Augustus III of Poland and Elector of Saxony had been toying with an idea for some time, having strongly wanted and supported the foundation of the Meissen factory near Dresden: to build in the Saxon city, where his large collection of porcelain works was already located, a Japanese Palace in which all the interior decorations and furnishings were of that refined and delicate material.
If the sovereign was unable to complete the ambitious project, years later it was his niece Maria Amalia, wife of King Charles of Bourbon, who made that dream come true in Naples, albeit in a much smaller version, with her Porcelain Lounge, one of the most astonishing creations of the Royal Factory of Capodimonte.
The work was conceived and designed for the queen's boudoir in the palace of Portici and was completed between 1757 and 1759. A space of eighty-one square meters with a height of seven meters, to be completely lined with decorated porcelain slabs made by the artisans of the Capodimonte factory, according to the taste for "chineseries" that was in vogue throughout Europe in the 18th century. And Naples was no exception, especially since during Charles' reign the Chinese College had been established in the city by the missionary Matteo Ripa. A first nucleus of oriental culture and the study of Mandarin Chinese of European importance, which would later generate the Royal Oriental Institute of Naples.
The white porcelain slabs that covered the walls of the sitting room were decorated in high relief with mainly exotic motifs and fantastic scenes populated by miniature Chinese. There was no shortage of triumphs of flowers and fruits and even exotic animals and books. Several cartouches bore praise to King Charles in Mandarin. In all, three thousand pieces one centimeter thick, mounted with screws with millimetric precision on a wooden framework. The six large mirrors arrived from France contributed to making the effect even more sumptuous, further embellished with porcelain floral festoons that descended over the mirrors.
The entire work was designed by the artist and set designer Giovan Battista Natali, the plates were created by Giuseppe Gricci and the pictorial decoration by Johann Sigmund Fischer and Luigi Restile.
The ceiling, however, was in stucco with decorations imitating majolica and was the work of Mattia Gasparini. In the centre was the large twelve-branched porcelain chandelier in green, blue and lilac. A monkey was represented on the palm-shaped stem, while at the base a seated Chinese man goads a dragon with a fan. Also in decorated porcelain were the three-armed candlesticks. And the floor was probably porcelain too. As expected, furniture and consoles would be too. To complete the furnishings there were finely carved wooden doors and rich San Leucio silk curtains.
The queen, who had followed every phase of the work, supervising it personally, had the pleasure of seeing it completed shortly before her sudden departure for Spain. She demonstrated how much she cared about it by having a copy made in the palace of Aranjuez by the workers brought from Naples, which also included Gricci.
In 1866, after the Unification of Italy, the director of the Royal House of Savoy, Annibale Sacco, decided that the treasures of the various Bourbon palaces should all be concentrated in the palace of Capodimonte. So the Portici living room was dismantled piece by piece and reassembled in the new location, except for the ceiling, which was moved only in 1957.
