A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN ROSEWOOD, TULIPWOOD, BOIS SATINÉ AND MARQUETRY COMMODES, LOMBARDY LATE 18TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF GIUSEPPE MAGGIOLINI

Etude Tajan, Paris, 25 June 1996, lot 205.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Intarsiato di Giuseppe Maggiolini, Milan, 1957, pl. LXV.

S. Colombo, L'arte del mobile in Italia, Milan, 1981, fig. 576. 

This pair of commodes is an important example of the Lombardian neoclassical style that was so influential in Italy in the second half of the 18^th century. The fruitful development of Lombardia’s neoclassical style began with the establishment of the court in Milan: in fact, starting from 1771, Ferdinand of Habsburg commissioned the building of his Palace and of the Villa di Monza to the Italian Giuseppe Piermarini who entrusted the task of designing the stucco decoration and part of the furnishings to the Milan-based designer Giocondo Albertolli.

The commodes are noteworthy for their proportions and quality of the marquetry decorations. The architectural structure of the overall design reinforced with architectural scenes in marquetry are balanced by the telamons and foliate decorations. Furthermore, the decorations on the three drawers sans traverse are a testimony of the skills and expertise of the master who manufactured these commodes, possibly a pupil in the workshop of Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814), the influential Milanese cabinetmaker.

The design of these commodes relates to an example dated from 1790 executed by the Maggiolini's workshop now in the collections of the Marquess Casati-Visconti di San Vito (illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Intarsiato di Giuseppe Maggiolini, Milan, 1957, pl. LXV). The main difference lies in the depiction on the central panel whereby the telamons, carrying a basket of flowers and leaves, flank on each sides a central medallion enclosing an angel. Another related example attributed to the Maggiolini’s workshop and depicting an almost identical design as the Casati-Visconti commode was offered Sotheby’s Paris, 19 April 2016, lot 219.

The present pieces may be distinguished from these two aforementioned examples by the three medallions in octagons enclosing architectural scenes with classical buildings, which could possibly depict the pyramid of Sestius and its Roman surroundings. A commode in the style of Maggiolini sold Sotheby’s London, 20 July 1972, lot 111 interestingly depicts an almost identical landscape scene with a church.