.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These impressive scagliola panels probably originally formed altar fronts. Their richly scrolling foliage and flower-decorated field with a central cartouche relates to other scagliola panels from the Carpi region. Examples in the Chiesa Parrochiale, Quartirolo, and the Chiesa Parrochiale, Soliera, both the work of the scagliolisti Giovanni Pozzuoli and Giovanni Massa, are illustrated in D. Colli et. al., La Scagliola Carpigiana e l'Illusione Barocca, Modena, 1990, pp. 167 and 187, while another related example by Ludovico Leoni (Carpi 1637 - Cremona 1727), in the Chiesa di S. Francesco, Parma, is illustrated in G. Manni, I Maestri della Scagliola In Emilia Romagna e Marche, Modena, 1997, p. 136, fig. 134.
The design of these scagliola tops is based on models in pietra dura of the late 17th/early 18th Century, such as that presented by Archduke Cosimo III of Tuscany to Prince Karl Albrecht of Bavaria in 1716 which is today at Schloss Nymphenburg. The latter example was made in the Opificio delle Pietre Dure after designs by Giovanni Battista Foggini (d. 1715) and Vittorio Crosten. The counterpart to the Nymphenburg example is today at Palazzo Pitti. Both have the classically-scrolling foliage with interspersed birds. The borders are differing between the two tables as the Nymphenburg example was re-worked, while the central parts were made in 1704 to the designs of the carver Crosten.
The design of these scagliola tops is based on models in pietra dura of the late 17th/early 18th Century, such as that presented by Archduke Cosimo III of Tuscany to Prince Karl Albrecht of Bavaria in 1716 which is today at Schloss Nymphenburg. The latter example was made in the Opificio delle Pietre Dure after designs by Giovanni Battista Foggini (d. 1715) and Vittorio Crosten. The counterpart to the Nymphenburg example is today at Palazzo Pitti. Both have the classically-scrolling foliage with interspersed birds. The borders are differing between the two tables as the Nymphenburg example was re-worked, while the central parts were made in 1704 to the designs of the carver Crosten.