IN THE MANNER OF GIUSEPPE MAGGIOLINI, MILAN, LATE 18TH CENTURY

These commodes reflect the widespread influence of the Neo-Classical style expounded by Giuseppe Maggiolini's workshops in Parabiago, Milan in the last quarter of the 18th Century. Although initially employed almost exclusively by the Court and aristocracy, under the good government of Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) the Milanese bourgeoisie enjoyed increasingly favourable economic conditions and this inevitably resulted in Maggiolin's prevailing 'Court Style' or Neo-classical idiom being made available to a wider public. Although Maggiolini himself expanded his workshops enormously to meet this demand, gradually numerous rival workshops also sprang up to meet this surge in patronage, and thus by the early 19th Century attributions to a specific workshop become almost impossible. With their characteristic use of composition in the pilasters and stylised arabesque marquetry, these commodes are characteristic of these Milanese workshops.