A SUITE OF ITALIAN NEOCLASSIC GREY-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT SEAT FURNITURE

CIRCA 1785

Details

A SUITE OF ITALIAN NEOCLASSIC GREY-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT SEAT FURNITURE
Circa 1785
Comprising a settee and two armchairs, each with a leaf-tip-carved crestrail above a padded back covered in light green patterned silk, the settee flanked by Egyptian caryatid figures, the downswept arms resting on recumbent lions, over a foliate scroll-carved seatrail and square tapering legs with paw feet, redecorated
69in. (175cm.) long, the settee (3)

Lot Essay

This rare suite of seat furniture boldly displays the use of striking Egyptian motifs within an elegant neoclassical scheme typical of the 1780's. The lions forming the arm supports are based on the celebrated Capitoline lions which had been discovered in 1435 and were later incorporated into the stairway leading to the Capitol by Giacomo della Porta. The stylized female uprights of the settee derive from figures of Egyptian deities, most particularly of Isis. A related Roman version of Isis from the reign of Hadrian, now in the Louvre, is illustrated in J-M. Humbert et al., Egyptomania, Paris, 1994, p. 61, cat. 11. For more on the Egyptian taste in Italy, see footnotes to lots 295 and 306. A virtually identical suite of seat furniture, possibly originally from the same set, was sold Christie's Bologna, 4 June 1991, lot 442.