Before 1742, tapestries painted with herbal juices decorated the cloister of the Monastery of Santa Chiara in Naples during festivities and receptions. Fabrics created a protected environment, hiding unpleasant views and adding colours and joyousness to the austere building founded in 1311 by Queen Sancha of Majorca, wife of Robert of Anjou King of Naples.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Santa Chiara complex was the richest in Naples. The daughters of the highest aristocracy entered monastic life with a solemn and expensive ceremony, a large dowry and a substantial annuity, settling in small but richly decorated apartments with their servants. The Franciscan rules that had inspired the foundation of the Monastery had been largely forgotten, and, despite admonitions, Clarisses combined their religious duties with more earthly and innocent pleasures, such as parties, concerts and performances, chocolate, biscuits and chatters.
The idea to transform the gothic cloister into a fashionable and elegant drawing room was first suggested by one of the its most frequent visitors: Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen consort of Charles III of Spain.
Works began in 1739 under the direction of Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, the architect of the Monastery. Two main crossing paths divided the garden into four parterres, each with its own theme and decoration. Rustic and citrus gardens, existing large marble basins transformed into fountains or newly built with decorations of shells, bits of green glass and black flints, a marble table with stone pieces from nearby Sorrento and vases. Along the main paths, sixty-four octagonal columns, linked by high-backed seats, supported a pergola made of
painted wood. Columns and seats were entirely covered with the riggiole, the typical Neapolitan majolica tiles.
Spirals of fruits and flowers twist along the columns, festoons and bows adorn the seats, framing small pictures of landscapes, allegories, scenes of everyday life, popular masks and festivities, with no mention to religious themes. Donato Massa and his son Giuseppe translated Vaccaro's refined and playful designs into enameled tiles, whose palette is based on yellow, orange, blue and green shades.
The Queen approved, the Clarisses enjoyed the new cloister.
Majolica tiles covered Naples, from the domes and steeples of churches, to public squares, balconies and courts; floors were transformed into elaborated Persian carpets while tapestries inspired this timeless garden.
TravelinaGarden, Naples, December 2014.
Links:
Monastero di Santa Chiara, Napoli
http://www.monasterodisantachiara.com/
Further reading:
Guido Donatone, Il Chiostro maiolicato di Santa Chiara, Napoli, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2009.
