Not so long time ago, in our home-country of Montecalvo, as well as in many other parts of the Italian Mezzogiorno, the agrarian income was still the principal economic source the various social classes got their living means from. Those revenues, however, let’s say it frankly, were not fairly apportioned between landowners and their numerous and dependent farm labourers.
In this way the rich proprietors amassed very large or consistent amounts of money, which the most cultivated among them could allot in part for commissioning works of art or architectural improvement for their kind of palatial abodes (often pretentious in style) even in our little town of Montecalvo.
Fortunately and paradoxically, the destination of funds for private enjoyment of prestigious works of art has in the course of time become a cultural and social heredity both for the rich and the poor’s appreciation.
That could be the case for the statue group we are illustrating here. It represents the goddess Diana while running and supporting Eros as a child on her shoulders. We think that it is a Diana (the Greek Artemis) because the sculptor carved at her feet a quiver and an arrow, clearly an emblem of the hunting goddess. But there are also reasons that the artist could have represented Callisto, who was the Arcadian king Lycaon’s daughter and a follower of Diana, whom Zeus seduced. Diana, in fact, hated nakedness and kept her nymphs and followers away from men and love. Anyway, we consider the question of a precise identification of the mythical personage not so much relevant for the appreciation of this splendid piece of art from a mere aesthetic point of view.
The sculptor of the group was Fedele Caggiano (1804 - 1880) who was born in Buonalbergo, a township not far away from Montecalvo, that’s the site where is the Diana. Fedele Caggiano had a bottega d’arte ( an art studio) in Naples and was the father of Emanuele who carved, among other important pieces of art, the beautiful statue of Emperor Frederick II, which can be admired on the façade of Naples Royal Palace overlooking on Piazza del Plebiscito.