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The celebrated Livorno workshop of Pietro and Giuseppe Della Valle was active during the first half of the 19th century. Pietro Della Valle was recorded by Volpi in his guide to the city and surroundings of Livorno in 1846 (Guida del forestiero per la citta'e contorni di Livorno), and was noted as being one of the most significant Livornian artists for his painterly abilities and individualistic style of scagliola craftsmanship. Piombanti recorded in his 1873 Guida storica ed artistica della cita e dei contorni di Livorno that Pietro was responsible for the progression and development of the craft. Coming from a family of scagliolisti, Pietro had in fact started as a painter and one of his oil paintings depicting the Livorno docks was exhibited in 1838 in Florence. However, he turned to decorating in scagliola and in using traditional methods and skills learned from his formal artistic training, developed a unique talent rarely equaled by other artists in the medium. Contemporary recordes describe their technical methods and particularly Pietro's unusually shiny patina. The last record of the Della Valle brothers dates to 1865 when the workshop sent a table to the exhibition in Florence. By 1873, based on a footnote in the Piombanti guide of that year, it seems that the Della Valle workshop was no longer active.
The lots here offered (49-52) are characterised by their sophisticated and ornate decoration and choice of subjects popular at the beginning of the 19th century and a number of similar examples are known. lots 49, 50 and 51 belong to a larger series of tabletops dedicated to the most celebrated Italian cities: the Della Valle brothers specialized in Italian views and they were able to create delicate atmospheres with such richness of detail using pastel colours and refined chiaroscuro tones due to the virtuoso technique they developed in the scagliola genre.
Lot 49, depicting Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, is closely relate to another scagliola top published in A.M. Massinelli, Scagliola, l'Arte della Pietra di Luna, Rome 1997, p.78, which was also almost certainly originally designed as a pair to lot 51.
Lot 50, depicting a view of the village of Bellagio on the shore of Lake Como, surrounded by a blue griffin and foliate border, is comparable to another top (ibid., p. 88%); furthermore, the blue entrelac border is identical to another circular scagliola table top (ibid. p. 68, fig. 46).
A further example with views of Venice and Istanbul was sold at Semenzato, Venice, February 1989, lot 262 and an example conserved at the Musée Des beaux-arts in Nancy is dedicated to different places in Tuscany (the harbour in Livorno, views of the Livornese coast, Piazza di Miracoli in Pisa and Piazza Della Signoria in Florence; L. Zangheri, "L'ampliamento del porto di Livorno 1852-1859 e il 'tavolo poirel' al Musée Des Beaux-Arts di Nancy", Antichita Viva, vol. xxx, 1991, pp. 21-27).
It is worth noting that both lots 50 and 51 retain their original bases designed in the English regency style. This English taste in furniture developed in Tuscany and particularly in Livorno between the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th century. Livorno is the main international harbour in Tuscany and for centuries it was the most liberal and international city in the "granducato", due to the large number of foreigners and close connection with the rest of Europe, especially with England. Local artists and artisans developed a particular style suited to a cosmopolitan clientele, especially geared towards visitors on the Grand Tour, whose first stop was Livorno. although an exact maker for this table base has not been determined, a regency style table 'in walnut with flaps at each end' was exhibited by Domenico Ghelli of Pisa in the regional exhibition of 1841, and another Della Valle tabletop depicting aurora and on a mahogany base also in the English regency style is illustrated in S. Chiarugi, Botteghe di Mobilieri in Toscana, vol. 1, Florence, 1994, pl. 191, p. 226-7.
Scagliola
Scagliola is sometimes referred to by scholars as the cheapest alternative to pietra dura, however the finest examples of scagliola works of the 18th century exceed pietra dura, both in artistic composition and in the variety of colours achieved. Scagliola, a composite material akin to plaster, is made from selenite the purist form of gypsum. This is calcified, reduced to a fine powder mixed into a paste and rolled out into a slab. it is then incised with channels for the decoration, which are filled with colours and eventually polished, (J. Cook, Masters of the Art of Scagliola, 'Country Life', 29 September 1994).
AN ITALIAN SCAGLIOLA TABLE TOP
ATTRIBUTED TO THE DELLA VALLE BROTHERS, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
Details
AN ITALIAN SCAGLIOLA TABLE TOP
ATTRIBUTED TO THE DELLA VALLE BROTHERS, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The central rectangular reserve depicting the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa with people in the foreground, within a foliate border with swans and fruiting urns
38½ x 24 in. (98 x 61 cm.)
ATTRIBUTED TO THE DELLA VALLE BROTHERS, SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The central rectangular reserve depicting the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa with people in the foreground, within a foliate border with swans and fruiting urns
38½ x 24 in. (98 x 61 cm.)
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Amelia Walker