Album with Neapolitan scenes

The Della Gatta family produced a large numbers of genre scenes and costume studies in the tradition of artists including Alessandro d'Anna (1746-1810) and Pietro Fabris (active circa 1740–1804). Fabris was the first to produce such costume studies on a large scale and 34 were published in Raccolta di varii vestimenti ed arti nel Regno di Napoli (Naples, 1773). Ten years later, Xavier della Gatta and D’Anna were given a royal commission to travel through Italy to document different costume types. These drawings, often works of art in their own right, also served as model for porcelain decorations. Della Gatta enjoyed the patronage of Sir William Hamilton and other grand tourists. ‘What had begun as charming views of picnics in grottoes and views of Naples with street vendors, painted by Fabris from the 1750s through the 1770s, had become an industry where the figures were less stereotyped and more carefully studied, becoming the focus of the composition, while the landscape not only became more generalised and receded into the background, but often disappeared altogether’ (I. Jenkins and K. Sloane, Vases and Volcanoes. Sir Hamilton and his Collection, exhib. cat., London, British Museum, 1996, p. 251). This transition is particularly evident in these images, where the emphasis is completely on the costumes and the setting is of the simplest possible.