Lot 255
255
A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN BLACK-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT FIGURES OF AFRICANS
A WEST COAST MODERNIST (LOTS 250-277)
A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN BLACK-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT FIGURES OF AFRICANS

VENICE, CIRCA 1740

Details
A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN BLACK-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT FIGURES OF AFRICANS
VENICE, CIRCA 1740
Possibly depicting Spring and Autumn, depicting a male and female figure, one holding a cornucopia and each holding aloft a torchere base, standing on a rockwork base, gilding largely original, black painted decoration refreshed
57 in. (145 cm.) high (2)
Provenance
Dr. Alessandro Morandotti.
Acquired from Adolph Loewi, 1954.
Exhibited
Loan Exhibition of Italian Furniture, Los Angeles County Museum, February 1953, cat. 39.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, North Italian Furniture of the XVIIIe Century, 1953, no. 39, (illustrated).
Portland Art Museum, extended loan, 1999-2001.

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Lot Essay

Related African figures holding aloft cornucopiae are in a private Venetian collection and illustrated in C. Santini, Le Lacche de Veneziani, Modena, 2003, p. 237, pl. 222-223.

Dr. Alessandro Morandotti was the director of Loewi's antiques firm in Venice when Loewi, a German Jew, was forced to flee Europe. He re-established the firm in Rome under the name Antiquaria and hid the fact that it continued to be a Jewish-owned business. The business was returned to Loewi after the war, who then sold it to Morandotti in 1950.

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