A Delicate Balance

Capodimonte museum in Naples lives a marvel of 18th-century Rococo design.

- LAURA MAY

Inside the Capodimonte museum in Naples lives a marvel of 18th-century Rococo design. Known as the porcelain boudoir of Maria Amalia of Saxony, queen of Naples, the chamber evokes an otherworldly garden. Thousands of white porcelain panels covering the walls up to the soaring ceilings are animated by a riot of color: garlands of paper-thin petals, gilt candelabras, bulging baskets of fruit, chinoiserie reliefs, and lifelike parrots perched high on gilded moldings. An opulent vision of nature frozen in clay, the room was commissioned in 1757 by Charles VII, the king of Naples who established the Capodimonte porcelain factory in 1743, for his wife as a private retreat-and remains among the most transportive spaces in the museum's collection of some 6,000 pieces of porcelain and ceramics.

Later this year, the boudoir will once again take center stage as part of Capodimonte's new porcelain galleries, a major project spearheaded by the legendary designer Federico Forquet. At 94, Forquet is returning to his native Naples to crown a career that has spanned couture ateliers, aristocratic estates, and some of Europe's most refined interiors.