Ettore Pignatelli

A highly educated patron and client, he was among the most influential political figures of continental Southern Italy and Sicily

Part of the noble Neapolitan Pignatelli family, he experienced an extraordinary political and social rise. Favored also by a skilful marriage policy, between the end of the Aragonese dominion and the reign of Charles V, he became one of the most powerful feudal lords of the South (with the title of count and then duke of Monteleone), as well as viceroy of Sicily (1518-1535). 

His government of the island, apart from the negative judgment of some contemporaries, was characterized by a certain reformism and the fortification of the major coastal cities, to counter the Barbary incursions. A great patron and client, Ettore Pignatelli made use of renowned artists, such as Antonello Gagini, for the execution of sculptures and the reconstruction of religious complexes in his Calabrian fiefdoms of Monteleone, Borrello and Rosarno, as well as in Palermo and Naples. He also owned a rich library and gathered intellectuals around himself, including those of heterodox tendencies, of the caliber of Antonio Sebastiano, known as Minturno.