LATE 18TH CENTURY, PROBABLY TURIN

This finely detailed elegant pair of consoles is characteristic for the circle of carvers and cabinet-makers in Turin patronized by the royal family. The most celebrated of these was Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820), who worked for the Court from 1773, however, other skilled craftsmen and intagliatori such as Francesco Tanadei, Giuseppe Marchino, Francesco Novaro and Francesco Bolgiè, working around Bonzanigo, were also commissioned to provide work for Stupinigi, Moncalieri, Venaria, Rivoli and most of all for the Palazzo Reale in the centre of Turin.

The design for these consoles relate to a celebrated series of tables with frames carved by Antonio Landucci, supplied to Principe Don Marcantonio Borghese in the 1770's as part of his lavish refurbishment of the Palazzo Borghese under the supervisison of the architect Antonio Asprucci.