Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
M. da Camara Fialho, "A Anunciacao de Agostinho Masucci e as Orbas Com Ela Relacionadas" in Boletim do Museum Nacional de Arte Antiga, II, 2, 1951, pp. 22-32
C. Bulgari, Argentieri, gemmari e orafi d'Italia, Rome, 1958, I, pp. 21-23, 73
European Paintings from The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, New York, 1971, pp. 462-3
A. González-Palacios, Il tempio del Gusto, Rome, 1984, I, pp. 160, 198-200
M. Rodrigues, The Chapel of Saint John the Baptist, Lisbon, 1988
J. Winter, "Luigi Valadier and Monreale," in Antologia di Belle arti, nos. 39-42, 1991-1992, pp. 89-96
Antonio Arrighi has rightly been called "one of the most important Italian silversmiths of the eighteenth century" (A. González-Palacios, op.cit., p. 160), and the present relief is an outstanding example of his consummate skill and superlative technique. Arrighi's greatness is evident both in the subtle, carefully controlled planes of the relief--achieved entirely by repoussé--and in the beauty and fidelity of the exquisitely fine chasing. Perhaps nowhere is his masterly touch in chasing more evident than in his capacity to represent a wide variety of textures, all precisely differentiated in the punching and finishing of the silver. For example, Arrighi has carefully distinguished the lighter cloth of the Virgin's mantel from the heavier weight of the textile draped over her prie-dieu, and the curtain behind the Virgin appears to have yet another heft and finish. These are effects that Arrighi created solely in the surface-chasing of the silver, and it is by such means that Arrighi was able to make an image that is at once complex and clear, beautiful and precise.
The approximate date of the present relief can be determined by the presence of a townmark which was only used in Rome between 1734 and 1744 (Bulgari, op. cit., p. 21-23). Moreover, Arrighi often based his works on designs supplied by painters and sculptors, and the present sculpture appears to depend from a painting of the Annunciation which Agostino Masucci made in Rome in 1742. There are two major points of comparison. First, the relief, like the painting, shows Gabriel entering from the right--this is extremely rare in the history of art. Second, the placement and pose of the Virgin in the two works are nearly identical. Masucci's Annunciation was very popular in Rome and was copied repeatedly during the 1740s. What is more, Masucci and Arrighi were among the chief collaborators on the most prestigious commission in Rome at that time, the chapel of St. John, made for the church of St. Rocco in Lisbon. Indeed, Masucci designed the Annunciation initially as part of that project; and Arrighi contributed several major works for the chapel's embellishment, including an altar frontal relief in silver and lapis-lazzuli.
The frame of the present relief appears not to have been designed by Arrighi at the time of the relief's creation. Rather, it is more likely that the frame was designed by Luigi Valadier (1726-1785) during the third-quarter of the eighteenth century. The present frame is nearly identical in design and size with the frame of Valadier's silver relief of the Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Art Institute of Chicago, and both frames seem to go back to drawings by Valadier from circa 1770-75 (see Winter, op. cit., p. 95).
M. da Camara Fialho, "A Anunciacao de Agostinho Masucci e as Orbas Com Ela Relacionadas" in Boletim do Museum Nacional de Arte Antiga, II, 2, 1951, pp. 22-32
C. Bulgari, Argentieri, gemmari e orafi d'Italia, Rome, 1958, I, pp. 21-23, 73
European Paintings from The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, New York, 1971, pp. 462-3
A. González-Palacios, Il tempio del Gusto, Rome, 1984, I, pp. 160, 198-200
M. Rodrigues, The Chapel of Saint John the Baptist, Lisbon, 1988
J. Winter, "Luigi Valadier and Monreale," in Antologia di Belle arti, nos. 39-42, 1991-1992, pp. 89-96
Antonio Arrighi has rightly been called "one of the most important Italian silversmiths of the eighteenth century" (A. González-Palacios, op.cit., p. 160), and the present relief is an outstanding example of his consummate skill and superlative technique. Arrighi's greatness is evident both in the subtle, carefully controlled planes of the relief--achieved entirely by repoussé--and in the beauty and fidelity of the exquisitely fine chasing. Perhaps nowhere is his masterly touch in chasing more evident than in his capacity to represent a wide variety of textures, all precisely differentiated in the punching and finishing of the silver. For example, Arrighi has carefully distinguished the lighter cloth of the Virgin's mantel from the heavier weight of the textile draped over her prie-dieu, and the curtain behind the Virgin appears to have yet another heft and finish. These are effects that Arrighi created solely in the surface-chasing of the silver, and it is by such means that Arrighi was able to make an image that is at once complex and clear, beautiful and precise.
The approximate date of the present relief can be determined by the presence of a townmark which was only used in Rome between 1734 and 1744 (Bulgari, op. cit., p. 21-23). Moreover, Arrighi often based his works on designs supplied by painters and sculptors, and the present sculpture appears to depend from a painting of the Annunciation which Agostino Masucci made in Rome in 1742. There are two major points of comparison. First, the relief, like the painting, shows Gabriel entering from the right--this is extremely rare in the history of art. Second, the placement and pose of the Virgin in the two works are nearly identical. Masucci's Annunciation was very popular in Rome and was copied repeatedly during the 1740s. What is more, Masucci and Arrighi were among the chief collaborators on the most prestigious commission in Rome at that time, the chapel of St. John, made for the church of St. Rocco in Lisbon. Indeed, Masucci designed the Annunciation initially as part of that project; and Arrighi contributed several major works for the chapel's embellishment, including an altar frontal relief in silver and lapis-lazzuli.
The frame of the present relief appears not to have been designed by Arrighi at the time of the relief's creation. Rather, it is more likely that the frame was designed by Luigi Valadier (1726-1785) during the third-quarter of the eighteenth century. The present frame is nearly identical in design and size with the frame of Valadier's silver relief of the Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Art Institute of Chicago, and both frames seem to go back to drawings by Valadier from circa 1770-75 (see Winter, op. cit., p. 95).