Lot Essay
These candelabra are en suite with those supplied as part of a centrotavola by Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836) to the court of the Viceroy Eugene Beauharnais in Milan in 1804. They are now in the Villa Carlotta, Cadenabbia, and are illustrated in A. González-Palacios, II Tempio del Gusto, Milan, 1984, vol. II, p. 134, figs. 293-5). This centrotavola, or parterre, as it is referred to in contemporary documents, may well have been commissioned to commemorate the coronation of Napoleon in Milan, a theory that is corroborated by its extraordinary scale, comprising 227 separate elements in all and stretching 12 metres in length
A master mosaicist and stone engraver, Raffaelli's talents were noted by Moroni in his diary as early as 1795: nel 1795 in Roma ficeva mostra del suo studio di mosaici tutti eseguiti con smalti filati, cio che diede all'artista un grado tale di superiorità che contribui a farlo chiamare a Milano per fondani una scuola
However, it was not until March 1804 that Raffaelli arrived in Milan under the patronage of the duca Melzi, to take up the position as principal of the School of Mosaic. He remained there until the Restaurazione in December
It was during this Milan period that Raffaelli executed the Triumph Arch clock presented to Napoleon I by Pope Pio VII. This is almost certainly that now in The Hermitage, rather than the similar example in the Arthur Gilbert Collection, illustrated ibid., p. 135, figs. 297 & 296 respectively). He continued to execute numerous commissions for The Hermitage until 1826, as well as enjoying the patronage of Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski, King of Poland
A table at Syon House bears the label
Jacques Raffaelli: Etude de mosaiques et de travaux en tout gense de marbres à Rome, Rue de Babino No. 92
This reveals that the Raffaelli and Valadier workshops were neighbours, and he is also known to have worked with the specialist Mosaicist Pompeo Savini
The wine-krater urn's palm-wrapped 'candelabrum' shaft, like the dolphin-buttressed corners of their stepped plinth, recall the Athenian temple, know as Lysicrates' choragic lanthorn. This was illustrated in J. Stuart and N. Revett's, Antiquities of Athens, 1762, together with engravings of the caryatid Erechtheum temple
The remarkable engraved copper bases of all the candelabra neuse cartographers and engravers printing blocks
A master mosaicist and stone engraver, Raffaelli's talents were noted by Moroni in his diary as early as 1795: nel 1795 in Roma ficeva mostra del suo studio di mosaici tutti eseguiti con smalti filati, cio che diede all'artista un grado tale di superiorità che contribui a farlo chiamare a Milano per fondani una scuola
However, it was not until March 1804 that Raffaelli arrived in Milan under the patronage of the duca Melzi, to take up the position as principal of the School of Mosaic. He remained there until the Restaurazione in December
It was during this Milan period that Raffaelli executed the Triumph Arch clock presented to Napoleon I by Pope Pio VII. This is almost certainly that now in The Hermitage, rather than the similar example in the Arthur Gilbert Collection, illustrated ibid., p. 135, figs. 297 & 296 respectively). He continued to execute numerous commissions for The Hermitage until 1826, as well as enjoying the patronage of Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski, King of Poland
A table at Syon House bears the label
Jacques Raffaelli: Etude de mosaiques et de travaux en tout gense de marbres à Rome, Rue de Babino No. 92
This reveals that the Raffaelli and Valadier workshops were neighbours, and he is also known to have worked with the specialist Mosaicist Pompeo Savini
The wine-krater urn's palm-wrapped 'candelabrum' shaft, like the dolphin-buttressed corners of their stepped plinth, recall the Athenian temple, know as Lysicrates' choragic lanthorn. This was illustrated in J. Stuart and N. Revett's, Antiquities of Athens, 1762, together with engravings of the caryatid Erechtheum temple
The remarkable engraved copper bases of all the candelabra neuse cartographers and engravers printing blocks