Posts Tagged ‘italian states’

EARLY 19TH CENTURY ITALIAN FURNITURE.

LIKE MANY OTHER European states,
the majority of the Italian states and kingdoms followed the lead of Paris. The greatest French-style furniture and interiors were created during the period of Napoleonic patronage, in the first decade of the 19th century. The French Emperor installed his brothers as rulers in Italy: Joseph became King of Naples and Lucian became Prince of Canino. Napoleon’s sisters also created significant interiors in the area: Elisa Baciocchi in Lucca and Florence, Pauline Borghese in Rome, and Caroline Murat in Naples. But it was not just aristocratic patrons who commissioned the cabinet-makers: one of the period’s characteristics was the emergence of middle-class buyers. This widening of the market coincided with the beginnings of mechanization and the gradual organization of the workshop – a trend that continued throughout the 19th century.
ITALIAN EMPIRE
In some ways, the French Empire style did not suit Italian furniture-makers. Its emphasis on large expanses of high-quality timber was a significant problem in an area where this was difficult to find. Also, its rectilinear forms and strict, sober lines seemed antithetical to a furniture tradition that favoured sculptural qualities. However,
symmetry and balance, with few curves and little ornament apart from Neoclassical gilt-bronze mounts, eventually dominated Italian furniture production. To overcome the problem of poor-quality timber, many pieces were painted – white, pale blue, and eau-de-nil were popular colours. Classical architectural forms were favoured, along with motifs from Imperial Rome, such as trophies of instruments or weapons, fasces (banded rods), laurel wreaths, and antique lamps.
FRENCH IMPORTS
The Grand Duchess of Tuscany (one of Napoleon’s sisters) actually brought French ebenistes to Florence to establish workshops and impart their skills and techniques to the Italians. Mounts were also imported from France. Consequently, it is almost impossible to differentiate between the French Empire furniture in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the Italian variants. The Empire style remained in fashion after 1815, sometimes combined with French Restauration styles, but the use of mahogany declined in favour of walnut or lighter-coloured timber.
During this period, Italy was made up of a patchwork of small states and kingdoms, dominated by Austro-Hungary in the north. Regional diversity was, therefore, far greater than in Britain or France, and much of the furniture produced echoes the traditions for which they are famous: Classical in Rome, Baroque in Florence, and Rococo in Venice. Lombardy produced some of the greatest innovators of the era, particularly Giocondo Albertolli, who trained at the Accademia di Brera and who published his influential Corso
elementare d’ornamenti architettonici in 1805.
The study of Umberto I This shows a room in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Under Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon’s sister and Grand Duchess of Tuscany, several rooms in the palace were redecorated to reflect Paris fashions.
CARVED MIRROR
This carved and gilded mirror frame is decorated with masks of grotesques at the corners. The pediment is richly decorated with baskets -overflowing with flowers. c.1800.
MURANO MIRROR
This mirror has an applied crystal pediment and a frame with C- and S-scrolls at the corners. The oval mirror is surrounded by mirror sections engraved with leaves and divided with moulding. Early 19th century.
GILTWOOD SIDE CHAIR
two Neoclassical giltwood side chairs
part of a set of six Cardinal Fesch chairs; Fesch. a Corsican cardinal, became French ambassador to Rome in 1804. Each chair has a richly carved, domed back depicting a pair of
carved griffins above a stylized serpentine floral carving on a punched ground. The upright back supports are in the form of fluted pilasters with a frieze of running husks. The padded seats have fluted seat rails and are raised on gilded lion’s-paw legs. c.1810.
MAGGIOLINI
THE MOST FAMOUS NEOCTASSICAL FURNITURE-MAKER OF THE
LATE 18TH AND EARLY 19TH СENTURY, MAGGIOLINI’S NAME
IS ASSOCIATED WITH A PARTICULAR STYLE OF MARQUETRY.
Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814) made furniture that was austere, boxy, and unpretentious in form, with no carving and few mounts. However, its characteristic pictorial marquetry lent his work a brilliant opulence. Maggiolini used many different types and colours of timber to create his marquetry pictures, shunning Stains, artificial colouring, and other tricks to achieve decorative effects. In the tradition of Piranesi and, more recently, the ornamental designer and interior decorator, Giocondo Albertolli, he produced marquetry trophies, still lifes, Chinoiserie and caprici. As a result, his name is used to refer to all work of this type, whether produced in his workshop or not.
Maggiolini started his career as a carpenter in a Cistercian monastery, where he established his first workshop in 1771. He later founded a second workshop in Milan, which was inherited by his son, Carlo Francesco, and Cherubino Mezzanzanica. He crafted some of his most brilliant furniture for the Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria, who was the Governor General of Lombardy, and the King of Poland was also one of his clients.
In keeping with the tastes of his age, Maggiolini’s furniture is simple in design and follows late 18th-century French prototypes. Its defining difference is the intricate marquetry, in Italy this had a long tradition stretching back to Renaissance intarsia works.
Louis XVI commode This rectilinear, marble-topped piece, from the studio of Guiseppe Maggiolini in Milan, is made from rosewood and several exotic woods with inlays of Classical figures in medallions and interlacing festoons. The commode has three drawers with bronze mounts and is supported on square, tapering legs. c.1800.
The frieze drawer is inlaid with a row of interlaced festoons.
The top is not made of marble, unlike French commodes.
The two case drawers are inlaid sans traverse with a symmetrical diagonal pattern centred by a medallion containing Classical figures.
The complicated marquetry patterns are typical of Maggiolim’s work.
ARMCHAIR AUX TETES DE LION
This mahogany armchair has a gently curved top rail, an X-frame back, and armrests terminating in carved and gilded lions’ heads. The X-frame base has gilded paw feet. c.1810
Stop-fluted corner
GILTWOOD AND VERDE ANTICO SIDE TABLE
This rectangular table has a verde antico (old green) veneered marble top above a frieze inset with matching marble panels and fluted corners. The square, tapering legs are also inset with marble panels and are surmounted by carved caryatids, whose hands support the table top. c.1800.
The massive table top is veneered with marble.
The frieze is inset
with marble panels
that match the
table top.
The table legs are inset with marble panels
Caryatids support the table top.

Antique Mid 19th Century Russian Furniture.

WHILE RUSSIA’S SERFS scraped a meagre
existence tied to the land, the affluent society centred around the Imperial Court in St Petersburg enjoyed an extremely high standard of living that was reflected in the grand furniture they commissioned.
EUROPE’S MELTING POT
St Petersburg was a cosmopolitan city in the mid 19th century, with strong ties with France, the Low Countries, and the German and Italian states. Craftsmen from each of these areas flowed into the Russian capital, bringing with them ideas and designs from across Europe. French influence, in particular, was very
strong. Many of these journeymen were masters of their professions – Leo von Klenze, for example, was Court architect to Ludwig I of Bavaria before he designed interiors for the New Hermitage. He continued to champion the Russian Empire style well into the mid 19th century with his malachite and marble furniture. Russian rule over Finland meant that there was a free exchange of information between the two countries, and many Finnish craftsmen plied their trades in St Petersburg. As a result, the dominant Russian style of the period was an amalgam of fashions from many different places. The heavy
aspect of polite Russian furniture, designed for use in large spaces, was complemented by grand mounts of gilded wood or brass, featuring Classical motifs drawn from the European tradition.
Among the peculiarly Russian specialities of the period was metal furniture, which was used more frequently here than elsewhere in Europe. The Tula Imperial Armoury, an important weapons foundry, became famous for its iron furniture, such as the dressing room suite on display at the Pavlovsky Palace Museum. Carl Faberge, jeweller to the Imperial Court from 1884, designed a
handful of superb items of furniture that exerted an enormous influence on the fashionable elite. These high-fashion pieces were the exception, however, as a general decline took place in the Russian furniture industry during the late 19th century. Increased mechanization was the death knell for many craftsmen who could not compete with the new factories in terms of output or cost. In these factories, machine-cut pine carcasses were covered with very thin machine-cut hardwood veneers before finally being finished by hand. In this way, furniture that appeared to equal the quality of that created by the artisan was produced far more cheaply.
UPHOLSTERED ARMCHAIR
From a suite of furniture made for the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, this carved and gilded armchair is upholstered in crimson silk. It was created in Louis XV style.
Winter Palace interior Designed by Alexander Bryullov, the Malachite Room was rebuilt in 1837 as a drawing room for Alexandra Fyodorovna, the wife of Tsar Nicolas I. The richly gilded furniture was produced by the workshop of Peter Gambs from sketches by Auguste de Montferrand.
GOTHIC CHAIR
This Gothic-style, high-backed chair carved out of walnut was designed by E. Gambs for the Gothic Study of the Golitsyn-Stroganov estate in Maryino. Mid 19th century.
CYLINDER BUREAU
The drum-shaped case of this mahogany desk is supported by two shaped legs with carved and gilded swans at the top and partly gilded claw-and-ball feet at the bottom. The legs are joined by a flat, carved cross-stretcher. The
desk has a fitted interior, containing shelves and compartments for letters and writing equipment, and a leather writing slide. A series of wooden slats attached to a single piece of cloth composes the roll-top lid, which retracts to the back. Late 19th century.

MALACHITE TABLE
Alexandre II malachite low table is mounted with lour scroll and foliate ormolu cartouches. Beneath the table lop, a baluster stern, ending in a foliate motif carving, is flanked by four scroll legs on scroll and foliate sabots. The table stands on glass bun feet, which were added at a later date. The malachite used to create this table
was mined at Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Malachite from the same source was also used to create the Malachite Room at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg (see above right). Russian craftsmen from the Peterhof and Yekaterinburg works used the Russian mosaic technique to cover large surfaces; they cut pieces of malachite into 3mm thick slices and attached them to a base to produce an attractive overall pattern. c.1860.
SILVER-MOUNTED TABLE
The top of this Louis XVI-style Faberge table has a beaded silver border, The drawer is applied with a silver laurel wreath with ribbon cresting. The fluted legs are joined by a silver-mounted stretcher. Late 19th century.
MAHOGANY BOOKCASE
This two-door glazed bookcase has a broken pediment with a brass moulded edge and brass fluted decoration to the central frieze. The doors have well-figured mahogany frames with central glazed panels and boldly modelled
brass astragals. The doors have canted corners with brass flutes, surmounted and supported by brass square paterae. The sides are inset with panels, bordered by brass lines. The whole
stands on a plinth, supported on square, tapering legs, terminating in brass sabots. c.1840.