Several Neapolitan mutoparlant gestures 1828

Curator: This pen and ink drawing, titled "Several Neapolitan mutoparlant gestures" comes to us from Saverio della Gatta, dated 1828. The work immediately strikes me as incredibly delicate. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: I’m struck by its precision despite the sparseness of the medium. It makes me think about the labor involved in observation. Look at how many figures are captured using only a minimum amount of material—almost skeletal, and yet somehow very fleshed-out. Curator: Right, and the "mutoparlant"—or “mute speaking” gestures—become paramount. Consider the social context: gestures serving as vital communication in a diverse, often illiterate population. It makes me consider gender and class dynamics—who can speak freely and who needs these alternative channels. Editor: Absolutely. And it draws attention to how knowledge is communicated through non-verbal labor, too. It is very tied into performative actions that reinforce the Neapolitan tradition in the public square and domestic settings alike. I am sure there’s a lot of performance captured there. Curator: Exactly. Also notice that one figure on the left looks withdrawn from the gestural action of the other, seated and cradling something—a rose maybe. This could speak to feelings of displacement and societal disconnection among disenfranchised populations. Editor: The rose gives that character presence despite their withdrawal. And I’m drawn back to the lines. They are the crucial infrastructure allowing the eye to read the bodies but also the negative spaces in between. In these details we gain a tangible glimpse of 19th-century Naples. Curator: Indeed. Gatta preserves not just a visual record but also the nuanced performative language of a people navigating social stratifications. Editor: Ultimately, the work is very delicate yet loaded, speaking to a whole matrix of gestures. Curator: Absolutely—a choreography of resistance inscribed in ink.