Designs for wall sconces

The drawing, signed by Luigi Valadier, the most distinguished Italian goldsmith of the 18th Century, presents designs for two exuberantly decorated wall sconces. Made around 1765-1767, when Valadier was preparing adornments in bronze and gilt copper for the gabinetto nobile of Palazzo Chigi in Rome, the decorative motifs are inspired by Apollo (the laurel, the quiver, and the lyre) and by grottesche, as indicated by the captions in the artist’s hand. The drawing is an important example of how Valadier was often inspired by the work of his contemporary, the Venetian architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Piranesi’s prints in the Diverse maniere d’adornare i camini were bursting with ideas and motifs that intrigued Valadier. Although Piranesi’s volume was published in 1769, loose prints and drawings connected to the project were already circulating beforehand. Valadier could have had as source of inspiration Piranesi’s inventions found in a drawing at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York (inv. 1966.11:106; see C. Denison, M.N. Rosenfeld, and S. Wiles, Exploring Rome. Piranesi and His Contemporaries, exhib. cat., New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, and Montreal, Centre Canadien d'Architecture, 1993, no. 42, ill.).