The Ethics of Ornament in Early Modern Naples: Fashioning the Certosa di San Martino by J. Nicholas Napoli (review)

Essentially, this book is a large case-study of the early modern 'decoration' – in the twin senses of that term, both noun and verb – of the Italian monastery complex of Certosa di San Martino. From and for this, J. Nicholas Napoli explores the discursive decorative processes of selection, construction, and admiration that he refers to as 'the ethics of ornament' (p. 3). This concept provides an overarching means of examining and understanding a range of elements within the Certosa and early modern Naples more broadly. Napoli follows these elements from temporary altars to artisanal handiwork, through relationships of trust and enduring lawsuits, and past design and later reflection to show the monks and their artists navigating a delicate positioning of monastic ideals regarding poverty and simplicity with the ostensibly sumptuous baroque surroundings of the Carthusian monastery.

Although a study of the Certosa specifically, and Naples more generally, Napoli draws upon examples taken from across a broadly Western, European geography to situate the artistic endeavours within a persistently wider context. This is one of the main strengths of this book, as it speaks consistently to discourses and debates within Carthusian, monastic, Christian, Catholic, medieval, early modern, Enlightenment, Baroque, and other contexts. Of particular note, for instance, is the charting of medieval debates about sumptuous decoration into and through early modern Catholic Reform, by examining notions and applications of 'magnificence'. Similarly, by following the particularities of how the Certosa represented the Carthusian past, Napoli reveals an early modern recasting of the monastic virtues of humility and seclusion within a context of ecclesiastical reform.

Throughout this work, Napoli also gives significant attention to the actual details of building and refurbishing within the Certosa, exploring the relationships between the monastery and its contractors. This is developed in the fourth chapter to address the working methods of one specific artist, Cosimo Fanzago, revealing the wider interconnections between the Certosa, its artists, and other ecclesiastical projects in the region. Napoli suggests that in these relationships and processes of early modern artistic production can be seen hints at what can later be recognised as industrial working methods.

Napoli's final chapter is particularly interesting for its examination of the development of what he terms an 'enlightened piety'. With the gradual abandonment of a medieval society divided into prayers, fighters, and workers, the Carthusians approached continued ornamentation with a 'reverence for the past, acknowledgement of the present, and anticipation of future developments' (p. 240). Their strikingly modern library, their continued ornamental work, and the reports of their chapter visitations reveal a monastic and artistic discourse that was more coherent than it has normally been characterised by later ages and commentators. This is significant, Napoli asserts in his conclusion, because of the overwhelming tendency to see the Baroque only through the distorting influences of modernist critique.

While certainly dense, this is nonetheless a rewarding study, and one which satisfyingly avoids allowing hindsight to become the primary narrative driver or turn monastic ornament into artistic teleology. This is therefore a book about significant and lasting physical changes, but one which also reveals gently persistent continuities. It almost goes without saying that it, like its subject, is sumptuously ornamented with illustrations that are both decorative and instructive.