This architectural landscape showing the ancient Roman city of Benevento, near Naples, was painted around 1759 by Antonio Joli of Modena. A painter of theatre sets and vedute, Joli worked for theatres in Venice, London and Madrid, and painted numerous scenes for private collectors, which show the influence of Giovanni Paolo Panini, Gaspare Vanvitelli and Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto). In 1756
On August 10, 1759, Ferdinand VI died without a descendant. As a result, his stepbrother Charles, then King of Naples and Sicily, inherited the Spanish throne. The first of seven children of Philip V and his second wife Isabel Farnese, Charles VII had reigned for a period of almost 24 years in Naples. In 1738, he had married the Pricess María Amalia of Saxony, and their thirteen children we