Catalogue

The catalogue holds fifteen series, divided by subject rather than by size. Genre scenes — trades and crafts, children, couples and motherhood. Literature and history, where Don Quixote, the musketeers and Napoleonic riders stand together. Sacred sculpture and holy water fonts. The seasons, clowns and commedia dell'arte, women in the drawing room, angels and putti, animals, riders with carriages, wall panels.

Scale varies more than subject. At one end a seven-centimetre putto that sits in the palm, and a font weighing two hundred grams. At the other a composition at the cross of ninety kilograms, and horses among rocks: nearly a metre long, seventy-two kilograms.

Some works exist as sets: four seasons, four musketeers, six commedia dell'arte characters, six Napoleonic riders. Within a set the measurements match, and the figures are meant to stand together.

What they share is Capodimonte porcelain painted by hand. What separates them is what happens in the scene — who is shown, what they hold, what lies at their feet.