Seafood

In the painting entitled Seafood, oysters, fresh sea urchins and razor clams are beautifully displayed in a small wicker tray, accompanied by a piece of bread and a glass – presumably filled with white wine.

The work, part of a series of six small paintings that they almost certainly belong to Giacomo Nani's first production, is missing from the picture gallery of 1792: it is later found in the “Calicut straw yellow” room and, in the Savoy era, in the new Entrance Hall of the Royal Site.

As Vincenzo Corrado recounts in The gallant Cook, oysters and razor clams were eaten raw – as soon as they came out of the water – while sea urchins were considered tastier if eaten at full moon.

Regarding the oysters, they came from Taranto and were cultivated at the Royal Casino of Fusaro Lake, the first architectural work born from the collaboration – in 1783 – between Carlo Vanvitelli and Jacob Philipp Hackert.