The Grape Harvest: Francis II of Habsburg and Ferdinand III Grand Duke of Tuscany with their respective consorts, Maria Theresa and Maria Luisa of Bourbon, daughters of Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina, in peasant dress

The Grape Harvest, a splendid painting by Hackert of which there are two autograph replicas at Schönbrunn Castle, in Vienna, serves as a sketch for the frescoes in the Bedroom of the Royal Site of Carditello, painted by the young Giuseppe Cammarano in 1791.

The work depicts the princesses Maria Theresa and Maria Luisa, who came of age at the time, with their respective consorts: Emperor Franz II of Habsburg-Lorraine and Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

By placing the canvas next to Hackert's The Reaping, we can see how the two compose a single panorama, most probably set at the Royal Site of Carditello. Sharing the same scenario, both were painted with the ‘gouache’ technique, i.e. tempera, varying only the seasonal and light conditions.

Their precious evidence thus makes it possible to reconstruct the original decoration of the two walls of the Bedroom, which were remodeled several times and seriously defaced, starting from the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799, up to the present day.