A rare Capodimonte figure of a man with a dog or fox in his arm, circa 1750-55

Footnotes

Provenance:
With Aldo Pironti, Benevento (paper label to the base);
European Private Collection since the 1980s

Another example of this rare model is in the Museo di Capodimonte (part of the gift made by Mario de Ciccio in 1958), illustrated by Angela Caròla-Perrotti, Le Porcellane dei Borbone di Napoli (1986), no. 141.

The subject of animal tamers occurs several times in the repertoire of the Capodimonte factory and can be related to the street performers or circus performers, travelling from the countryside to the city to show and sell their tricks often involving tamed animals and acrobatics. Caròla-Perrotti notes (p. 202) that up until the 1960s, these street performers could be found on the roads connecting Puglia with the Abbruzzi, travelling from town to town, following festive holidays to perform their acts, but also simply to sell their services as chimney sweeps, knife sharpeners and upholsterers. These Capodimonte groups fit into the series of the Voci di Napoli. Unlike at Meissen, where the original drawings for the series of the Cris de Paris clearly correspond to a fixed number of figures, not many of the source prints or drawings for the Voci have been identified. It is not known how many figures the Voci di Napoli consisted of. This figure, with its clear depiction as a street vendor or performer, clearly fits stylistically well within the homogenous canon of Cries of Naples or Neapolitan street vendors.

Two related figures of a lady taking a monkey by the hand were sold in these rooms, 6 December 2018, lot 18, and another example of the same group from the Collezione Fiordalisi, 7 December 2017, lot 26.