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Lot Essay
This commode represents a fusion between French and North Italian traditions. In its overall serpentine outline and characteristic bombé form, sinuous apron and panelled angles and sides, it belongs to the Provincial tradition of furniture executed in Bordeaux and Southern France. Its whimsical and dictintive lacca povera decoration, however, points to Northern Italy.
This conundrum is explained by a scientific paint analysis. This reveals the present lacca povera decoration on a blue ground is a 20th century embellishment, as the blue oil paint on which the figures have been stuck is based on zinc white, as opposed to the 18th/19th Century lead white. Under this decoration, as well as on the angles, are traces of a buff-coloured gesso tinted with ochre and black - the exact same as appears under the water gilding on the angles.
The technique of cutting up prints to imitate the visual effects of lacquer was known variously as lacca povera, arte povera, or lacca contrafatta. The printed scenes of trailing floral garlands and Watteauesque pastorales are taken from printed pattern books widely disseminated in Europe in the later 18th century. Venice, with its extensive trading contacts with the East, was one of the first cities in Europe to produce imitations of oriental lacquer and this no doubt inspired the remarkable group of Venetian lacca povera-decorated furniture executed there in the second half of the 18th century.
This conundrum is explained by a scientific paint analysis. This reveals the present lacca povera decoration on a blue ground is a 20th century embellishment, as the blue oil paint on which the figures have been stuck is based on zinc white, as opposed to the 18th/19th Century lead white. Under this decoration, as well as on the angles, are traces of a buff-coloured gesso tinted with ochre and black - the exact same as appears under the water gilding on the angles.
The technique of cutting up prints to imitate the visual effects of lacquer was known variously as lacca povera, arte povera, or lacca contrafatta. The printed scenes of trailing floral garlands and Watteauesque pastorales are taken from printed pattern books widely disseminated in Europe in the later 18th century. Venice, with its extensive trading contacts with the East, was one of the first cities in Europe to produce imitations of oriental lacquer and this no doubt inspired the remarkable group of Venetian lacca povera-decorated furniture executed there in the second half of the 18th century.