Notes- The piece has not yet been scientifically analyzed to determine the
material, so this identification remains tentative. Visual analysis sug
gests that the piece is made of terraglia, the Italian version of white-
bodied, glazed earthenware made famous by Josiah Wedgwood in the
later eighteenth century and known in England as creamware to de
scribe its creamy white color. In late eighteenth-century Naples the
medium was called "creta alFuso inglese" (earthenware in the English
manner). Later called terraglia, this ceramic material was covered with
white or transparent lead glaze and sometimes, as in the case of the
Getty piece, polychromy. The medium was developed in the second ha
of the eighteenth century as an alternative to hard- and soft-paste porc
lain. It was less expensive and less difficult to work and could achieve
the whiteness valued in porcelain, although it does not have the same
quality of translucency. For terraglia, see Morazzoni 1956; Borrelli 198
30-44; Carola Perrotti 1986, 586-87; Biavati 1988, 100-120; Donaton
1991 ; Fittipaldi 1992, 202-7. - See note 10 below for Donatone's theory about the Charlesworth
provenance. - See note 12 below for this theory.
- The ability to achieve verisimilitude in polychromy was noted in the
nineteenth century as a characteristic of terraglia; see Donatone 1991,
12, citing Giuseppe Novi, a nineteenth-century historian of Neapolita
ceramics. - Olivar 1953, 2: 109, 340, fig. 241. At this time the piece was in the
Bauza collection, Madrid. - Martinez Caviro 1973, 20.
- Sanmartino's sculpture decorates a niche in the vestibule of the Chape
of San Cataldo in Taranto cathedral, where it is paired with another
marble sculpture by Sanmartino, representing San Giovanni Gualberto
(1788-90). For the S. Giovanni Gualberto, see Carducci 1975, 135-58;
Marciano and Pasculli 1985. - Fittipaldi 1986, 2: 603-707, esp. 651-57 n. 66. The Madonna and Chil
by Laudato is illustrated in Borrelli 1970, 118, fig. 214; he locates it in
the Hermanin collection, Rome; it is also illustrated in Donatone 1991
fig. 3. Fittipaldi (1992, no. 464) notes that the Madonna and Child is
dated 1791; this is important because it demonstrates that Laudato
knew Sanmartino's model for the Taranto figure by that date and so m
have worked directly with the master, who died in 1793. - Donatone 1991, 43, fig. 4; Donatone 1993B, 39-46.
- A group representing Saint Joseph and the Christ Child shown in the
Esposizione nazionale di belle arti in Naples in 1877 was described in
the catalogue (394) as a "gruppo in porcellana in colori. Epoca IV.
Porterebbe la marca N coronata." Donatone (1991, 43) associated this
citation with the Getty Saint Joseph, which he had seen only in a phot
graph. Because the piece does not have the mark of the crowned N,
doubt must be cast on it being the piece exhibited in Naples in 1877.
Donatone also asserts that a group described as "S. Giuseppe a Bam
bino" [sic] offered at the 1901 sale at the Galleria Sangiorgi in Rome of
the Charlesworth collection, and listed as no. 631, a "groupe en faienc
coloriee vieux Naples," is the Getty group, providing a possible prove
nance for it in a famous Neapolitan collection. - Donatone 1997, 9.
- See, especially, Donatone 1993B and Donatone 1996, 31-43. For San
martino, see Borrelli 1966; Fittipaldi 1980, 136-94; Catello 1988, with
additional bibliography,- Ferrari 1996, 27: 756-57.
lf
e5,
enld,ayoe- For the silver group, see Catello and Catello 1978, 49-51; Catello 1988,
97-98, fig. 132; Catello and Catello 1979, 2: 227, no. 484, and 218,
fig. XIV; Catello 1987, 23, 38, 74. The ceramic version (private collec
tion), signed by Laudato, is illustrated in Donatone 1993B, 44-45,
figs. 1-2. - "Selected Acquisitions, Sep ember-November 1987," British Museum
Society Bulletin, no. 57 (spring 1988): 30. - For Capecelatro, see Dizionario biografico 1975, 18: 136-94, with bibli
ography; Croce [1927] 1943, 159-82. For Sanmartino's sculpture of Saint
Joseph with the Christ Child in the Cappellone di San Cataldo in
Taranto cathedral, see Carducci 1975; Marciano and Pasculli 1985, 103-
5. According to the terms of the contract, Sanmartino was to finish the
marble statue by April 1792; see Marciano and Pasculli 1985, 158,
doc. 20. No documents are known that relate to the execution, trans
port, or installation of the statue, but we may assume that it was com
plete or nearly so by Sanmartino's death in 1793. Certainly it was
in place before 1799, when Capecelatro was removed from his arch
bishopric in the aftermath of a short-lived revolt against the Bour
bon monarchy. - See Marciano and Pasculli Ferrara 1985, 158-60, for the documents re
lated to the commission, execution, and approval of Sanmartino's terra
cotta model (e.g., 158, doc. 20, dated November 25, 1790: "E risapendosi
che il piu celebre scutore di marmi in oggi sia il detto signor Sanmartino
molto rinomato per le sue opere statuarie in marmi a cui avendo
l'anzidetto monsignor Arcivescovo [Capecelatro] fatta la richiesta per
costituzione della suddetta statua con suo piedistallo ed iscrizzione il
medesimo si e offerto eseguirle talche avendone a richiesta dello stesso
monsignor Arcivescovo formato in creta ed avendoglielo rimesso in
Taranto dal medesimo e stato approvato in tutte le sue parti"). - Until the later fifteenth century Saint Joseph rarely appeared as the
principal subject of images. He was generally depicted in narrative
scenes from the life of Mary (the Marriage of the Virgin) or the infancy
of Christ (the Nativity) and then generally as a doddering old man. In
the sixteenth and especially the seventeenth centuries he came to be
represented as a strong young man capable of protecting Christ and the
Virgin. Beauty, a sign of grace, became one of his features. See Male
1932, 313-25. See also Filas 1962, esp. 544-75. - Capecelatro was also directly involved in the commission for the other
statue, the San Giovanni Gualberto by Sanmartino in the Chapel of
San Cataldo, Taranto cathedral: he suggested the sculptor to the patron,
negotiated the terms of the contract, and, most interesting, kept
Sanmartino's terra-cotta model for himself; see Carducci 1975, 154-55,
esp. 155, doc. 2, a letter from Capecelatro in Naples to the patron in
Taranto, dated January 26, 1788: "Ho ricevuto la procura e si e con-
venuto che debba il Signor S. Martino mandare a voi il disegno della
statua di S. Giovanni e lasciarne anche un modello in poter mio." - For recent tendencies toward considering ceramic figures and groups as
works of sculpture and the evaluation of ceramic artists alongside con
temporary sculptors in marble, bronze, wood, and terra-cotta, see
Gonzalez-Palacios 1988; this issue is emphasized in Nicholas Penny's
review of the book in Burlington Magazine 132 (December 1990): 880- - See also Schmidt 1932, esp. 186-291, and, more recently, Le
Corbeiller 1988B, 22-28; Poole 1986; Tabakoff 1992, 12-20.
244 Saint Joseph with the Christ Child