ROME, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY AND LATER, ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED AS ENCOIGNURES

With their finely painted scenes depicting radiant Arcadian Italian campania, this rare pair of painted commodes were reputedly in the collection of the prominent Barberini family of Rome, whose influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Conceived during the third quarter of the 18th century in a late Rococo shape, the present commodes were originally made as two corner cabinets and probably adapted into their present form in the late 19th century: a transformation which testifies to the importance and rarity of these unique and beautifully painted furniture pieces.
 
While no similar examples are known, the restrained carved ornamentation and Roman Rococo style of our present examples relate them to a pair of commodes illustrated in Gonzalez-Palacios, Fasto Romano, p. 171, n. 109, currently in the Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi, originally also in the collection of the Barberini family. Further related examples are illustrated in Lizzani (Il mobile romano, p. 115, n. 195) and Colle (Il mobile rococo’ in Italia, p. 136, n. 28).
 
While the present commodes are unsigned and the artist responsible for the painted decoration is unknown, the sunlit rural scenes relate to the work of the painter Vittorio Amadeo Cignaroli (1730–1800), and are reminiscent of the fresco landscapes painted by Roman Artist Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674-1755) in one of the apartments in Castel Gandolfo. The style also resonates with the painted decoration on the doors of princess Cornelia Costanza’s apartments in Palazzo Barberini, executed around 1770 by Niccolo’ Ricciolini and Domenico Corvi.