拍品專文
Pietro Piffetti (1700-1777), probably the greatest cabinet-maker of Italy and certainly one of the best in Europe, is largely unrecorded until 1730. Although it is not established with whom he served his apprenticeship, his work bears such resemblance with the oeuvre of Pierre Daneau, a French cabinet-maker practising in Rome, that it has been suggested that Piffetti worked for some time in his workshop (see Piffetti's definitive work by G. Ferraris, A. Gonzalez-Palacios and R. Valeriani, Pietro Piffetti e gli ebanisti a Torino, Turin, 1992). Piffetti is known to have been in Rome, being mentioned in correspondences between the Marchese d'Ormea, Prime Minister of the King of Savoy, and Count Gros, Piedmontese Ambassador to the Papal Court. It is apparent from these letters that he executed works for the former, who consequently contributed to Piffetti being called to the Court in Turin in 1731 as cabinet-maker to the King of Savoy and Sardinia
At the Court, Pietro Piffetti continued to develop the tradition of engraved ivory marquetry established by Luigi Prinotto, who worked for the King in the 1710s and 1720s. Only with Piffetti's mastery, however, could the dissolution of harsh outlines and melting of shapes successfully evolve into visually pleasing, sinuously curved, functional pieces. This stand combines both the architectural aspects, the supporting elements being corners and edges, with the flowing lines created by covering the understructure with a simulated cloth
It is interesting to note that there is a second, almost identical, stand in the collection of La Meridiana in Turin, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, Turin, 1963, pl. 46b. In contrast to that stand, our lot bears the ducal coronet and the initials MSR, which are of a later date, and has lost the husk-trails which formerly decorated the canted angles. It is probable that our stand is the pair to the one in the La Meridiana collection
This lot is further related to a pair of stands made for the Court of the King of Savoy and Sardinia in 1738, which is illustrated in G. Ferraris, A. Gonzalez-Palacios and R. Valeriani, op.cit, pp. 44 and 45, cat. 14. This pair was made to support the sculptures of the Rape of Persephone and the Archangel Michael, and are recorded in contemporary literary correspondences. The present example, as well as its related stand, are both unrecorded. It can be assumed that they were made to support a crucifix or a vase, possibly forming part of a larger decorative scheme
At the Court, Pietro Piffetti continued to develop the tradition of engraved ivory marquetry established by Luigi Prinotto, who worked for the King in the 1710s and 1720s. Only with Piffetti's mastery, however, could the dissolution of harsh outlines and melting of shapes successfully evolve into visually pleasing, sinuously curved, functional pieces. This stand combines both the architectural aspects, the supporting elements being corners and edges, with the flowing lines created by covering the understructure with a simulated cloth
It is interesting to note that there is a second, almost identical, stand in the collection of La Meridiana in Turin, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, Turin, 1963, pl. 46b. In contrast to that stand, our lot bears the ducal coronet and the initials MSR, which are of a later date, and has lost the husk-trails which formerly decorated the canted angles. It is probable that our stand is the pair to the one in the La Meridiana collection
This lot is further related to a pair of stands made for the Court of the King of Savoy and Sardinia in 1738, which is illustrated in G. Ferraris, A. Gonzalez-Palacios and R. Valeriani, op.cit, pp. 44 and 45, cat. 14. This pair was made to support the sculptures of the Rape of Persephone and the Archangel Michael, and are recorded in contemporary literary correspondences. The present example, as well as its related stand, are both unrecorded. It can be assumed that they were made to support a crucifix or a vase, possibly forming part of a larger decorative scheme