A Naples plaque depicting the return to Montevergine, dated 1857

Footnotes

The depictions on this plaque and the following lot are based on popular drawings and prints circulating in Naples from the late 18th century. The use of popular subjects on Neapolitan porcelain has a long tradition going back to the famous service ordered for King Ferdinand VI in 1783, the Servizio delle Vestiture del Regno (see A. Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane Napoletane dell'Ottocento (1990) p.118ff.). The decoration on the service is largely based on gouaches by two artists, Saverio Della Gatta and Alessandro D'Anna, and later Stefano Santucci, who were hired by the director of the factory, Domenico Venuti, to travel and make a record of all the regional costumes of the Kingdom. Their gouaches were also later used widely at the factory. Caròla-Perrotti (op.cit., pp.139-142) discussed the rise of the 'petit bourgeoisie' as main buyer of the production of popular subjects on porcelain. These pieces were no longer made for the court, but for the tourists flocking to Naples. Most famous and most widely used were the four compositions by Della Gatta, 'Il ritorno da Montevergine', 'Il Tavernaro', 'Il Mellonaro' and 'La Tarantella'. For other examples of this particular scene see Caròla-Perrotti (op.cit.) cat.nos. 207, 210 and 211, all dateable slightly earlier. A plate of the same date and with a similar popular subject signed by Carlo de Simone is in the Museo di San Martino (Caròla-Perrotti, op.cit, cat.no. 253).