A pair of Italian painted and carved giltwood armchairs, attributed to Nicola Carletti, Rome, third quarter of the 18th century

Mario Tazzoli, London;

Sotheby’s, London, 8th December 2009, lot 14.

The Rococo was a highly organic style that, in many senses, sought to absorb the shapes, movements and vitality of nature into the very heart of its decoration, and the present design takes this principle in a creative, original direction. By picking out the well-carved vines and leaves in colourful paintwork, the lines between the artificial and the natural are playfully blurred: the polychrome vine is like a wisteria or ivy that is steadily grows around the man-made structure, usually a house but in this case a giltwood chair. These two elements of the design are more distinct than they would have been if the chair had been more conventionally gilt over the entire surface, yet the ‘artificial’ giltwood chair speaks the Rococo idiom with its carved shells and foliage, and so feels like an object that already has an organic spirit. This is just the type of witty decorative conceit that delighted the eighteenth-century aristocracy, whose love of trompe l’oeil marquetry tabletops, visual puns and sly decorative references is well-documented.

Unusually, the craftsmen behind this remarkable pair of chairs can be deduced with relative confidence on account of the close similarities between these chairs and a well-documented suite that was commissioned for the Chigi family. Of this suite, which has since been dispersed, a large number of side chairs and sofas are in the ‘saletta verde’ of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.¹ However, the archival research conducted by Alvar Gonzáles-Palacios reveals that the suite was sizeable, and that their maker Nicola Carletti created eighteen chairs and subsequently another six, and also three sofas, two canapés and four other sofas.² Bills from Carletti unambiguously describe the distinctive decorative style of the Chigi suite, and he invoiced the Chigi on the 18^th February 1768 for:

aver ammannito tre sofà […] e più per averli intaliati con fattura assai, con folie e pelli e cordoni e con le sue scappatine di fiori in diversi luoghi ". (ibid., p.153)

[“having made three sofas […] and then for having carved them with great skill, with leaves, hides and strings, and with flowers breaking out in various places ”]

In his detailed chapter on this suite, Gonzáles-Palacios reproduces numerous bills in more detail that describe this type of ornament, all dating from 1768 and 1769, including one for chairs decorated “di cartelle e folie e pelli e in molti lochi fattoci le sue scappatine di fronde frappate e tutte centinate” [with pouches and leaves and hides, and with broken-up leafy branches peeking forth in multiple places, all curved] (ibid., p.154). Appropriately, given the prominence of the painted surface and their contribution to the distinctive design, we also have documentation that records the name of the painter of this suite: Pietro Rotati mentioned in the Chigi accounts for 1769 for “haver dipinti a quattro sofà molti festoni e cascate reali che intrecciano tanto intorno al seditore come ne' piedi e braccioli […] dipinte ad uso di porcellana di vaghi e vari colori” [having painted four sofas with many festoons and regal cascades that are woven around the seat, feet and arms […] painted like porcelain with a plentiful variety of colours”] (ibid., p.156). These 1769 bills also name the gilders of the suite as Angelo and Alessandro Clementi.

The Chigi suite provides our documented link between the objects and the craftsmen, but there are sufficient examples of other pieces in this style to suggest that he also created them for other commissions – Gonzáles-Palacios clearly states his opinion that we should certainly not rule out the possibility that he had other princely clients.³ Key comparable pieces in this style include:

• A side chair and sofa illustrated in Lizzani figs.76 and 77,⁴ which he also claims to be made for the Chigi (though G-P has since expressed some scepticism on this)
• An armchair also pictured in Lizzani, op. cit., fig. 181 (note that this is the only other armchair of this type, since the other chairs all lack armrests)
• A few instances of banquettes en suite appearing at auction, including at Sotheby’s Paris, 15 September 2017, lot 11 and Sotheby's London, A Tale of Two Cities, 9 June 2015, lot 132
• A suite of six chairs at the Quirinal Palace (though these do not feature painted treatment)⁵
• Significant examples of this style beyond seat furniture include a pair of console tables attributed to Carletti in the same sale as above at Sotheby’s Paris in 2017 (lot 10) and a table in the same sale at Sotheby’s London in 2015 (lot 133).

¹ This suite is pictured in numerous publications, including all of Alvar Gonzáles-Palacios’ studies of Roman furniture (in the most recent 2024 publication, see p.167, fig. 139). They are visible with green upholstery on the website of the Doria Pamphilj foundation, available at: <https://www.doriapamphilj.it/en/rome/the-place/apartments/> [accessed 5 August 2025].

² Gonzáles-Palacios, op. cit., 2025, pp.157-158.

³ A. Gonzáles-Palacios, Fasto Romano : dipinti, sculture, arredi dai Palazzi di Roma, Rome, 1991, p.178.

⁴ G. Lizzani, Il mobile romano, Milan, 1970, p.39.

⁵ A. Gonzáles-Palacios, Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale: I mobili italiani, Milan, 1996, cat. 109, pp.290-291.