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Chandelier with tomatoes

Gennaro di Fiore represents Campanian fertility in a chandelier with tomatoes

THE CHANDELIER WITH TOMATOES IS VISIBLE IN: Boudoir of Queen Maria Carolina

Category furnishings
Type chandelier
Artist Gennaro di Fiore (sculptor), Antonio serio (bronzes)
Year 1780
Origin Naples
Material wood, copper, bronze
technique sculpture, casting, chiselling, gilding, painting
Style rococò
Dimensions (WxDxH) 105x97x97

History

Despite the year of execution brings us to the years when the Neapolitan neoclassicism was already at the top, this chandelier is still typically rococo. It was made by the carver and decorator Gennaro di Fiore and by the bronze artist Antonio Serio. Gennaro di Fiore, a member of a craftsman’s dynasty, supplied many metallic objects to the court, while Domenico di Fiore made various “copper-plated” seals designed for Ferdinand IV tables.

The smelter was the roman Giacomo Ceci, who worked for the court since Charles of Bourbon, and executor of works and bronze finish exceptional quality as those in the Royal Chapel of Portici, the statue of the Immaculate and large chandeliers, the latter designed by Luigi Vanvitelli behind the direct request of Queen Maria Amalia.

Description of the chandelier with tomatoes

Chandelier with twelve candles with structure in white painted wood, and applications in copper and bronze gilded with mercury. It is decorated with female masks with an interweaving of branches and leaves and with tomatoes to allude to the fertility of the land of Campania, the ancient Campania Felix. The terminal bow, damaged during the revolution of 1799, was rebuilt on the occasion of the exhibition “Civiltà del ‘700 a Napoli” in 1979.

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