LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

A virtually identical late eighteenth-century console from a private collection in Villar Perosa, Piedmont, is illustrated in Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, the celebrated exhibition in Turin, 1961 (see exhibition catalogue p. 73). Dating back to the late sixteenth century, the fashion for Chinoiserie developed as European travelers to the Orient brought back stories and engravings of exotic sights visited, and flourished principally through centres of trade, such as the port of Venice, where the earliest European lacquer wares are known to have been produced. The long lasting appeal for the exotic and in particular for 'cineserie' was particularly noticeable in the Venice, Lombardy and Piedmont regions of Italy. Designers and architects to the Courts created interiors reminiscent of exotic styles based on what was fashionable at the time, in both furniture, ceramics and paintings imported from the East. By the 18th century, local craftsmen, cabinet makers and laccatori inspired by this new market were producing exotic interior decoration wares, simulating oriental lacquer with great success. Well preserved chinoiserie rooms remain in palaces and villas in and around Turin to this day. The Duke of Aosta decorated his Castello di Rivoli near Turin in a chinoiserie scheme in 1795, while Ferdinand IV, King of the two Sicilies, commissioned the Palazzina Cinese for the Villa Favorita in 1798. The trend continued throughout the 19th century with the celebrated designer and ornemaniste Pelagio Palagi (1775-1860) who was commissioned to redesign and redecorate the interiors of some of the most famous Palazzi, such as the Gabinetto delle lache in the Palazzo Reale of Turin and Villa Traversi Tittoni in Desio, Lombardy.