The Porcelains of Capodimonte
The Porcelains of Capodimonte
The Capodimonte Porcelain Factory originated with the marriage in 1738 of King Charles to Maria Amalia Walpurga, daughter of the Elector of Saxony Frederick Augustus and granddaughter of Augustus the Strong, creator of the celebrated Meissen porcelain factory.
The King’s intention, beyond commemorating the celebration of the royal wedding, was also to position himself alongside some of the most prestigious European courts that until then possessed their own porcelain manufactories, such as those of Saxony, France, and the Habsburgs. In Italy, moreover, the factories of Vezzi in Venice (1720), Ginori in Doccia (1737), and Rossetti in Turin (1737) already existed.
The first workers at the factory were Livio Vittorio Schepers, Giovanni Caselli, Livio’s son Gaetano, in charge of the paste; the Florentine sculptor Giuseppe Gricci, with the role of modeler, the painter Giuseppe Della Torre and the engraver Ambrogio Di Giorgio, plus a few other workers and various apprentices.
The success of Capodimonte porcelains is certainly due to the felicitous harmonization of the quality of the soft-paste mixture with high feldspathic content, which enhances the beautiful miniatures executed with the tip of a brush by Giovanni Caselli, which, due to the characteristic property of soft paste that allows the covering glaze to “absorb” the decoration, present a soft “under-glass” effect.
The paste is composed mainly of: kaolin, feldspar, and quartz. In the first phase of production, each individual detail that will form the piece is hand-modeled. After drying, firing follows, which occurs in two phases: the first, at 700-800°C, is followed by hand-painted decoration with lead-free colors under glaze, the covering of the surface with a silica-based glaze (enamel); then there is the second firing at 1280°C for soft-paste porcelain and 1380°C for hard-paste, which renders the colors indelible and brilliant over time.
Particularly renowned is the production of Biscuit, a soft, translucent, white paste.
The most suitable clays for porcelain paste came from Calabria, from Fuscaldo and Porghelia, and yielded excellent results to the point that Capodimonte porcelains were considered superior to French ones. A covering glaze of extraordinary compactness enhanced the beauty, creating effects of attenuated and uniform light and delicately velvety chromatic tones.
Initially the decoration was inspired by that of Meissen, then it followed the Rococo taste more closely. Soon the works of Capodimonte assumed a more elegant and refined form. The sculptural production reached its most original achievements (animals, birds, figurines in groups and isolated), becoming celebrated throughout Europe.
Particularly noteworthy are snuffboxes of exquisite craftsmanship and painting, jugs and basins, walking stick handles of various shapes, polychrome vases, fine two-handled vases, mantelpiece vases, cups for domestic use, coffee pots, milk jugs, dinner services of fine decoration and Japanese inspiration or with fantasy decorations depicting landscapes, floral groups or mythological inspiration as well as views of Neapolitan villas. All these productions were marked with the blue fleur-de-lis.
In 1759, unfortunately, King Charles decided to take the manufactory with all its artists and workers to Madrid, where it ceased to exist in 1808. But in Naples the production of Capodimonte never stopped.
The Royal Ferdinandea Factory
In 1771, in fact, Ferdinand IV decided to reopen the manufactory, first in the Royal Palace of Portici then in the Palace of the Capital.
The porcelains of the Royal Ferdinandea Factory were born, marked with a crowned blue letter “N”. There were three artistic periods of production: from 1773 to 1780 with artistic direction entrusted to the painter and sculptor Francesco Celebrano; then from 1780 to 1799 (the year of the French invasion), the best period, which saw the flourishing of all Neapolitan arts as well as the triumph of porcelain; finally from 1800 to 1806, the year of Joseph Bonaparte’s arrival, when the Royal Factory definitively closed its operations.
With the arrival in 1780 of Dominio Venuti, production received considerable impetus through his artistic supervision, which produced works of particular effect: important services inspired by paintings, bronzes with porcelain finishes of floral character, vases and sculptures, mirrors with polychrome decorations of figures or cupids or birds or flowers, and the creation of more functional parts for period furnishings such as wall panels, ceilings or floors, columns or chandeliers.
However, in subsequent decades, various artisans kept—and still keep today—the tradition and the path traced by the Bourbons alive.
