s reign or that of his son Ferdinando.

The marriage of Ferdinando IV to Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria in June 1768 set in motion a broad array of social, political, and cultural mechanisms not only geared toward fortifying the ties of such dynastic unions, but also designed to memorialize these events for posterity. Within the long-standing, intimate rapport between Neapolitan artistic life and the Bourbon court resided evident and profound political objectives intended to establish convincing images of sovereign authority. The appropriation of the dramatic stage (through heroic opera and laudatory cantatas) remained a highly effective rhetorical tool for the new Neapolitan monarchs. They preferred, however, the feste di ballo as the primary manner of dynastic and artistic expression to convey a broad social, cultural, and political agenda from the onset of their marriage. In June 1772, following the birth of the monarchs first child, Maria Teresa, notices in contemporary giornali began to circulate about impending celebrations. In mid-July an official announcement declared, “The most superb preparations are being made for the feste, which will be given in the Royal Palace, and at the Royal Theater, following the return to health of the Queen.” One week later, another account notes the particulars, claiming, “It has emerged, that the feste, which will be given here as part of the grand celebrations of the royal baptism . . . will be comprised of two balls, a procession to the Royal Palace, and the other in masks at the Royal Theater.” By the mid-1770s, the feste di ballo had been institutionalized as an instrumentum regni, as noted in a contemporary account “there will be six large-scale feste di ballo given in the course of the present carnevale in the royal palace, [there are] many foreign dignitaries, who find themselves in the city, preparing to participate in the lavish masked balls. The King has not given, however, his permission to the impresario of the royal theater to be able to organize public festini in that [royal] theater.” As illustrated by this report, Ferdinando himself deemed the onset of these celebrations and their performance in the most elite and personal spaces of the monarchy underlined their centrality and close association with the Crown.

The feste di ballo continued unabated until the end of the Bourbon dynasty and Kingdom of Two Sicilies. These celebratory balls may be interpreted as a tool for social, political, and artistic mediation, namely, as a cultural framework that formed, then imposed, Bourbon identity, authority, and transcendence. The feste validated social difference between the hierarchy, especially when the monarchs danced as the focal point (even commanding the specific genre and piece), while all others must wait to be invited or to observe. My book seeks to establish their enduring historical significance as a form of “sonoric control” intended to generate the visual representation of a political dynasty, while also underlining the breadth of artistic traditions within early modern Naples.