20th Century Ironic Bust of an Elderly Man with a Pipe by Giuseppe Capp for Capodimonte, Italy, 1950s for sale at Pamono

Description

Vitrified polychrome hard-paste porcelain sculpture depicting a bust of an elderly man with pipe, scarf and hat, entirely hand-decorated and signed by the artist Giuseppe Capp, with signature incrusted in the ceramic impasto behind the base and below a crowned “N” in blue, mark of the Capodimonte manufactory. This fabulous sculpture is quite large and heavy, made of the highest quality porcelain and in perfect condition. Its main beauty lies precisely in the ironic-caricature style in which the old little man is portrayed, with a very large nose, large floppy ears, two bags under the eyes and a sweetly melancholic expression.

Information on artist and/or manufacture:
Giuseppe Capp is one of the most important figures in the Italian porcelain scene of the 1960s. He was born in 1921, trained in the Ipa and King porcelain factory in Capodimonte, and in 1959 opened the “Capp porcellane artistiche” factory where he made numerous models with two strands, one classical with subjects taken from Greek mythology mainly in white porcelain and details in pure gold, and a second strand with completely original modern subjects with his own style tending toward realism but slightly ironic, almost to the point of caricature, always, however, with a touch of sweetness and melancholy.