An Italian carved limewood plaque signed L. Frullini, Florentine late 19th century

in the Renaissance manner, the panel centred by a candelabrum flanked by two addorsed griffins and surrounded by birds, snakes, lizards and arabesques, on a plinth carved FIORENZA with paw feet, signed to the top right of the candelabrum,  L. Frullini



 

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Fleming, The Burlington Magazine, September 1979

J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions, London, 2006, pp. 223, 226, 230, 252

Luigi Frullini (1839-97) was a virtuoso wood-carver and furniture maker from Florence who worked in the neo-Renaissance and neo-Mannerist styles.  He showed his work at the major international exhibitions at London in 1862, Paris in 1867 and 1878, Vienna in 1873, and Philadelphia in 1876 (see Meyer, op. cit., for illustrations from the 1876 and 1878 exhibitions).  Success in the United States led to a commission to furnish the palatial Château-sur-Mer, Rhode Island.  Examples of his work can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna.