An Italian scagliola panel by Pietro della Valle of Livorno, Tuscany, circa 1850

Christie’s, London, Bartolozzi Florence: Four generations of Antiquari since 1887, 14 November 2013, lot 252.

This table top belongs to a small group of scagliola panels produced in the Tuscan workshop of Pietro and Giuseppe Della Valle brothers, both active in the mid-19th century. The table’s iconography captures the neoclassical spirit, leisurely reflecting on Italy’s ancient ruins and monuments, especially those visited by the Grand Tour travellers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Possibly intended as a pair to the present, a related scagliola top signed 'P. della Valle' depicting to the centre a view of the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa with similar borders as the present is recorded formerly in the Bianchi collection (Koller, Zurich, 31 March 2012, lot 1309, illustrated in see Anna Maria Massinelli, Scagliola, Rome, 1997, p. 78).

The della Valle brothers

The firm of the della Valle brothers specialised in scagliola work. Whilst founded in Rome at the end of the end of the 18th century, the workshop transferred to Livorno circa 1805 to avoid the disturbances caused by the invasion of Italy by Napoleon. It was Filippo della Valle who took over its direction at that time and his sons Pietro and Giuseppe who built up its reputation. By the time they assumed responsibility in 1838, the firm was producing work of a very high standard and was particularly well-known for their ability to create topographical views in scagliola (see Anna Maria Massinelli, Scagliola, Rome, 1997, pp. 80-82).

In 1851, the brothers exhibited at the Great Exhibition, where they were part of the section dedicated to Tuscany. The introduction to that section, draws attention to the quality of their work 'the artistic taste of the Tuscans is likewise perceptible in their wood-carvings, in their hard-stone mosaic, and in their scagliola and marqueterie works'. 

Prior to their success at the Great Exhibition, the firm was also highly praised for a panel showing a shipwreck off the coast of Spezia, presented at the Academia delle Belle Arti, in Florence in 1844. Perhaps their most celebrated work is a table by Pietro and Giuseppe Della Valle, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy. It was commissioned by Victor Poirel, the French engineer responsible for work on the port of Livorno, and is decorated with views of the new port, illustrated by Simon Chiarugi, Botteghe di Mobilieri in Toscana, Firenze, 1994,Vol. II, p. 226, fig. 292.