The Reaping: Ferdinand IV, Maria Carolina and the royal family in peasant dress

The Reaping, 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.

In the work, symbolising summer, the king appears in the foreground, in the shade of a tree, with his hunting dogs beside him, while seated on the sheaves are Queen Maria Carolina and – presumably – Maria Amalia, Maria Antonia and little Prince Charles.

Not far away are the nurse holding the newborn baby Leopold, next to another, as yet unidentified, princess; behind them, on the sheaves, reasonably the princess Maria Christina.

By placing the canvas alongside Hackert's The Grape Harvest, one can see how the two scenes compose a single panorama, most probably set at the Royal Site of Carditello. Sharing by the same scenario, both were painted using the "gouache" technique, i.e. tempera, varying only the seasonal and light conditions.