Capodimonte - A. Belcari - Figure - "Maternidad" - Biscuit porcelain

Bisque porcelain sculpture, A. Belcari — "Maternity" — Italy, 1983

Technical data
- Author: A. Belcari (engraved signature, base)
- Date: 1983 (engraved mark)
- Material: bisque porcelain, partial glaze
- Height: 28 cm | Width: 21 cm | Weight: 2,380 g
- Pedestal: carved wooden base, independent
- Condition: good overall preservation, no losses or visible restorations; patina in keeping with its age

Dating and marks
Alongside the signature, the base bears an engraved mark with the year "1983" and an initial/workshop control symbol, an element that allows dating the piece precisely within the author's corpus and rules out reissues or later attributions.

Genuine porcelain bisque sculpture (Capodimonte style) depicting a "Maternity": a female figure with long wavy hair, dressed in a tunic in blue-green tones with matching ribbons, nursing an infant in her lap. The group rests on a rock modeled with great naturalistic detail, finished at the base with a hand-cut lace motif, a technical resource common in postwar Italian sculptural porcelain to demonstrate virtuosity in modeling.

Authorship and workshop context:
Engraved signature "A. Belcari" on the base. The sculptor, trained in Tuscany in alabaster workshops and holding a diploma as a master of art, developed a large part of his career linked to the DEAR studios, a distributor that marketed Capodimonte-style porcelain sculpture production during the 1970s and 1980s, in line with other Florentine workshops and those in the Lucca region active in the same circuit.

Technique
Bisque porcelain (firing without glaze on most of the surface), with selective glazing on the mantle and ribbons — a deliberate technical contrast, very typical of this school, between the matte skin/fabric and the gloss of the chromatic accents—.

A piece of interest for collectors of Italian porcelain sculpture of the 20th century, especially for those following the DEAR/Capodimonte circuit productions from the 1970s-1980s.