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Lot Essay
The finely drawn marquetry and carefully ordered design of these impressive commodes relates them closely to the documented oeuvre of the celebrated Milanese cabinet-maker Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814), Intarsiatore delle Loro Altezzi Reali. The striking panels of the drawers, with male caryatids issuing from scrollling acanthus, relate to a very similar motif on the frieze of a console in the Palazzo Reale, Genoa, recently attributed to Maggiolini by Giuseppe Beretti on the basis of preparatory drawings for a console with the same frieze inlay (see G. Beretti, Giuseppe e Carlo Francesco Maggiolini, L'Officina del Neoclassicismo, Milan, 1994, pp. 183-5).
The motif on the sides of these commodes, with classical urns issuing delicately scrolling foliage, also recurs frequently in Maggiolini's work, for instance on the sides of a dressing table, now in a private collection in Monza (illustrated op. cit., p. 166). The finely drawn foliage of the frieze is also typical of Maggiolini's work, featuring in an almost identical format in a drawing by Maggiolini in the Civica Raccolte delle Stampe, Milan (illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Intarsiarto di Giuseppe Maggiolini, Milan, 1957, fig. CIX.
Maggiolini, along with Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo in Turin, was the most celebrated Italian cabinet-maker of the neoclassical period. He worked extensively for the Milanese court and for the aristocracy of Northern Italy, including Marchese Litta, who, along with the designer Giuseppe Levati, first recognized his talents as an intarsiatore in the 1760's. His many projects included the furnishing of the Palazzo Ducale in Milan, the Villa Reale in Monza and the Palazzo Ducale in Mantova.
The motif on the sides of these commodes, with classical urns issuing delicately scrolling foliage, also recurs frequently in Maggiolini's work, for instance on the sides of a dressing table, now in a private collection in Monza (illustrated op. cit., p. 166). The finely drawn foliage of the frieze is also typical of Maggiolini's work, featuring in an almost identical format in a drawing by Maggiolini in the Civica Raccolte delle Stampe, Milan (illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Intarsiarto di Giuseppe Maggiolini, Milan, 1957, fig. CIX.
Maggiolini, along with Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo in Turin, was the most celebrated Italian cabinet-maker of the neoclassical period. He worked extensively for the Milanese court and for the aristocracy of Northern Italy, including Marchese Litta, who, along with the designer Giuseppe Levati, first recognized his talents as an intarsiatore in the 1760's. His many projects included the furnishing of the Palazzo Ducale in Milan, the Villa Reale in Monza and the Palazzo Ducale in Mantova.