GENOA, SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

These stylised dolphins can be compared to a similarly carved torchère by the Genoese sculptor Filippo Parodi currently in villa Doria, palazzo dei Giganti, Genoa (H.C. Fioratti, Il Mobile Italiano, dall'antichità allo stile Impero, p. 117, fig. 210). They also relate to a drawing of a torchère by Andrea Brustolon, who was a student of Parodi (A.M. Spazzi et al., Andrea Brustolon 1662-1732, 'Il Michelangelo del legno', Milan, 2009, p. 226, fig. 86). Although not of the same form and serving a different purpose, it is interesting to note the similarities between the present pair of carvings and the dolphins wrapped around a centre table in the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa, which have nearly identical upturned open mouths and the same feather-like carved scales over the eyes (A. González-Palacios, Il Mobile in Liguria, Genoa, 1996, p. 96, fig. 111).
Further related carvings include a pair of early 18th-century reggitorcieri with young tritons perched on dolphins, their whereabouts unknown. The narrow cliff-like rockwork bases and the snake-like movement and pose of the dolphins are extremely similar to the present examples (ibid., p. 93, fig. 108).