Lot 1040 D α

Carlos Sebastián de Borbón y Farnesio (1716 - 1788) reigned as Charles VII of Naples and Sicily as of 1752 and became king of Spain following the death of Ferdinand VI in 1759. Although he then had to cede the Neapolitan throne to his (underage) son, he remained in the minds of the Italian people as Carlo Terzo. Raffaele Belliazzi's most famous work is probably the monumental statue of the king in the Palazzo Reale di Napoli which was made 100 years after the death of Carlo Terzo at the behest of King Umberto I. This small bozzetto may be a study for this work. The finished version in marble varies only slightly from the terracotta, for example in the fact that the king there wears a long, loose allonge wig. The scroll on the wall support is also thicker and more three-dimensional. The reign of Carlos III saw the famous Esquilache Riots of 1766, in which the citizens of Madrid protested against various reforms implemented by the king. One of which was the banning of traditional Spanish costume consisting of a broad sombrero and a long cape in favour of the French style tricorn and justacorps. Belliazzi appears to have been aware of this fact and thus paid particular attention to the clothing in both the terracotta and the marble statue.