

A BOURBON GIFT FROM JOSEPH BONAPARTE
4) La Lattiera completa di coperchio, riprende abbastanza fedelmente la forma di una Oinochoé di provenienza archeologica. La parte centrale, delimitata in basso da due diverse fasce con fregi dorati sovrapposti su campo marrone e in alto da una sola fascia sempre a fondo marrone con un decoro in oro ancora diverso, è suddivisa verticalmente in tre zone: la centrale più importante riporta in policromia la scena detta “L’Attore nella parte del re”. Il soggetto (vedi Tav. XLI, vol. IV) come sovente accade, riporta la composizione ribaltata rispetto all’intonaco così come pubblicata nel Voyage Pittoresque… de l’Abbé de Saint Non (Tav. 62, vol. II), volumi peraltro molto utilizzati all’interno della manifattura borbonica specialmente per le vedute del regno.6
H. cm. 13,5, marca N coronata in blu.
5a) Zuccheriera di forma cilindrica, completa di coperchio dal pomello riproducente un leopardo accovacciato dal manto maculato reso in bianco e oro. Il corpo del contenitore tripartito porta miniati in riserve ovali tre immagini di Apollo in riposo una delle quali, quella dove appare avvolto nel peplo rosa, venuta alla luce durante gli scavi di Civita del 1755 insieme alle Nove Muse (vedi Tav. I, vol. II). Sul bordo del coperchio ritorna lo stesso fregio in bianco e oro identico al motivo che delimita le vedute “obbligate” del Servizio dell’Oca.
Diam. cm. 19, marca N coronata in blu.
5b) Sottopiatto decorato con le figure delle Nove Muse disposte radialmente all’intorno del cavetto separate l’una dall’altra dal già descritto fregio a ovoli in bianco e oro. Attualmente sia l’Apollo che le Nove Muse sono al Louvre perché donate nel 1802 da Ferdinando IV a Napoleone.
Diam. cm. 19, marca N coronata in blu sottovernice.
6) Tre Tazze a Bowl con i rispettivi piattini, decorate “a Figure Pompeiane”, tutti i sei pezzi risutano marcati con la N coronata in blu.
6a) Tazza con la scena del “Corteo di offerte a Bacco” (Vedi Tav. XXII, vol. II), affresco oggi a Monaco di Baviera. Al corteo di Baccanti miniato in soluzione continua sulla tazza è stato abbinato sul piattino uno dei celebri Centauri, quello che in fabbrica veniva detto “con Donzella sulla groppa”, affreschi rinvenuti insieme alle Danzatrici nell’ambiente di una villa ritenuta al tempo di Cicerone.
6b) Tazza con figure di Leda con il Cigno e la Citarista, due dei tre intonaci con destinazione originaria di sovrapporta, ritrovati a Portici durante gli scavi dell’agosto 1761 (vedi Tav. IV, vol. IV). Sul piattino, a copertura completa del cavetto troviamo riportato un altro dei soggetti “storici”: “La Venditrice di Amori “(vedi Tav. VII, vol. III). Sebbene questo affresco se visto dal vero appaia pittoricamente deludente, suggestionò moltissimo sia artisti che artigiani fra i quali va ricordato il pittore Joseph-Marie Vien, dando vita a un continuo proliferarsi di varianti e interpretazioni sul tema, spaziando nella lettura del suo significato dalle allegorie più improbabili a interpretazioni anche troppo semplicistiche come la vendita di amorini al mercato.
6c) Tazza con tre scene teatrali, dette “di commedie”: nella prima è dipinta la scena conosciuta come “I Musici Ambulanti” ribaltata rispetto all’originale, così come è pubblicata nella tavola 38 del Saint Non. L’affresco fu rinvenuto a Ercolano nel dicembre del 1751 (vedi Tav. XXXIV, vol. IV) insieme alla seconda scena qui riprodotta, sempre ribaltata (vedi Tav. XXXIII, vol. IV), dove a sinistra sono ritratte due donne in piedi in atteggiamento imbarazzato mentre l’uomo che compare sulla destra le addita derisoriamente con l’indice teso. La terza scena, articolata intorno a due figure, è stata più difficile da individuare visto che il danzatore che vediamo sulla destra è ripreso da un’agata nera incisa, mentre il vecchio che assiste ripropone fedelmente sia nell’atteggiamento che nelle vesti la figura dipinta in secondo piano in un intonaco rinvenuto negli scavi di Stabia. Sul piattino, al centro del cavetto troviamo dipinte due eleganti figure stanti ambientate nel paesaggio che simmetricamente si fronteggiano sorreggendo ciascuna una maschera teatrale.
La tesa bianca è suddivisa in quattro da larghe fasce d’oro pieno affiancate da piccoli punti fittamente affiancarti; la stessa fascia la troviamo anche sulla tazza a marcare la separazione tra le varie scene.
7) Tre Tazze con decoro toponomastico con i rispettivi piattini, le miniature tutte attribuibili a Giacomo Milani. Come è stato già accennato nella descrizione del piatto n.1°, pochi sono i prototipi di vedute di Napoli città che compaiono nella pubblicazione del Saint Non, che pure è stata la maggiore fonte d’ispirazione per i servizi della Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea a soggetto toponomastico, mentre ampio è il repertorio delle vedute dei dintorni. È opinione di chi scrive che alcuni tipici scorci della città e di alcune piazze dove spiccano importanti edifici pubblici, furono messi a punto durante l’ultimo decennio del secolo XVIII proprio all’interno della fabbrica della porcellana grazie a Giacomo Milani e Alessandro D’Anna, un altro artista che era solito fornire schizzi di paesaggi a Domenico Venuti, e che semplificando le composizioni dei vedutisti più celebri, codificarono eleganti prototipi più adatti ad essere ripetuti in fabbrica,
7a) Tazza con le vedute “Largo dello Spirito Santo” e “Veduta delli Studi” – come specificato da scritta in rosso- in cui vi appaiono due degli edifici simbolicamente più importanti di Napoli. Il primo, anche conosciuto come “Foro Carolino” in omaggio a Carlo di Borbone il fondatore del Regno di Napoli e Sicilia, e il secondo attuale sede del Museo Archeologico Nazionale, che Carlo trasformò da antica Cavallerizza a contenitore della Bibblioteca Borbonica. Sul piattino infine compare dipinto l’edificio vero simbolo del potere la “Veduta del Palazzo Reale” –sempre specificato da scritta in rosso- vivacemente dipinto, la piazza antistante descritta con vivezza dando risalto ai capannelli di folla, al passaggio delle carrozze e dove scorgiamo anche lo schieramento delle guardie di palazzo accanto all’ingresso principale lasciando supporre che in una delle carrozze siano appena usciti dei componenti di Casa Reale. La miniatura che occupa l’intera superficie del cavetto è delimitata da una bordura d’oro data a trattini affiancata da una fascia rosa -colore che caratterizza la tazza- posta a divisione tra il fregio d’oro interno e quello più articolato posto all’orlo della tesa.
7b) Tazza con le vedute “il Reclusorio dei Poveri” e ”La Villa Reale a Chiaia” –come specificato da scritte in rosso- due temi architettonici che in questo caso rendono omaggio all’operato di Ferdinando IV così come la tazza precedente poneva in evidenza quanto Napoli doveva a re Carlo. Ma l’edificio del Reclusorio concepito da Carlo per dare rifugio ai poveri assunse successivamente un importante ruolo formativo di apprendistato per i giovani proprio sotto Ferdinando, molto sensibile alle nuove ideologie illuministiche che puntavano sulla educazione del popolo con interventi “dall’alto” attraverso istituzioni sociali di stato. Diversa la finalità della Villa Reale, i giardini creati da Ferdinando nel 1786 che, va notato, furono i primi giardini pubblici creati in Europa a beneficio della cittadinanza prima della Rivoluzione Francese. Sul piattino troviamo una veduta meno “impegnata”, la “Veduta di Mergellina” –sempre specificata da una scritta in rosso- uno di quegli scorci paesistici ancora oggi fra i più tradizionali circondata dal fregio “a spighetta” in oro e da una larga fascia rosso arancio con ghirlande dorate sovrapposte.
7c) Tazza con le vedute “Anfiteatro di Pozzuoli” e “Sepolcro di Mammia” come specificato da scritte in rosso. Un dono con finalità di “Souvenir” non poteva non includere alcuni scorci dei celeberrimi dintorni della città, di quei luoghi che tanto richiamo esercitavano sui maggiori archeologi e sui giovani eredi delle grandi famiglie europee che a Napoli, come ultima tappa, concludevano il loro viaggio di formazione. In questo caso le incisioni del Voyage Pittoresque offrivano un’ampia scelta e fra queste sono state individuate tre tavole riproducenti i tre monumenti forse più rappresentativi: per i dintorni a nord, noti come Campi Phlegraei, la scelta non poteva che cadere sul grande anfiteatro puteolamo (vedi Tav. 105) mentre per Pompei si è data preferenza all’imponente Sepolcro di Mammia (vedi Tav. 81). Sul piattino invece la scelta è caduta sulla “Veduta del Anfiteatro di Capua” –sempre specificato da scritta in rosso- città molto nota per i notevoli rinvenimenti vascolari (vedi Tav. 123). La scena è posta in evidenza da un elegante fregio in oro a squama di pesce che ricopre interamente la tesa.
Conclusione:
A chiusura del commento a un insieme così straordinario che rende omaggio sia alle bellezze artistiche che alle naturali del Regno delle due Sicilie, mi piace riportare un commento su questi luoghi lasciatoci dal Saint Non:
“..Il semble que les eaux, le feu, les hommes, l’art & la nature se soient disputé l’Empire de ce recoin de la terre; l’aient alternativement occupé, dévasté, embelli, bouleversé, sans changer en lui que la manière d’etre beau, & n’avoir fait qu’ajouter à l’antérèt de la couriosité. Occupé successivement par les Peuples les plus industrieux & les plus puissans de l’Univers, les Grecs & et les Romains; bouleversé par les tremblements de terre, enfoui sous les cendres des Volcans, portant enfin l’empreinte de tant de formes differentes, il est devenu & sara toujours l’Ecole des Arts, le Laboratoire des Physiciens, & le Médailler de l’Histoire..”7
Angela Caròla-Perrotti
Footnotes
[1] A.A. V.V., Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli: Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1843-1806) catalogo della mostra a cura di A. Caròla-Perrotti, Napoli 1986, pp.411-416.
[2] Per quanto riguarda le vicende della manifattura Poulard Prad cfr. : A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane napoletane dell’Ottocento (1807-1860), Napoli 1990.
[3] Per la prima ricostruzione di datazione del Servizio dell’Oca basata su documenti di archivio cfr. : A. Caròla-Perrotti, La Porcellana della Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, Cava dei Tirreni 1978, p. 158-159. Cfr. anche : L. Ambrosio e L. Arbace in: All’Ombra del Vesuvio, Napoli, 1990, pp. 320-324; A. Carola-Perrotti in Ceramiche, Il Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Napoli 2006, pp. 67-70, con bibliografia precedente.
[4] Camillo Minieri Riccio, il noto storico napoletano, ci ha tramandato il racconto della delusione per la fredda accoglienza ricevuta dai due pittori Giacomo Milani e Antonio Cioffi al momento della consegna a Carlo del Servizio Ercolanese,. Questo rapporto oggi andato perduto insieme a molti altri documenti di archivio è per noi particolarmente importante perché ci conferma che proprio questi due artisti ne erano stati i maggiori artefici. Cfr. C Minieri Riccio, Gli Artefici ed i Miniatori della Real fabbrica della Porcellana di Napoli..tornata del 3 e 17 marzo 1878, Forni ed., p.81.
[5] Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte, Stamperia Reale, pubblicazione in 8 volumi a cura degli Accademici Ercolanesi apparsi scaglionati tra il 1757 e il1792. A questi volumi sono da considerarsi complementari l’inventario schematico redatto da Monsignor Bayardi (1755) e un ultimo volume del 1831 edito dopo la Restaurazione Borbonica.
[6] J. C. Richard, Abbé de Saint Non, Voyage pittoresque ou description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, Paris 1781-86.
[7] Cfr. Abbé de Saint Non..op.cit., p.159, vol.II.
A rare and important group of Neapolitan porcelain by the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea porcelain manufactury which can be dated to 1790-1800, and includes the original leather case and letter attesting its prestigious provenance as a gift from Giuseppe Bonaparte. The topographical decoration can be attributed to Giacomo Milani, whilst the so-called ‘Pompeian figures’ are attributable to Giacomo Milani and Giuseppe Cioffi. To the four corners, where the decorations adorning the cover of the case meet, are the fire-branded lilies of the House of Bourbon, which are also found in the rhomboidal ornament at the centre. The service for six people comprises:
1) Two plates, one painted with a view of Campi Flegre, the other with Jupiter
2) A footed bowl
3) A coffeepot and cover
4) A milk jug and cover
5) A sugar bowl, cover and stand
6) Three teabowls and saucers painted with "Pompeian figures"
7) Three teabowls and saucers painted with views of Naples and the surrounding countryside
The only other similar ‘Giuoco’ is conserved in the Duca di Martina Museum at Villa Floridiana, Naples, and displays identical decorative anomalies, consistent in the peculiarity of the friezes and differently coloured borders. The ensemble can almost be read as a ‘choice’ of what the Bourbon Manufactory was producing at the time. As with the Villa Floridiana service, had the precious case not survived, the single elements would not suffice to understand its full significance. Early on separated from its case, the Neapolitan ‘Giuoco’ had been forgotten, and various pieces had been exhibited separately for a long time.
It is only with the rediscovery of the red Morocco leather case at the time of the exhibition dedicated to the porcelains of the Bourbons of Naples in 1986 that the present writer was able to reconstruct the ensemble, and to name it ‘Souvenir of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies’, a name which may also be employed for the present set.1 Needless to say, this discovery thirty years later, the Villa Floridiana ensemble – thus far thought a unicum, a pendant of the same excellent quality existed, was a source of great emotion in the present writer.
The choice of subjects is another correspondence between the two sets. In it we recognize the preference customarily given by Domenico Venuti to archaeological references relating to the excavation of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In fact, it is worth mentioning that as well as being the Director of the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea della Porcellana, Venuti was also General Director of the Kingdom’s Excavations. The decoration, however, moves into the topographical realm so dear to King Ferdinand IV, so much so that such a decoration leads us to believe that these rare ensembles were a royal commission intended from the start as important gifts for court diplomats.
Included with the service is a letter in French which refers to its provenance in the early 20th century, the transcription is as follows:
"Paris, 22 May 1906
Dear Madam,
You will doubtlessly consider me bold for having the idea and the desire to give a present to your dear son on the occasion of his wedding. In memory of Louis, to whom he has always been so kind, I would like you to do me a favour and accept for him this service which I am sending you.
It does not have any other value than having been given by King Joseph Bonaparte to a family whose descendants have given it as a present to Louis.
There is only one thing that I regret, and this would be to not have enough time for having the casket renewed.
Yours sincerely,
Louis Labbez
29, Rue Auguste Vacquerie"
The provenance letter refers to a gift by Giuseppe Bonaparte, which consents us to speculate the set may have been discovered in one of the Bourbon residences, probably in the ‘Riposto’ of the Royal Palace of Naples – where archival documents inform us the personal porcelains of Ferdinand IV were kept, porcelains which his relatives, and his son Francis I in particular, used to present him with on his birthdays.
This hypothesis is corroborated by letters of protest by Carolina Murat who, upon her arrival in Naples, had found the palaces emptied not only by the Bourbons but also by her father-in-law, who, having left for Spain, had taken with him a number of works of art and furniture, together with thousands of ducats, leaving the coffers of the state empty.
These are of course conjectures impossible to prove since, while under the rule of Giuseppe Bonaparte a scrupulous inventory of the porcelains extant in the Bourbon Manufactory was drawn, there are none from the Bourbon sites that were only inventories following the Bourbon Restoration, starting from 1815-18.
It is however known from the same documents that such cases (‘cofanetti’) were only commissioned once a recipient for the royal gift had been found, and the Bourbon lilies in gold found on the outside of the cofanetto seem to confirm the original belonging of the present set to the House of Bourbon.
Although the identity of the intended recipient of the present gift remains shrouded in mystery, it is certain that the set dates from the time of Ferdinand, since the Poulard Prad Manufacture, which operated under the French Decade, only started its operations with the arrival of Gioacchino Murat, and the manufactory mark appearing on the underside of our porcelains is an N surmounted by a crown in underglaze blue, which was employed at the time of the Bourbon – a type of crown which, during the French Decade, was substituted by a closed royal crown.2
Commentary to single elements:
1a) The first dish, with topographical decoration, displays, painted at the centre of its cavetto, a view of the city of Pozzuoli, surrounded by a frieze of interlaced gilt ovals identical to the one surrounding the views in the Servizio delle Vedute Napolitane – better known as the Servizio dell’Oca – created around 1793 for the Bourbon court of Naples.3 Although different, the frieze at the rim strongly recalls that of the Servizio dell’Oca. It is difficult to identify the prototype of the veduta, certainly very close to those of Pozzuoli painted by the court painter Philipp Hackert and widely circulated thanks to the handsome engravings by his brother Giorgio, but we know also thanks to proofs of payments that Giacomo Milani, the chief painter of the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, was repeatedly paid for ‘vedute al vero’ of Naples and its surroundings that he would execute for the manufacture. Some elements lead us to believe that this veduta, together with others found on the various pieces of the present set, incorporates live sketches by Milani.
23cm. diameter, Blue crowned N
1b) The second dish, with decoration ‘all’Ercolanese’, the cavetto is entirely covered by a scene depicting Jupiter on a chariot drawn by a pair of eagles. The tesa is entirely covered by gilt friezes interlaced by five ovals, and joins the cavetto with a thin white banding containing a motif of flanking arches, also in gold. While the attribution of the vedute to Giacomo Milani is, according to the present writer, certain, for the archaeological scenes another excellent painter and his close collaborator may have flanked him: Antonio Cioffi, who, together with Milani, had executed a good part of the painting for the Servizio Ercolanese.4
23.5cm. diameter, Blue crowned N
2) A footed bowl painted on the outside with perhaps the most famous archaeological motif amongst the frescoes discovered during the excavation of Pompeii, that is, the so-called ‘dancers’ of Herculaneum, reproduced in Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (see vol. I, tavl. XVIII-XXIV).5 The Accademici Ercolanesi describe them as ‘Ballatrici’ (dancers), informing us that in January 1749, in what was at the time known as Torre dell’Annunciata, in the district of Civita - already supposed to be linked with the ancient city of Pompeii – twelve figures of dancing women on a black ground were discovered on the walls of a chamber, and identified now as maenads, now, because of their number, as an allegory of the hours. The intended use for these bowls, which are nearly always found in the most important servizi, remains unclear, and although at the time these were called ‘ponciere’, they were probably used for holding desserts.
14.5cm. diam.; 9.5cm. high, Blue crowned N
3) A coffee pot, complete with cover, original design deriving from antique stylistic features, with the mouth faithfully modelled after oenochoe found during the excavations, a detail often employed by the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea. The body of the coffee pot is divided in two conic parts divided by a gilt frieze: the lower part is decorated with golden bands on a yellow ground, the upper part with three miniatures enclosed by pyramidal reserves. The largest central scene reproduces ‘The Concert’, a fresco unearthed during the Herculaneum excavations in February 1761 in a chamber afterwards identified as the gymnasium (see vol. IV, tav. XLII). The two lateral reserves enclose two further well-known compositions: on the right, ‘Marsyas teaching Olympus to play the Aulos’ from the 1739 Resina excavations (see vol. I, tav. IX) and to the left, a similar subject, ‘The education of Olympus’, found in the excavations of Civita (i.e. Pompeii) in 1760 (vol. III, tav. XIX). On the coffee pot spout is a golden frieze of foliate spirals, the well-known motif found on the bronze situla from Herculaneum, and chosen by Venuti as the topical motif to decorate the rim of the plates of the Servizio Ercolanese.
20cm. high, Blue crowned N
4) A milk jug, complete with cover, is an almost faithful copy of an oenochoe of archaeological provenance. The central part, delimited by two different bands with gilt friezes above a brown background to the bottom, and a single banding with identical background with a further gilt ornament, is vertically subdivided into three areas: the central, and most important, depicts the polychrome scene known as the ‘Actor in the role of the king’. As is often the case, the composition is reversed from that published in Voyage Pittoresque… de l’Abbé de Saint Non (vol. II, tav. 62), volumes which, incidentally, were often used by the Bourbon Manufactory, especially with regards to views of the Kingdom.6
13.5cm. high, Blue crowned N
5) A sugar bowl, of cylindrical form, with cover and finial in the shape of a crouched leopard, the fur in white and gold. The body has three oval reserves depicting Apollo at rest, one of which – the figure with pink peplum – is after a fresco found during the excavations at Civita in 1755 together with the Nine Muses (see vol. II, tav. I). On the cover border, the frieze in gold is identical to the motif delimiting the so called ‘vedute obbligate’ on the Servizio dell’Oca.
19cm. diameter, Blue crowned N
5b) The sugar bowl stand decorated with the Nine Muses, radially arranged around the cavetto, and separated from one another by the above-described frieze of white and gilt ovules. At present, both the Apollo and the Nine Muses frescoes are in the Louvre, gifted by Ferdinand IV to Napoleon in 1802.
19cm. diameter; Blue crowned N
6) Three teabowls with respective saucers, decorated with ‘Pompeian Figures’, all six pieces marked by blue crowned Ns
6a) A teabowl with a ‘Cortege with offers to Bacchus’ (see vol. II, tav. XXII; the fresco today in Munich). The cortege of Bacchantes is paired on the saucer by a centaur known within the manufactory as ‘con Donzella sulla groppa’, from frescoes which, together with the ‘Dancers’, had been discovered in a chamber of the villa believed at the time to be Cicero’s.
6b) A teabowl with figures of Leda and the Swan and the harper, two of the three frescoes originally intended as over-doors and found at Portici during the excavation campaigns of August 1761 (see vol. IV, tav. IV). On the saucer is yet another ‘historical’ subject, entirely covering the cavetto: the ‘cupid sellers’ [venditrici di amori] (see vol. III, tav. VIII). This fresco, rather underwhelming per se, greatly fascinated artists and craftsmen of the time, including the painter Joseph-Marie Vien, and the source of a number of variants on the theme whose allegorical significance lends itself to the most improbable readings.
6c) A teabowl, with theatrical scenes, known as ‘di commedie’ [comical]: on the first is a painted scene depicting travelling musicians, the reverse of the original as published in tav. 38 of Saint Non. The fresco was discovered at Herculaneum in December 1751 (see vol. IV, tav. XXXIV) together with the scene reproduced here also in the reverse (see idem, tav. XXXIII) with two standing women addressed in a mocking manner by a man. The third scene, articulated around the two figures, has proved more difficult to identify, since the dancer on the right is after a black carved agate, whilst the elderly man in attendance is the faithful reproduction of a fresco from Stabia. At the centre of the saucer’s cavetto are two elegant figures in a landscape, symmetrically fronting each other and each holding a theatrical mask. The white border is subdivided into four by wide gilt bands flanked by small dots; an identical banding is also found on the saucer.
7) Three teabowls with topographical decoration with respective saucers, the painted scenes all attributable to Giacomo Milano. As already stated in the description of dish no. 1, there are few prototypes of views of Naples in the Saint-Non edition, which at the same time is the main source of inspiration for Real Fabbrica sets with topographical subjects, whilst the repertoire of the surrounding views is quite vast. It is the present writer’s opinion that some typical views of the city were made during the last decade of the 18th century within the Fabbrica by Giacomo Milani and Alessandro D’Anna, another artist who is known to have provided Domenico Venuti with landscape sketches, and who, by simplifying the compositions of more celebrated vedutisti, codified elegant prototypes that were better suited to being used within the Fabbrica.
7a) A teabowl with views of the ‘Largo dello Spirito Santo’ and ‘Veduta delli Studi’ – (with red captions) – depicting two of the most symbolically-charged Neapolitan buildings. The first, also known as ‘Foro Carolino’ in homage to Carlo di Borbone, the founder of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the second currently the seat of the National Archaeological Museum, and which Carlo had transformed from the ancient riding school into the seat of the Bourbon Library. The saucer displays the real symbol of power in a view of the Royal Palace (with red caption): vividly painted, it depicts groups of people assembled in the square, carriages and a line-up of royal guards at the palace’s main doors, which lead us to believe one of the carriages to be carrying members of the Royal Family. The scene occupies the whole of the cavetto, and is delimited by a gold border with pink banding, the colour at the rim dividing the inner gilt-frieze from the border frieze.
7b) A teabowl with views of the ‘Reclusorio dei Poveri’ and the ‘Villa Reale at Chiaia (with red captions): the two architectural themes represented here are a homage to the legacy of Ferdinando IV, while the previous teabowl highlighted Carlo’s Neapolitan legacy. But the Reclusorio building, originally conceived by Carlo as a shelter for the poor, successively took on an important formative role for the youth under Ferdinand, who was very receptive of the new Enlightenment theories focusing on people’s education with interventions ‘from above’ through social institutions. Conversely, the Villa Reale contains the gardens created by Ferdinand in 1786, the first public gardens in Europe before the French Revolution. On the saucer is a ‘lighter’ view, that of the ‘Margellina – (with red caption) – to this day one of the most cherished Neapolitan views, surrounded by a spike frieze in gold with a large, gilt-garlanded orange-red banding.
7c) A teabowl with views of the Pozzuoli amphitheatre and the sepulchre of Mammia (with red captions). A gift meant as a ‘souvenir’ could not help including some views of the well-known surroundings of the city, places which allured both archaeologists and Grand Tourists. In the present instance, the etchings of the Voyage Pittoresque provided an ample choice, and amongst these, three plates have been found reproducing perhaps three of the most representatives vedute: for the northern outskirts, the Campi Phlegraei, the choice could not but fall on the great amphitheatre (see tav. 105), whilst for Pompeii the sepulchre of Mammia was chosen (see tav. 81). The saucer depicts the view of the Capua amphitheatre – (with red caption) a town noted for the many ancient vases unearthed there (see tav. 123). This scene is highlighted by an elegant fish-scale gilt frieze entirely covering the rim edge.
Conclusion
A suitable conclusion for such an extraordinary ensemble – a homage to the natural and artistic beauties of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies – may be provided by the following memorable words by Saint Non: "Il semble que les eaux, le feu, les hommes, l’art & la nature se soient disputé l’Empire de ce recoin de la terre; l’aient alternativement occupé, dévasté, embelli, bouleversé, sans changer en lui que la manière d’etre beau, & n’avoir fait qu’ajouter à l’antérèt de la couriosité. Occupé successivement par les Peuples les plus industrieux & les plus puissans de l’Univers, les Grecs & et les Romains; bouleversé par les tremblements de terre, enfoui sous les cendres des Volcans, portant enfin l’empreinte de tant de formes differentes, il est devenu & sara toujours l’Ecole des Arts, le Laboratoire des Physiciens, & le Médailler de l’Histoire."7
Angela Caròla-Perotti
Footnotes
[1] Various authors, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli: Capodimonte e Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea (1843-1806), exhib. cat., ed. by A. Caròla-Perrotti, Naples, 1986, pp.411-416.
[2] For the Poulard Prad manufactory, see A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane napoletane dell’Ottocento (1807-1860), Naples, 1990.
[3] For the first reconstruction and dating of the Servizio dell’Oca based on archival documents, cf. A. Caròla-Perrotti, La Porcellana della Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, Cava dei Tirreni 1978, pp. 158-159. See also: L. Ambrosio and L. Arbace in: All’Ombra del Vesuvio, Naples, 1990, pp. 320-324; A. Carola-Perrotti, Ceramiche, Il Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, 2006, pp. 67-70, with prior bibliography.
[4] Camillo Minieri Riccio, the renowned Neapolitan historian, has passed down the story of the disappointment caused by the cold reception of the two painters Giacomo Milani and Antonio Cioffi upon consigning the Servizio Ercolanese to King Carlo. This report, today lost together with a number of archival documents, is of particular importance since it confirms that these two artists were its major contributors. Cf. C. Minieri Riccio, Gli Artefici ed i Miniatori della Real fabbrica della Porcellana di Napoli, 3-17 March 1878, p.81.
[5] Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte, Stamperia Reale, published in 8 volumes edited by the Accademici Ercolanesi appeared between 1757-92. They are to be considered complementary to the schematic inventory by Monsignor Bavardi (1755) and a last volume published in 1831 after the Bourbon restoration.
[6] J. C. Richard, Abbé de Saint Non, Voyage pittoresque ou description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, Paris, 1781-86.
[7] Cf. Abbé de Saint Non..op.cit., vol. II, p. 159.