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Lot Essay
This impressive Italian mirror, with its boldly carved C-scrolls and vegetal-floral pierced frame, reflects the exuberance of Roman production in the first half of the 18th century. The combination of its architectural framework overlaid with fully carved and gilt tracery offers a study in contrasts from the striking gilt on black which is further enhanced by the delicately carved ornamentation applied to the severe, rectilinear substructure.
This Roman Baroque frame belongs to a group of similar pieces studied by Alvar González-Palacios in which he references a closely related design in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654-1728). Tessin's designs were likely made after his two visits to Rome around 1673 and 1687-89. The drawing, which could be dated to 1689 or earlier, you see what appears to be the top of either a frame or cabinet, centered by a female head with leaves and feathers amongst flower pendants.
Related mirrors include one sold from The Earls of Rosebery, Mentmore, Sotheby’s, London, May 18-20, 1977, vol. I, lot 858, another formerly in the Sacchetti collection, Rome illustrated in H. Hayward, World Furniture; An Illustrated History, London, 1965, p. 71, fig. 226. A pair of Roman consoles which share the same rich ornament were sold in the Collection of Suzanne Saperstein: 'Fleur-de-Lys,' Beverly Hills, California, Sotheby’s, New York, 19 April 2012, lot 256, and another mirror from the Palazzo Rondinini shows the lively and densely carved cresting against a severe rectilinear frame, González-Palacios presents this study while looking to the work of Bernini (Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Regista del Barocco, catalogue of the exhibition, Rome, 1999, pp. 389-390).
This Roman Baroque frame belongs to a group of similar pieces studied by Alvar González-Palacios in which he references a closely related design in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654-1728). Tessin's designs were likely made after his two visits to Rome around 1673 and 1687-89. The drawing, which could be dated to 1689 or earlier, you see what appears to be the top of either a frame or cabinet, centered by a female head with leaves and feathers amongst flower pendants.
Related mirrors include one sold from The Earls of Rosebery, Mentmore, Sotheby’s, London, May 18-20, 1977, vol. I, lot 858, another formerly in the Sacchetti collection, Rome illustrated in H. Hayward, World Furniture; An Illustrated History, London, 1965, p. 71, fig. 226. A pair of Roman consoles which share the same rich ornament were sold in the Collection of Suzanne Saperstein: 'Fleur-de-Lys,' Beverly Hills, California, Sotheby’s, New York, 19 April 2012, lot 256, and another mirror from the Palazzo Rondinini shows the lively and densely carved cresting against a severe rectilinear frame, González-Palacios presents this study while looking to the work of Bernini (Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Regista del Barocco, catalogue of the exhibition, Rome, 1999, pp. 389-390).