A recent discovery in the Archivio di Stato in Rome makes it possible to clarify several aspects of the patronage of the Neapolitan Cardinal Ascanio Filomarino (1583-1666; Fig.l), a fascinating collector whose tastes were formed in Rome in the entourage of the Barberini during the second and the third decades of the Seicento.l The discovery of the complete series of documents containing all Filomarino's financial transactions made through the Banco del Monte di Pieta during his Roman sojourn has enabled me to reconstruct his profile as a collector and patron of works of art, which has up to now been discernible only indirectly, through the late seventeenth-century family inventories, as Ascanio's collection was to form the nucleus of one of the most important quadrerie in seventeenth-century Naples.

On 13th June 1747 Maria Amalia of Saxony, wife of Carlo III Borbone, King of the Two Sicilies, finally gave birth to a male heir. After five daughters and nine years of marriage, the Infante Filippo's arrival caused the entire city of Naples to erupt into two weeks of elaborate public celebrations, beginning on 4th November 1747, the feast day of S. Carlo. To commemorate the festivities the king decided to commission a book of eighteen engravings and to send copies all over Europe (Figs.9-10).l The book, however, like his son, was to prove a disappointment. The volume took more than two years to complete: paper from Holland was endlessly delayed, the engravers had to re-do their plates, the text was late, epigrams were composed and re-composed, and a host of other problems plagued the production.2 Ten years after the imperial folio finally appeared,3 Filippo was excluded from the throne after a committee of magistrates, high officials, and six physicians declared him mentally deficient.

The Museo del Prado and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid possess three Grand Tour portraits of British sitters by Batoni, signed and dated 1778. Attempts to establish the identities of the sitters or the prove- nance of the works, however, have until recently proved unsuccessful.'John Steegman noted that 1778 was 'a disappointingly anonymous year' in Batoni's portrait oeuvre as a whole.2 This article will focus attention on two of the Madrid portraits: the third will be the subject of a future contribution.