A Jacobite Gazetteer - Italy

Naples - Castel Nuovo

In the Castel Nuovo there is a permanent exhibit of the works of the Italian sculptor Francesco Jerace.¹ Most of the sculptures are plaster, but a few are marble.

Among the sculptures is a plaster bust of Marie Gabriele, Duchess of Cornwall and Rothesay, first wife of King Rupert. Marie Gabriele died on October 24, 1912, at Sorrento, about fifty km from Naples. The bust is dated 1913. It is possible that Marie Gabriele sat for the bust shortly before her death. The marble version of the bust is reportedly now in Berlin.² It was exhibited at the XII Biennale of Venice in 1914³ and at the I Biennale di arte of Naples in 1921.

Marie Gabrielle, Duchess of Cornwall and Rothesay, Prinzessin von Bayern

Marie Gabriele, Duchess of Cornwall and Rothesay

Opposite the bust of Marie Gabriele is another plaster bust identified on the label as "Ritratto di ragazzo" (Portrait of a boy). It is undoubtedly Prince Luitpold of Cornwall and Rothesay, the eldest son of King Rupert and Marie Gabriele.

Prince Luitpold of Cornwall and Rothesay

Notes

¹ Francesco Jerace was born at Polistena in Calabria in 1853 and died at Naples in 1937.

² The label in the Castel Nuovo reads, "The marble bust, currently kept in Berlin." There are several documents in the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv about the transport of the marble bust to Munich.

³ Francesco Sapori, La dodicesima esposizione d'arte a Venezia, 1920 (Bergamo: Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche), p. 18. ""Di Francesco Jerace, il quale sembra infondere un sentimento grossolano in forme delicate, v'è un ingombrante macchinoso ritratto in marmo della principessa Ruprecht, il quale non ha altro còmpito, o vantaggio, se non quello d'occupare il centro d'una sala."