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The painting depicts the royal procession that, according to a tradition established in 1734 by the Bourbon king, Charles Vii of Naples, wound its way through festive crowds along the Neapolitan seafront from the Palazzo Reale to the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, an ancient place of worship and widespread popular devotion.
Joli had painted the same event earlier, between 1756 and 1760. He depicted Naples and its seafront with the royal procession from two vantage points: from the east, with a view of the hill of Posillippo in the distance, and from the west, with the smoking Mount Vesuvius in the background. These two viewpoints were first employed by Caspar van Wittel at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and they subsequently became part of the repertory of all painters of Neapolitan vedute.
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