scntcd in his malurc years as bareheaded or with a 

 laurel wreath. But with this crown, emblem of mo- 

 narchic power, Rega certainly was alluding to the re- 

 actionary monarchy introduced by the king. 



This head of Ferdinand I is a highly idealized por- 

 trait of the aged king. The patrician features hardly 

 suggest a likeness of the man who reintroduced the 

 "whole apparatus of despotism," when "freedom was 

 strangulated on the gallows and smothered in dun- 

 geons." '**' A symbol of royal power by the grace of 

 God, his aspirations an anachronism, his acts an of- 

 fetise against liberty, Ferdinand I died tormented by 

 the prospect of the rising movement of national free- 

 dom which was advancing inexorably. Political 

 events, however, did not have any effect on Rega's 

 work; impassively he served them all, godlike heroes 

 or human failures, glorifying the symbol they repre- 

 sented rather than the human beings they were. 



I'ig. 75. — N.APLES, Francis I, 30 ducals, 1826 '*^ 

 (Div. of Numismatics photo) 



Ferdinand's successor, Francis I (1825-1830), a 

 weak and timorous personality, was a vacillating fig- 

 ure on the royal throne. Rega tried again to embel- 

 lish, if not to idealize, his king, however trivial the 

 figure. During the short reign of Francis I, only a 

 single portrait of him was used for the gold, silver, 

 and copper coinage (fig. 75). A similar representa- 

 tion was also used on many medals '** signed by 

 Francesco d'Andrea, Vincenzo Catenacci, and even 

 Andrea Carriello. Although different in execution 

 from a medal, with the low relief typical of Neapolitan 

 coins in this period, the portrait on this coin resembles 

 more closely the portrait on the medals signed by 

 d'Andrea (fig. 76) and we arc safe in assuming that 

 he was the artist who executed it. 



The subtle and well-flowing plastic forms display 

 a genuinely human serenity, which contrasts greatly 

 with a contemporary portrait of the king by the 

 French medallist Jean Jacques Barre (fig. 77). On 



Fig. 76. — Naples, Francis I, obverse of medal by 



d'Andrea "^ 



(Photo from Ricciardi) 



the other hand, the portrait signed by Catenacci 

 (fig. 78) is a more realistic, less flattering interpreta- 

 tion of the original model by Rega. 



Young King Ferdinand II (1830-1859), who suc- 

 ceeded his father at the asje of eleveUj reigned for 29 



Fig. 77. — Naples, Francis I, obverse of medal, 1830'*' 

 (Photo from Ricciardi) 



years under the most contradictory conditions. An- 

 tagonized by the Liberals and the Carbonari, haunted 

 by the terror of sedition, he wavered between pro- 

 gressive and despotic methods before finally adopting 

 a reactionary policy. "Re Bonil)a" (King Bomb) 



'»2CA(;iAri, p. 103. 



1*3 Ibid., p. 119, coin 2; DInckrti, /f/.V(1959), p. 98, coin 95. 



's* Ricciardi, medals 146, 152, 154-157. 



l«5Ibid., medal 146. 

 is'Ibid., mcd.ll 147. 



36 



BULLETIN 229: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



