AN ITALIAN GILT-BRONZE FRAME

ROMAN, POSSIBLY BY PAOLO OR GUISEPPE SPAGNA, CIRCA 1775, NOW WITH MIRROR PLATE

Details

AN ITALIAN GILT-BRONZE FRAME
ROMAN, POSSIBLY BY PAOLO OR GUISEPPE SPAGNA, CIRCA 1775, NOW WITH MIRROR PLATE
The berried laurel and acanthus leaf-cast frame with an eagle finial, the outer edges of the frame with bell-flower-cast panels, the reverse inscribed with a red-painted '583'
15 in. (38 cm.) high, 18¼ in. (46.5 cm.) wide

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York.

Literature

F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. II, p. 394, cat. 208 (described as Louis XVI).
E. Colle et al., Bronzi Decorativi in Italia, Milan, 2001, p. 220.

Lot Essay

This superb frame, which probably originally housed a precious pietra dura panel or micromosaic picture, was probably executed by one of the eminent Roman bronziers working in the 'antique' style of the 1770's, such as Luigi and Giuseppe Valadier or Paolo and Giuseppe Spagna.

Paolo Spagna and his son Giuseppe supplied a series of gilt-bronze frames, the majority for micromosaic pictures, to Pope Pius VI in the 1770's and 1780's, many of which featured similar laurel and beaded borders (see A. González-Palacios, Arredi e Ornamenti Alla Corte di Roma 1560-1795, Milan, 2004, pp. 226-241).

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