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Lot Essay
The finely detailed, delicate relief carving of this striking commode, with its central musical trophy and sides of spiral-fluted urns among laurel leaves, relates closely to the work of the celebrated Turinese cabinet-maker, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, who was appointed sculptor to the Royal court of Turin in 1787 by Vittorio Amedeo III.
The musical trophy relates in particular to a pair of corner cabinets by Bonzanigo with similar trophies, in Madama Felicita's private apartments in the Palazzo Reale, Turin (illustrated in G. Ferraris, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, Turin, 1991, p. 105). A screen with similar musical trophies in the king's private apartment in the Palazzo Reale is illustrated in E. Quaglino, Il Mobile Piedmontese, Milan, 1966, p. 184. The distinctive spiral-fluted urns on the side panels of this commode relate to similar examples on a commode by a follower of Bonzanigo, Francesco Bolgie, originally executed for the Duke of Aosta's apartments at Castello della Veneria, and now at Stupinigi, illustrated in Ferraris op. cit., fig. XXVII. Another commode at Stupinigi, in the Galleria dei Cimeli Napoleonici, of unknown authorship and with similar Greek-key borders to the front, is illustrated in L. Malle, Stupinigi, Turin, 1968, p. 412.
The musical trophy relates in particular to a pair of corner cabinets by Bonzanigo with similar trophies, in Madama Felicita's private apartments in the Palazzo Reale, Turin (illustrated in G. Ferraris, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, Turin, 1991, p. 105). A screen with similar musical trophies in the king's private apartment in the Palazzo Reale is illustrated in E. Quaglino, Il Mobile Piedmontese, Milan, 1966, p. 184. The distinctive spiral-fluted urns on the side panels of this commode relate to similar examples on a commode by a follower of Bonzanigo, Francesco Bolgie, originally executed for the Duke of Aosta's apartments at Castello della Veneria, and now at Stupinigi, illustrated in Ferraris op. cit., fig. XXVII. Another commode at Stupinigi, in the Galleria dei Cimeli Napoleonici, of unknown authorship and with similar Greek-key borders to the front, is illustrated in L. Malle, Stupinigi, Turin, 1968, p. 412.