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Lot Essay
These magnificent, recently rediscovered Roman tables from the Palazzo Borghese are superbly carved in the 'antique' manner with triumphal palms, bas-relief medallions of the 'Taurus Dionysiacus' and a Bacchic Ram, and naturalistic swans pecking at baskets of fruit, supporting rare ancient Roman mosaic tops bordered in richly veined alabaster. As revealed by the researches of Alvar González-Palacios, they are all the more remarkable for the fact that, in addition to their illustrious provenance, every aspect of their creation is minutely documented, including each of the Roman craftsmen responsible for the carving, the gilding, the restoration of the mosaic tops and the ormolu mounts (which were supplied by the celebrated Roman bronzier Luigi Valadier).
1773 : TWO TABLES FROM THE PALAZZO BORGHESE
Alvar González-Palacios
THE COMMISSION
The documents relating to these tables are in the Borghese archives in the Vatican (Archivio Borghese, Archivio Segreto Vaticano). The first bill for the tables, is, as one might expect, that of the carver (intagliatore), Antonio Landucci, who had been commissioned in 1773 by Principe Don Marcantonio Borghese, through his architect Antonio Asprucci (1723-1808), to supply furniturer for the Palazzo Borghese. Landucci's bill specifies that the two tables were destined for the Stanza Terza. This was the most important room of the Galleria Terrena, an enfilade of rooms on the ground floor where the gallery housing the Borghese family's outstanding picture collection was rearranged following the Prince's marriage in 1768 to the enormously wealthy heiress Anna Maria Salviati, at which time the Prince embarked on a lavish scheme of redecoration at the Palazzo under Asprucci's direction. The Stanza Terza also housed the celebrated table in jasper and gilt and patinated bronze, originally created in the 17th century after designs and models by Alessandro Algardi and subsequently remodelled by Luigi Valadier (now in the collection of the Order of Malta). Landucci's bill for the tables offered here reads as follows:
'Conto di lavoro fatti per servizio dell'Eccell. Sig. Principe Borghese alla Galleria...da Antonio Landucci Intagliatore
A di 16 Maggio 1773
...Siegue alla terza stanzia per havere intagliato dui tavolini nobili lavorati ad uso di metallo con li quattro piedi torniti a piramida intagliati da tutte le parti intagliati con festoni di fiori con una testa di caprone intagliata con foglie e festoni di lavoro e scannellature, e meandri e vaccarelle, e al fregio per haverci fatto un bassorilievo, che gli gira tutto attorno anticho lavorato con foglie, e rosoni, e cocchiglie di diverse specie, e cartelle, e il detto fregio è centinato, per haverci fatto tre ordini di intaglio uno a foglia à acqua, e il secondo à vacarella, e il terzo un meandro, e al bassorilievo in mezzo per haverci fatto un caprone con un cappio ... la crociata con meandri, e foglie e in mezzo fattoci un vaso tutto intagliato a cinque ordini ... e sopra fattoci una canestra di fiori e frutti con due cigni posati sopra alla crociata, e l'altro sopra al vaso in atto di pigliare li frutti ... 280'
(ASV.,AB.5296, conto 3381)
The bills describes our tables in remarkably exact detail. Interestingly, they are referred to as being worked 'ad uso di metallo', which means that they would be given a smoothly polished finish so that after the gilding was applied they would have the effect of burnished gilt-bronze. Each element of the carving is precisely described, including the medallions of the frieze, the ram's masks at the tops of the legs ('testa di caprone'), and the remarkably life-like swans flanking bowls of fruit at the centre of the stretcher. The bill indicates that there were originally three swans, the third being perched on the basket, in the act of picking the fruit ('pigliare li frutti').
The next document concerns the work of the gilder Nicola Francini. His account, which is part of a series of bills for 1773, only specifies the type of gilding. Although there is no precise description of our tables, this gilding work can nevertheless be related to them through the fact that he specifies it was carried out on two tables in the same room as the table of 'Monsù. Luigi', which must refer to Luigi Valadier (who was of French descent, Monsú being short for Monsieur) and his table after Algardi in the Stanza Terza.
'Conto di Nicola Francini doratore 1773: Per aver dato d'oro da dieci a due Tavolini, che vanno nella camera dove c'è il Tavolino di Monsù Luigi...120'
(A.S.V., A.B., 5297, conto 3409)
Next is the bill of Luigi Valadier himself, a goldsmith and bronzier who was one of the most celebrated Roman craftsmen of his time. Valadier billed the amount of 71.80 scudi for the gilt-bronze bead-and-reel border which provided the finishing touches for the mosaic tops and measured a total of 32. 2/3 palmi (which corresponds to approximately 730 cm, one Roman palmo corresponding to circa 22.5 cm). This is accounted for by the fact that the bronze borders run only on three sides, as was the usual practice on Roman tables which were designed to go against the wall. Valadier's bill reads as follows:
'Somma dell'annessi conti di lavori fatti da Luigi Valadier Argentiere p. servizio dell'Ecc.mo Sig.r Principe Borghese dalli 16 febraro a tutto li 6 settem. 1774...15 do [Xbre] p aver fatto la guarnizione à due Tavolini di Musaico, con tutto un giro di fusarole, quale stende in tutto palmi 32. 2/3 che valutati a s.2:20 il palmo fanno in tutto 71.80'
(A.S.V., A.B., 5298, conto 3417)
The final documents relating to these tables concerns the marble tops. As stated in the bills, these were formed using ancient Roman mosaic floors discovered on a Borghese property, the estate of Marco Simone at Fontana Mascarola. These ancient floors were sufficient to make the tops of five tables, measuring 4 by 8 palmi each (approximately 90 by 180 cm, the measurements of our table tops without the ormolu borders). The marble-craftsman Carlo Lecchini prepared the mosaic tops for our tables from February 1774 to July 1775, (the three other table tops were destined for rooms on the appartamento nobile on the first floor). At the same time, until December 1774, Benedetto Maciucchi fixed Valadier's gilt-bronze borders to the two tops, which he had prepared with a core of peperino, a type of volcanic rock typical to Rome to which strips of precious marble can be veneered, and a framing border of alabastro fiorito a ventresca (so-called because its pink veining ressembles bacon). Each of the five tops with panels of ancient mosaic within specially commissioned borders of alabaster must have been quite similar in design, although with different carved bases.
'N.14. A Mro Carlo Lecchini Scarpellino in conto di alcune tavole di mosaico riatta [sic] p. servizio dell'Ecc.ma Casa...s. quindici m.ta, 16 febraio 1774'
'N.99 Carlo Lecchini Scarpellino...s. 280 m. ta importo di lavori fatti a no 5 tavolini di Mosaico di p. mi 4 e 8 posti nel Palazzo di
S. E. P. ne in Roma... 31 luglio 1775 '
A.S.V., A.B., 5840, Mandati di pagamento
'A Mro Carlo Lecchini Scarpellino e Mosaichista che ha ristaurato diversi mosaichi antichi ritrovati nelle cave di S. Ecc.za in vicinanza della tenuta di Marco Simone, e ne ha formati cinque tavolini di palmi 4 = 8 due dei quali hanno servito e servono nel Piano terreno di questo Palazzo di Roma, e tre si porranno nell' appartamento nobile dello stesso Palazzo sulla mano sinistra della Sala...scudi duecento ottanta... 29 luglio 1775'
(A.S.V., A.B., 5302, conto 3546)
'Benedetto Maciucchi a tutto dic. 1774... per la fattura di Num. 18 bughi fatti ad un tavolino di Mosaico p. gli Bastoncini di Metallo fatti a fusarola lavorati con trapano, ed asta fondi l'uno 1/12 di poi attaccati in gesso li Num. 18 perni di detti Bastoncini dallo stesso scarpellino, che con mezza giornata di tempo perduta dallo scarpellino in assistere l'argentiere a collocare li sudetti bastoncini di metallo...
Per Num. 16 Bughi lavorati con trapano ed asta in un tavolino di Mosaico [uguale a sopra]
Per il Rustico e fattura di una fodera di pep.no data al Mosaichista per formare un Tavolino di Mosaico antico trovato a Fontana Mascarola tenuta dell'Ecc.ma Casa long. p.mi 8 lar. p.mi 4 gros 5/24 lavorata segata di poi messagli a traguardo con ferri...
Per la portatura di detta sino alla Bottega di detto Musaichista p attaccarvi detto Mosaico...
Per il commesso piano delle fasce di alabastro fiorito a ventresca delle fascie tanto nel piano, che riquadrano, e collegano detto Mosaico, che in gross. del Med. p. tre parti long. stes. p.mi 39 2/3 larg. 1/6 scarzi attaccati con mistura e fuoco rifilati per due parti messe a pioggia con ribattimento di vene uguali lavorate con ogni diligenza...
Per l'incastro lavorato nello spigolo di detto p. il bastoncino di metallo dorato longo steso p.mi 15 5/6 larg. 4/60 fond. 4/60 lavorato polito; segue la fattura d'avere spianato sotto il sudetto Tavolino tirato parallello long. p.mi 8 larg. p.mi 4 lavorato con ogni diligenza per non tormentare, ed acconsentire il Mosaico...
Per Num. 4 altre fodere pep.no lavorate come la di sopra des.ta lavorate con sue fascie d'Alabastro Orientale a vena... simile misura...
...segue spianate simili paralelli li sopra des.ti Num. 5 Tavolini di Mosaico long. l'uno p.mi 8 largh. p.mi 4 N. 5 sim.i...
(A.S.V., A.B., 5291 conto 3455)
The sole inventory of the period of relevance to the contents of the Palazzo Borghese and to our tables was made in 1812 when, at the height of the Napoleonic Empire, both the Palazzo and the Villa Borghese were temporarily occupied by the exiled king of Spain, Carlos IV, and an inventory was made of all of Prince Camillo Borghese's effects in both buildings.
The inventory describes in fascinating detail the contents of the Terza Stanza, revealing the splendid surroundings for our mosaic-topped tables. The room had two 18-light chandeliers of cristallo di Boemia and a set of 18 giltwood side chairs with a pair of matching settees, all upholstered in crimson damask. In the centre was 'una tavola impellicciata di Diaspro con la guarnitura, e piedi formati di varie figure, il tutto di metallo in parte dorato in parte naturale,' being the jasper and gilt-bronze table of Algardi and Valadier. On this was a small bronze of Bacchus with a marble base. Our tables, and the objets d'art placed on them, are then described as follows:
'due tavole di mosaico antico contornate di cornice di metallo dorata a fusarola e suoi piedi di legno ed intagli dorati. Sopra di una esistono due piccole statue equestri di bronzo con suo pedistallo simile rappresanti Marco Aurelio. Sull'altra un orologio da tavolino di forma antica con castello di metallo, cassa di legno con suoi vetri.'
The room also contained a pair of carved giltwood corner tables supporting a pair of Japanese porcelain brule-parfums, and also, intriguingly, a column of pink Egyptian granite with a plaster figure of Antinous. The ceiling was painted by Gaetano Lapis and depicted Venus, Zephyr and Jupiter, while the walls were hung with crimson silk damask and had carved giltwood frames. A superb array of paintings (45 in all) were displayed in the room, including examples by Giulio Romano and Andrea del Sarto, vedute by Hackert, a Lavinia Fontana of the Holy Family, the famous Ulysses and Polyphemus by Lanfranco, a Madonna by Perugino, others attributed to Barocci and Bassano and a picture described as a Mezza Figura di Gigante by Titian, probably one of the Cantori now attributed to Giorgione.
(For all the above, see A.S.V.,A.B.,309)
DESIGN SOURCES
These superb tables can be considered among the earliest and most successful expressions of neo-classicism produced in Rome. Created in 1773, they fall between the publication of Giovanni Battista Piranesi's influential work Diversi Maniere d'Adornare i Cammini in 1769, and the death of this extraordinary designer in 1778. Piranesi illustrates a fireplace with a similar bas-relief medallion in a frieze of palmettes and foliage. Principe Don Marcantonio Borghese was the patron responsible for the most important artistic commissions during the pontificate of Pius VI (Braschi, 1775-1799), and along with his architect Antonio Asprucci, was among the most enlightened and influential taste-makers of the time in the whole of Europe. Their fascination with the arts of antiquity, so reflected in these magnificent tables, revealed itself through a love of rare and costly materials, including sumptuous coloured marbles, along with the frequent use of fragments of ancient sculpture and archaeological finds in the interiors they created.
SALES FROM THE BORGHESE COLLECTIONS
The furniture in the Palazzo Borghese remained in its original rooms until 1892, when a series of financial mishaps caused the family to sell both the collections of paintings and sculpture and the Villa Borghese to the State, while a significant portion of the furnishings of the Palazzo were sold at auction. These tables do not appear in these sales, but the fact that many works were also sold privately at the same time explains why examples of such exceptional historical importance now reappear on the market, more than a century after leaving Italy, when neo-classical Italian art has finally become universally appreciated.
ANTONIO LANDUCCI
The earliest known mention of the intagliatore Landucci relates to the group of furniture commissioned in 1773 for the Palazzo Borghese, to which this pair of tables belongs. Another pair of tables from the group was acquired by the King of Italy in the 1892 sales for the Palazzo del Quirinale, where they remain. After 1773, Landucci continued working for Don Marcantonio for a decade, and appears to be the principal carver used for the refurbishment of the Villa Borghese. The name of Antonio Landucci subsequently ceases to feature in the Borghese bills, but his work appears to have been continued by Lucia Landucci, his widow or perhaps his daughter.
NICOLA FRANCINI
The gilder Nicola Francini often appears in the bills of these years relating to the Palazzo, for his gilding of furniture and also of carriages. In 1778 he carried out the gilding of the cornice moulding of the Gran Sala in the Villa Borghese. He was probably related to the gilder Pietro Francini, who also carried out a considerable amount of gilding work at the Villa in these years.
LUIGI VALADIER (1726-1785)
In a prodigiously creative outpouring in the years 1773-4, the renowned silversmith and bronzier Luigi Valadier executed a series of exceptional works for the Galleria Terrena in the Palazzo Borghese. Not only did he remodel Algardi's table of jasper and gilt-bronze, but he also cast the bronze bust of Bacchus placed on an antique pedestal of striking alabastro a rosa which was restored by Benedetto Maciucchi. At the same time, for another room in the Palazzo, Valadier supplied the gilt-bronze masks of the Four Seasons for an extraordinary pair of dodecagonal porphyry tables, whose marbles were also prepared by Maciucchi, now in the Villa Borghese. Valadier also supplied a superb pair of gilt-bronze candelabra with porphyry socles and figural supports after the antique which were placed on these tables (the candelabra are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp. 212-300, figs. 422-500.
A. González-Palacios, 'Luigi Valadier a Palazzo Borghese', Antologia di Belle Arti,43-47, 1994, pp. 34-51.
A. González-Palacios, 'Two Candelabra by Luigi Valadier from Palazzo Borghese', The Metropolitan Museum Journal, 30, 1995.
A. González-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale: I Mobili Italiani, Milan 1997, pp. 184-7.
A. González-Palacios, L'Oro di Valadier. Un Genio nella Roma del Settecento, exh. cat., Rome, Villa Medici, 1997.
A. González-Palacios, 'Addenda a Luigi Valadier', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February 2000, pp. 117-128.
For the pictorial decoration of the Palazzo Borghese, see E. Fumagalli, Palazzo Borghese, Rome, 1994.
1773 : TWO TABLES FROM THE PALAZZO BORGHESE
Alvar González-Palacios
THE COMMISSION
The documents relating to these tables are in the Borghese archives in the Vatican (Archivio Borghese, Archivio Segreto Vaticano). The first bill for the tables, is, as one might expect, that of the carver (intagliatore), Antonio Landucci, who had been commissioned in 1773 by Principe Don Marcantonio Borghese, through his architect Antonio Asprucci (1723-1808), to supply furniturer for the Palazzo Borghese. Landucci's bill specifies that the two tables were destined for the Stanza Terza. This was the most important room of the Galleria Terrena, an enfilade of rooms on the ground floor where the gallery housing the Borghese family's outstanding picture collection was rearranged following the Prince's marriage in 1768 to the enormously wealthy heiress Anna Maria Salviati, at which time the Prince embarked on a lavish scheme of redecoration at the Palazzo under Asprucci's direction. The Stanza Terza also housed the celebrated table in jasper and gilt and patinated bronze, originally created in the 17th century after designs and models by Alessandro Algardi and subsequently remodelled by Luigi Valadier (now in the collection of the Order of Malta). Landucci's bill for the tables offered here reads as follows:
'Conto di lavoro fatti per servizio dell'Eccell. Sig. Principe Borghese alla Galleria...da Antonio Landucci Intagliatore
A di 16 Maggio 1773
...Siegue alla terza stanzia per havere intagliato dui tavolini nobili lavorati ad uso di metallo con li quattro piedi torniti a piramida intagliati da tutte le parti intagliati con festoni di fiori con una testa di caprone intagliata con foglie e festoni di lavoro e scannellature, e meandri e vaccarelle, e al fregio per haverci fatto un bassorilievo, che gli gira tutto attorno anticho lavorato con foglie, e rosoni, e cocchiglie di diverse specie, e cartelle, e il detto fregio è centinato, per haverci fatto tre ordini di intaglio uno a foglia à acqua, e il secondo à vacarella, e il terzo un meandro, e al bassorilievo in mezzo per haverci fatto un caprone con un cappio ... la crociata con meandri, e foglie e in mezzo fattoci un vaso tutto intagliato a cinque ordini ... e sopra fattoci una canestra di fiori e frutti con due cigni posati sopra alla crociata, e l'altro sopra al vaso in atto di pigliare li frutti ... 280'
(ASV.,AB.5296, conto 3381)
The bills describes our tables in remarkably exact detail. Interestingly, they are referred to as being worked 'ad uso di metallo', which means that they would be given a smoothly polished finish so that after the gilding was applied they would have the effect of burnished gilt-bronze. Each element of the carving is precisely described, including the medallions of the frieze, the ram's masks at the tops of the legs ('testa di caprone'), and the remarkably life-like swans flanking bowls of fruit at the centre of the stretcher. The bill indicates that there were originally three swans, the third being perched on the basket, in the act of picking the fruit ('pigliare li frutti').
The next document concerns the work of the gilder Nicola Francini. His account, which is part of a series of bills for 1773, only specifies the type of gilding. Although there is no precise description of our tables, this gilding work can nevertheless be related to them through the fact that he specifies it was carried out on two tables in the same room as the table of 'Monsù. Luigi', which must refer to Luigi Valadier (who was of French descent, Monsú being short for Monsieur) and his table after Algardi in the Stanza Terza.
'Conto di Nicola Francini doratore 1773: Per aver dato d'oro da dieci a due Tavolini, che vanno nella camera dove c'è il Tavolino di Monsù Luigi...120'
(A.S.V., A.B., 5297, conto 3409)
Next is the bill of Luigi Valadier himself, a goldsmith and bronzier who was one of the most celebrated Roman craftsmen of his time. Valadier billed the amount of 71.80 scudi for the gilt-bronze bead-and-reel border which provided the finishing touches for the mosaic tops and measured a total of 32. 2/3 palmi (which corresponds to approximately 730 cm, one Roman palmo corresponding to circa 22.5 cm). This is accounted for by the fact that the bronze borders run only on three sides, as was the usual practice on Roman tables which were designed to go against the wall. Valadier's bill reads as follows:
'Somma dell'annessi conti di lavori fatti da Luigi Valadier Argentiere p. servizio dell'Ecc.mo Sig.r Principe Borghese dalli 16 febraro a tutto li 6 settem. 1774...15 do [Xbre] p aver fatto la guarnizione à due Tavolini di Musaico, con tutto un giro di fusarole, quale stende in tutto palmi 32. 2/3 che valutati a s.2:20 il palmo fanno in tutto 71.80'
(A.S.V., A.B., 5298, conto 3417)
The final documents relating to these tables concerns the marble tops. As stated in the bills, these were formed using ancient Roman mosaic floors discovered on a Borghese property, the estate of Marco Simone at Fontana Mascarola. These ancient floors were sufficient to make the tops of five tables, measuring 4 by 8 palmi each (approximately 90 by 180 cm, the measurements of our table tops without the ormolu borders). The marble-craftsman Carlo Lecchini prepared the mosaic tops for our tables from February 1774 to July 1775, (the three other table tops were destined for rooms on the appartamento nobile on the first floor). At the same time, until December 1774, Benedetto Maciucchi fixed Valadier's gilt-bronze borders to the two tops, which he had prepared with a core of peperino, a type of volcanic rock typical to Rome to which strips of precious marble can be veneered, and a framing border of alabastro fiorito a ventresca (so-called because its pink veining ressembles bacon). Each of the five tops with panels of ancient mosaic within specially commissioned borders of alabaster must have been quite similar in design, although with different carved bases.
'N.14. A Mro Carlo Lecchini Scarpellino in conto di alcune tavole di mosaico riatta [sic] p. servizio dell'Ecc.ma Casa...s. quindici m.ta, 16 febraio 1774'
'N.99 Carlo Lecchini Scarpellino...s. 280 m. ta importo di lavori fatti a no 5 tavolini di Mosaico di p. mi 4 e 8 posti nel Palazzo di
S. E. P. ne in Roma... 31 luglio 1775 '
A.S.V., A.B., 5840, Mandati di pagamento
'A Mro Carlo Lecchini Scarpellino e Mosaichista che ha ristaurato diversi mosaichi antichi ritrovati nelle cave di S. Ecc.za in vicinanza della tenuta di Marco Simone, e ne ha formati cinque tavolini di palmi 4 = 8 due dei quali hanno servito e servono nel Piano terreno di questo Palazzo di Roma, e tre si porranno nell' appartamento nobile dello stesso Palazzo sulla mano sinistra della Sala...scudi duecento ottanta... 29 luglio 1775'
(A.S.V., A.B., 5302, conto 3546)
'Benedetto Maciucchi a tutto dic. 1774... per la fattura di Num. 18 bughi fatti ad un tavolino di Mosaico p. gli Bastoncini di Metallo fatti a fusarola lavorati con trapano, ed asta fondi l'uno 1/12 di poi attaccati in gesso li Num. 18 perni di detti Bastoncini dallo stesso scarpellino, che con mezza giornata di tempo perduta dallo scarpellino in assistere l'argentiere a collocare li sudetti bastoncini di metallo...
Per Num. 16 Bughi lavorati con trapano ed asta in un tavolino di Mosaico [uguale a sopra]
Per il Rustico e fattura di una fodera di pep.no data al Mosaichista per formare un Tavolino di Mosaico antico trovato a Fontana Mascarola tenuta dell'Ecc.ma Casa long. p.mi 8 lar. p.mi 4 gros 5/24 lavorata segata di poi messagli a traguardo con ferri...
Per la portatura di detta sino alla Bottega di detto Musaichista p attaccarvi detto Mosaico...
Per il commesso piano delle fasce di alabastro fiorito a ventresca delle fascie tanto nel piano, che riquadrano, e collegano detto Mosaico, che in gross. del Med. p. tre parti long. stes. p.mi 39 2/3 larg. 1/6 scarzi attaccati con mistura e fuoco rifilati per due parti messe a pioggia con ribattimento di vene uguali lavorate con ogni diligenza...
Per l'incastro lavorato nello spigolo di detto p. il bastoncino di metallo dorato longo steso p.mi 15 5/6 larg. 4/60 fond. 4/60 lavorato polito; segue la fattura d'avere spianato sotto il sudetto Tavolino tirato parallello long. p.mi 8 larg. p.mi 4 lavorato con ogni diligenza per non tormentare, ed acconsentire il Mosaico...
Per Num. 4 altre fodere pep.no lavorate come la di sopra des.ta lavorate con sue fascie d'Alabastro Orientale a vena... simile misura...
...segue spianate simili paralelli li sopra des.ti Num. 5 Tavolini di Mosaico long. l'uno p.mi 8 largh. p.mi 4 N. 5 sim.i...
(A.S.V., A.B., 5291 conto 3455)
The sole inventory of the period of relevance to the contents of the Palazzo Borghese and to our tables was made in 1812 when, at the height of the Napoleonic Empire, both the Palazzo and the Villa Borghese were temporarily occupied by the exiled king of Spain, Carlos IV, and an inventory was made of all of Prince Camillo Borghese's effects in both buildings.
The inventory describes in fascinating detail the contents of the Terza Stanza, revealing the splendid surroundings for our mosaic-topped tables. The room had two 18-light chandeliers of cristallo di Boemia and a set of 18 giltwood side chairs with a pair of matching settees, all upholstered in crimson damask. In the centre was 'una tavola impellicciata di Diaspro con la guarnitura, e piedi formati di varie figure, il tutto di metallo in parte dorato in parte naturale,' being the jasper and gilt-bronze table of Algardi and Valadier. On this was a small bronze of Bacchus with a marble base. Our tables, and the objets d'art placed on them, are then described as follows:
'due tavole di mosaico antico contornate di cornice di metallo dorata a fusarola e suoi piedi di legno ed intagli dorati. Sopra di una esistono due piccole statue equestri di bronzo con suo pedistallo simile rappresanti Marco Aurelio. Sull'altra un orologio da tavolino di forma antica con castello di metallo, cassa di legno con suoi vetri.'
The room also contained a pair of carved giltwood corner tables supporting a pair of Japanese porcelain brule-parfums, and also, intriguingly, a column of pink Egyptian granite with a plaster figure of Antinous. The ceiling was painted by Gaetano Lapis and depicted Venus, Zephyr and Jupiter, while the walls were hung with crimson silk damask and had carved giltwood frames. A superb array of paintings (45 in all) were displayed in the room, including examples by Giulio Romano and Andrea del Sarto, vedute by Hackert, a Lavinia Fontana of the Holy Family, the famous Ulysses and Polyphemus by Lanfranco, a Madonna by Perugino, others attributed to Barocci and Bassano and a picture described as a Mezza Figura di Gigante by Titian, probably one of the Cantori now attributed to Giorgione.
(For all the above, see A.S.V.,A.B.,309)
DESIGN SOURCES
These superb tables can be considered among the earliest and most successful expressions of neo-classicism produced in Rome. Created in 1773, they fall between the publication of Giovanni Battista Piranesi's influential work Diversi Maniere d'Adornare i Cammini in 1769, and the death of this extraordinary designer in 1778. Piranesi illustrates a fireplace with a similar bas-relief medallion in a frieze of palmettes and foliage. Principe Don Marcantonio Borghese was the patron responsible for the most important artistic commissions during the pontificate of Pius VI (Braschi, 1775-1799), and along with his architect Antonio Asprucci, was among the most enlightened and influential taste-makers of the time in the whole of Europe. Their fascination with the arts of antiquity, so reflected in these magnificent tables, revealed itself through a love of rare and costly materials, including sumptuous coloured marbles, along with the frequent use of fragments of ancient sculpture and archaeological finds in the interiors they created.
SALES FROM THE BORGHESE COLLECTIONS
The furniture in the Palazzo Borghese remained in its original rooms until 1892, when a series of financial mishaps caused the family to sell both the collections of paintings and sculpture and the Villa Borghese to the State, while a significant portion of the furnishings of the Palazzo were sold at auction. These tables do not appear in these sales, but the fact that many works were also sold privately at the same time explains why examples of such exceptional historical importance now reappear on the market, more than a century after leaving Italy, when neo-classical Italian art has finally become universally appreciated.
ANTONIO LANDUCCI
The earliest known mention of the intagliatore Landucci relates to the group of furniture commissioned in 1773 for the Palazzo Borghese, to which this pair of tables belongs. Another pair of tables from the group was acquired by the King of Italy in the 1892 sales for the Palazzo del Quirinale, where they remain. After 1773, Landucci continued working for Don Marcantonio for a decade, and appears to be the principal carver used for the refurbishment of the Villa Borghese. The name of Antonio Landucci subsequently ceases to feature in the Borghese bills, but his work appears to have been continued by Lucia Landucci, his widow or perhaps his daughter.
NICOLA FRANCINI
The gilder Nicola Francini often appears in the bills of these years relating to the Palazzo, for his gilding of furniture and also of carriages. In 1778 he carried out the gilding of the cornice moulding of the Gran Sala in the Villa Borghese. He was probably related to the gilder Pietro Francini, who also carried out a considerable amount of gilding work at the Villa in these years.
LUIGI VALADIER (1726-1785)
In a prodigiously creative outpouring in the years 1773-4, the renowned silversmith and bronzier Luigi Valadier executed a series of exceptional works for the Galleria Terrena in the Palazzo Borghese. Not only did he remodel Algardi's table of jasper and gilt-bronze, but he also cast the bronze bust of Bacchus placed on an antique pedestal of striking alabastro a rosa which was restored by Benedetto Maciucchi. At the same time, for another room in the Palazzo, Valadier supplied the gilt-bronze masks of the Four Seasons for an extraordinary pair of dodecagonal porphyry tables, whose marbles were also prepared by Maciucchi, now in the Villa Borghese. Valadier also supplied a superb pair of gilt-bronze candelabra with porphyry socles and figural supports after the antique which were placed on these tables (the candelabra are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp. 212-300, figs. 422-500.
A. González-Palacios, 'Luigi Valadier a Palazzo Borghese', Antologia di Belle Arti,43-47, 1994, pp. 34-51.
A. González-Palacios, 'Two Candelabra by Luigi Valadier from Palazzo Borghese', The Metropolitan Museum Journal, 30, 1995.
A. González-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale: I Mobili Italiani, Milan 1997, pp. 184-7.
A. González-Palacios, L'Oro di Valadier. Un Genio nella Roma del Settecento, exh. cat., Rome, Villa Medici, 1997.
A. González-Palacios, 'Addenda a Luigi Valadier', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February 2000, pp. 117-128.
For the pictorial decoration of the Palazzo Borghese, see E. Fumagalli, Palazzo Borghese, Rome, 1994.