This beautifully cast gilt copper holy water stoup forms a magnificent testament to the genius of the Italian silversmith Giovanni Giardini.

Surmounted by the coat of arms of the illustrious Pallavicini family, the present stoup is recorded in Stella Rudolph’s inventory of Niccolò Maria Pallavicini (op. cit.) as having been located in the sacristy of his private chapel. Described as ‘un acquasanta di rame gettata dorata denro, e di fuori con arma de fa signor Marchese’ – [a cast copper holy water stoop, gilded inside and outside, with a coat of arms of the late Marchese], it is clearly identifiable with the present piece. This is further underscored by the design’s appearance in an etching by Joseph Limpach reproduced in Rudolph (op. cit., pp. 120-121, fig. 84; FIG. 1). Giardini signed a contract with this engraver in 1712 for the plates of his Disegni Diversi, which were published in 1714. The commissions to Giardini from Pallavicini are dated to the final years of the art patron’s life, who died in 1714. While the etching clearly relates to the present stoup, unlike the finished cast, it does not include the Pallavicini coat of arms. It is likely, therefore, that the present piece was chosen from an existing pattern book Giardini used for private commissions, and upon production finished with the Pallavicini arms.
Conceived in the form of a foliate scallop shell, characteristic of many of Giardini’s designs, the stoup shows a pair of winged mermaids grasping the lower lip of the shell, the soft bend of their serpentine tails clasping the underside of the font. Two dolphins flank the upper section of the composition, their heads turned inwards to face the Pallavicini coat of arms, while their tails spread exquisitely behind. Surmounted by the coronet of the Marchese, the piece, with its brightly gilt surface, reflects the eminent position and demanding artistic patronage held by the Pallavicini family throughout Italy during the 18th century.
Born in Forli in 1646, Giovanni Giardini was a distinguished draughtsman, silversmith, bronze-caster and gem-engraver. Following his training in Rome, he qualified as a master silversmith in 1675 and rapidly achieved a position of prestige in the silversmiths' guild. He ran a productive workshop, in which he was joined in 1680 by his brother Alessandro Giardini (b. 1655). In 1698 he was appointed bronze-founder for the Papacy. Only a few of his works in silver have survived, most of them church furnishings that escaped the depredations of the Napoleonic army. These show a strong sense of form and a technical mastery that earned him important commissions from the papal court, including an imposing papal mace now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and a tabernacle held in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Giardini's reputation is, however, above all based on his pattern-book designs for sacred and secular objects, which were engraved on copper by Maximilian Joseph Limpach and published in Prague in 1714 as Disegni diversi. Reprinted in Rome in 1750 with the title Promptuarium artis argentariae, they are considered to constitute the finest 18th-century collection of patterns for silversmiths. Divided into different types, with varied and original decorative designs, the objects reflect the influence of late Baroque sculpture and architecture, especially the work of Bernini and Francesco Borromini, from which they derive their long curving lines and their repertory of naturalistic ornament. Although many of Giardini's patterns represent pure caprices that would be difficult to execute in precious metal, they were the most important source of inspiration for Roman artistic silver production throughout the 18th century.
RELATED LITERATURE
S. Fornari, Argenti romani, Rome, 1969; H. Honour, Orafi e argentieri, Milan, 1972; S. Rudolph, Niccolo Maria Pallavicini: l 'ascesa al Tempio della Virtù attraverso il Mecanatismo, Rome, 1995