The delicate figurines dressed according to the colorful fashion of the time and the sumptuous decorations of the precious royal canteen services had always attracted her attention as a child.
And then there was the infinite collection of her grandfather, Augustus the Strong, king of Poland and elector of Saxony, which had never failed to arouse profound amazement in her. So was born little Maria Amalia's passion for porcelain which was present everywhere, in the most varied forms, in all the royal palaces she had frequented since she was a child: in Poland, where her father Augustus III had also been elected king, and above all in Dresden, the capital of Saxony near Meissen, where his grandfather had supported the creation of the first porcelain factory in Europe in 1710. Therefore, when, at just fourteen, she married Prince Charles of Bourbon, who had recently ascended the throne of Naples, she had not neglected to bring with her some of those little wonders modeled and painted by hand in her land of origin.
The Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte
In love with the city that had welcomed her in 1738 and always committed to sharing new projects with her beloved husband to help it grow and establish itself, Maria Amalia was a staunch supporter of starting porcelain production in Naples too, after those that in the meantime they were established in Venice and Sèvres in France. Thus the history of the Royal Factory of Capodimonte, named after the new palace on the hill where it was installed, began in 1740.
The importation to Naples of the complex process developed in Saxony required significant changes, linked to the availability of raw materials. In the entire reign of Charles, in fact, there was no trace of kaolin, which was a fundamental element of the formula developed in Meissen by the chemist and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, thanks to which it was possible to replicate in Europe the porcelain discovered in China by Marco Polo shirt. After a long search for valid alternatives, it was the Belgian chemist Livio Ottavio Schepers who in 1743 managed to mix clays identified in some quarries in Calabria with feldspar (the other essential component). The greater presence of feldspar and the characteristics of those clays resulted in a soft mixture, instead of the hard one typical of kaolin, and a delicate milky white which cooking at very high temperatures made it ideal for creating particularly fine and realistic miniatures, with a magnificent final "under glass" effect for the brush-tipped decorations.
The Piacenza decorator Giovanni Caselli, a great miniaturist and creator of the decorations that quickly made Neapolitan porcelain known and appreciated throughout Europe, was part of the working group that qualified Neapolitan production between 1744 and 1752. Thanks to the numerous artists, who arrived from all over Italy, who with Caselli gave great impetus to the variety and refinement of the Neapolitan factory. Among them, the Florentine Giuseppe Gricci also stood out, known as "the king's sculptor", whose name would remain linked to the famous Porcelain Lounge. In the factory's heyday, there were up to fifty-eight craftsmen.
Their creative work produced precious vases, walking stick knobs, snuff boxes, jugs, the most varied ornamental objects and rich table services. The prevailing motifs were of oriental taste, according to the fashion of "chineseries" in vogue at the time and also practiced in Dresden, together with mythological scenes, landscapes, views of the most beautiful Neapolitan villas and flowers, as well as daring weavings of vine shoots on the handles of objects. This was a particularity of Capodimonte, which also had as its distinctive element the scenes of sellers and popular life. The colors used were delicate and contributed to the harmony of the representations. Each piece was marked with the blue Bourbon lily, a real brand.
The king was so passionate about porcelain that he followed the growth and activity of the factory step by step, as well as personally guarding the keys to the warehouses. He considered it so much a creature of himself and of the queen, that when in 1759 he was suddenly called to ascend the throne of Spain, he did not hesitate to empty the deposits, to take all the pieces to Madrid, together with the artists and workers, who largely some accepted the transfer. Five tons of paste for the production of porcelain were also loaded on the ships that left Naples with all the personal assets of the sovereigns. Thus, upon arriving in Madrid, the king managed to immediately activate the Reàl Fabrica del Buèn Retiro, which remained in production until 1808. In the meantime, the Neapolitan factory stopped.
Having lost the expert workers and the reserves of raw materials, the ovens, the equipment and, above all, the precious molds remained in Naples. What was needed to resume porcelain production in 1771, by will of King Ferdinand IV, supported by his wife Maria Carolina, who had also brought important porcelain works of art with her from Vienna.
The Reale Fabbrica Ferdinandea
From the original location in Capodimonte, the new factory was moved to Portici, where it remained in operation until 1825, when it was moved to the royal palace in the capital where it survived until 1787.
The second life of Neapolitan porcelain production was animated by new craftsmen, mostly artists and experts from Tuscany, but also from Germany. The twenty years between 1780 and the new century, marked by the artistic direction of Domenico Venuti, were the most interesting from the point of view of the quality of the productions, also thanks to the foundation of a specialized art school, from which ideas and drawings emerged for new table services and highly valuable ornamental objects. In that period, porcelain also became a material for rich and elaborate furnishing elements: frames for mirrors, chandeliers, columns, decorative panels and floors.
The nineteenth century and the fame of a tradition that endures over time
Another important innovative contribution came after Venuti from an Umbrian artist, Filippo Tagliolini, who introduced biscuit porcelain, ideal for creating miniature statues. And Tagliolini was very skilled in modeling and carving his creations, signed with his monogram, which became a qualifying element of early nineteenth-century Capodimonte. Also in those years, the new neoclassical style began to assert itself in place of the original predominance of baroque and rococo.
The brand also changed, from the FRM monogram surmounted by a crown to the N with blue crown, which private producers subsequently also used.
These established themselves during the French period, in 1806, when the production rights were given to them in exchange for the purchase of a good part of the artefacts by the Napoleonic sovereigns in power in half of Europe. The agreement was never respected and Gioacchino Murat, for his part, did nothing to guarantee continuity to the history of porcelain in Naples. What saved the tradition was the creativity of the Neapolitan masters, who on their own initiative did not stop creating new models, increasingly inspired by scenes of Neapolitan life. And from the mid-19th century the "Capodimonte" was produced only in small family factories, with a predominance of floral motifs. The unification of Italy marked the beginning of a phase of decline, although Capodimonte porcelain has never lost its international fame.
Today, the great tradition and illustrious history of Neapolitan porcelain is kept alive by the “Caselli-De Sanctis” Higher Institute with a rare address, established in 1961, with the International School of Porcelain in the Royal Forest of Capodimonte, in the same headquarters of the Royal Charles of Bourbon's factory, where porcelain continues to be produced according to the most ancient style and contemporary taste, thanks to collaborations with renowned artists and designers. Then there is the MUDI, or the Capodimonte Porcelain Educational Museum, which houses the original eighteenth-century kilns, other ancient machinery and the precious archive of moulds.
In the nearby Capodimonte Museum, inside the Bourbon Palace, the first floor houses the extraordinary collection of porcelain in rooms 35 and 36 of the Royal Apartment.
Other works, including a famous snuffbox decorated with the story of Judith and Holofernes signed by Giovanni Caselli, are exhibited at the Duca di Martina National Ceramics Museum in the Villa Floridiana in via Cimarosa, the Filangieri Museum in via Duomo and the Diego Museum Aragon Pignatelli Cortèson the Chiaia Riviera.
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