ARCHIVE > Italia

This is the second of my Naples works, showing a view of the Church of Santa Chiara and its belltower, seen from the Gesu Nuovo Square. I think I walked past the church about a dozen times before I discovered the incredible cloister, not shown in the painting, that sits behind the church. The cloister is very large, and features extensive benches covered with hand-painted majolica tiles. This is one of the truly charming things about Naples: you can be walking down a dark, narrow, filthy, graffiti-covered street, turn a corner and go through a doorway, and suddenly find yourself in an exquisite, well-tended, bright and beautiful courtyard (or, in this case, cloister). It's really kind of magical.