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Lot Essay
These spectacular cabinets illustrate the absolute height of the art of baroque cabinet-making. With their supremely architectural form, extensive use of sumptuous red tortoiseshell and ebony, and central niches with a mirrored theatrical illusionistic scene, they demonstrate the full expression of baroque cabinet-making in Naples in the mid-17th century.
Although a number of these types of cabinets exist in Spain, where they are thought to be Spanish, many are almost certainly of Neapolitan origin. There were strong ties between Naples and Spain in the 17th century, as Naples was under Spanish rule at that time, and the extensive use of tortoiseshell was due to the availability of the material from Spanish colonial sources.
Related Neapolitan cabinets of the period also display similar architectural forms combined with tortoiseshell and ebony, and sometimes gilt mounts, such as a four foot-wide table cabinet with undulating facade and checkerboard pattern interior floor, illustrated in M. Riccardi- Cubitt, The Art of the Cabinet, London, 1992, p. 60, pl. 26-27. More typical are the use of inset painted panels of biblical and mythical scenes after Luca Giordano (Naples 1634-1705), and a separate, heavily carved giltwood base. Examples of these types of cabinets include those sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 18 November 2009, lot 322 and Sotheby's London, 16 Dec 1998, lot 127 and one in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, illustrated in E. Colle Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p. 66, pl. 14.
THE REPUTED PROVENANCE
One of this pair of cabinets is illustrated in S. Colombo, L'Arte del Legno in Italia, 1981, where the author suggests they were reputedly supplied to the Counts of Porto di Vicenza. The Porto family was one of the most distinguished in Vicenza, and in the 16th Century members of the family such as Count Paolo Porto were among the most significant patrons of the celebrated architect Andrea Palladio, commissioning from him the Villa Porto in Vivaro di Dueville and the Palazzo Porto-Colleoni which was transformed by Palladio from a Gothic castle, and also of artists such as Veronese, who in 1551 painted Count Giuseppe de Porto and his wife.
Colombo (op. cit.,) also suggests that the cabinets were actually executed in Vicenza, however they are more likely to have originated in Naples based upon the stylistic links with similar Neapolitan cabinets of the period. It is also interesting to note that Vicenza was involved in several wars with Naples and was briefly under Naples' rule, so it would be natural to assume that Neapolitan works of art would be commissioned by Vicenzan nobles.
Although a number of these types of cabinets exist in Spain, where they are thought to be Spanish, many are almost certainly of Neapolitan origin. There were strong ties between Naples and Spain in the 17th century, as Naples was under Spanish rule at that time, and the extensive use of tortoiseshell was due to the availability of the material from Spanish colonial sources.
Related Neapolitan cabinets of the period also display similar architectural forms combined with tortoiseshell and ebony, and sometimes gilt mounts, such as a four foot-wide table cabinet with undulating facade and checkerboard pattern interior floor, illustrated in M. Riccardi- Cubitt, The Art of the Cabinet, London, 1992, p. 60, pl. 26-27. More typical are the use of inset painted panels of biblical and mythical scenes after Luca Giordano (Naples 1634-1705), and a separate, heavily carved giltwood base. Examples of these types of cabinets include those sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 18 November 2009, lot 322 and Sotheby's London, 16 Dec 1998, lot 127 and one in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, illustrated in E. Colle Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p. 66, pl. 14.
THE REPUTED PROVENANCE
One of this pair of cabinets is illustrated in S. Colombo, L'Arte del Legno in Italia, 1981, where the author suggests they were reputedly supplied to the Counts of Porto di Vicenza. The Porto family was one of the most distinguished in Vicenza, and in the 16th Century members of the family such as Count Paolo Porto were among the most significant patrons of the celebrated architect Andrea Palladio, commissioning from him the Villa Porto in Vivaro di Dueville and the Palazzo Porto-Colleoni which was transformed by Palladio from a Gothic castle, and also of artists such as Veronese, who in 1551 painted Count Giuseppe de Porto and his wife.
Colombo (op. cit.,) also suggests that the cabinets were actually executed in Vicenza, however they are more likely to have originated in Naples based upon the stylistic links with similar Neapolitan cabinets of the period. It is also interesting to note that Vicenza was involved in several wars with Naples and was briefly under Naples' rule, so it would be natural to assume that Neapolitan works of art would be commissioned by Vicenzan nobles.