Tabla Strozzi

This long panel is the oldest surviving portrait of Naples as a real place, its harbour, its towers, the great Castel Nuovo on the shore, all set down much as they looked in the later 15th century. The occasion is a specific one. The ships crowding into the bay are the Aragonese fleet coming home in triumph after beating an Angevin rival off the island of Ischia in 1465, a victory that secured the throne for King Ferrante of Naples. Who painted it is still argued. The panel is usually linked to the Florentine Francesco Rosselli, though not every scholar agrees. It takes its name, the Tavola Strozzi, from the Strozzi family for whom it was most likely made.