Portrait of the Court dog handler, Gennaro Rossi, with dogs and wild boars

The skilled animal painter Martin Ferdinand Quadal almost certainly painted three pictures for the Carditello Dining Room, but only two of them returned from the sovereigns' exile in Palermo.

The two canvases portraying the Court dog handlers were painted in 1784, when Quadal stopped over in Naples; it is known that, in the same year, Gennaro Rossi ran the old “canetteria” (dog kennel) in Via Sant'Antonio in Caserta, where he looked after 48 dogs.

The work portrays the Court dog handler Gennaro Rossi who, with carbine and whistle, is surrounded by noble breeds of dogs – from Spain and Moscow – as he contemplates with satisfaction the rich wild boar hunting. It constitutes a valuable testimony of the original nucleus of the Bourbon picture gallery, chosen by Hackert to furnish the king's new flat.

The sovereigns' particular choice of placing the pair of paintings in the Dining Room is associated with the king's habit of having the products of his hunting cooked, an activity whose importance is difficult to understand today.

For this reason, the dog handlers were held in high esteem in court society, as they cared for the dogs and trained them for the hunts. They were bred in the various dog kennels in the vicinity of the Royal Palace of Caserta, including those in Sala, Briano, Ercole, Aldifreda and San Nicola la Strada.