An Italian painted trompe l’oeil and grisaille cassapanca, probably Emilian, first quarter 18th century

en suite with the previous lot, the back with a central framed medallion of Hercules below a grotesque mask and flanked by tritons, floral sprays, volutes and scrolls terminating in dragon's heads, above a hinged seat, the base painted with simulated architectural mouldings centred by an oval medallion with a winged eagle flanked by garlands of fruit and flowers, acanthus leaves and a pair of ringed lion's masks

Art and Illusion: Masterpieces of Trompe-l'oeil from Antiquity to the Present, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 16 October 2009-24 January 2010, Cat. III. 35, p.178.

Goffredo Lizzani, Il Mobile Romano, 1970, p. 93, illustrates in no. 152, the pendant.

This stunning cassapanca is in good conserved condition. The painted back has been strengthened with butterflies and three vertical batons. The shaped edge with repaired breaks. The back board of the lower section possibly replaced, and the front feet have been repaired. There are overall marks and scratches consistent with its age and use. The very fine painted decoration has been conserved but retains its vibrant colours. It is ready to be placed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Comparative Literature:
Goffredo Lizzani, Il Mobile Romano, Milan 1970, p. 93, fig. 152.
Anna Maria Massinelli, Il Mobile Toscano 1200-1800, Milan, 1993, p. 70, fig. 120. Giuseppe Cirillo and Giovanni Godi, Il Mobile a Parma fra Barocco e Romanticismo, Parma, 1983, p. 93, pl. 213a.
Enrico Colle, Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p.261.
Graziano Manni, Mobili Antichi in Emilia Romagna, Modena, 1993, p. 34, pl. 63.  

The tradition of illusionist painting in Italian interiors dates back to the early Renaissance and reached its apogee in the 16^th and 17^th centuries with the development of quadratura painting, a technique whereby two-dimensional walls and ceilings were painted with feigned architectural and sculptural elements evoking three-dimensional construction in rich materials, based on strict laws of perspective. 

In private residences and palazzi the technique was often used for entrance halls, galleries and principal salons, with furniture commissioned specifically for the space and painted with corresponding decoration. Frequently such pieces were lost or dispersed, and the survival of a set of original furniture for such an illusionist interior is exceptional.

The pair of the torchères (see the previous lot) functioned as wall pilasters and their plinths were most probably integrated into the skirting of the original room. Their iconography, along with that of the cassapanca, would have formed part of a unified decorative scheme for the entire interior. 

These three objects form part of what was originally an even larger set. The cassapanca is one of a pair, its counterpart decorated with Ceres in the central medallion, now in the collection of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, illustrated by Lizzani, op. cit., p. 93, no. 152, reproduced here in fig. 2.  The latter is presently located in the foyer of the Sala Accademica, the Accademia’s first concert hall built in 1894 and now the home of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. The Accademia di Santa Cecilia, founded in Rome by a papal bull in 1585, is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world and serves as a both a research centre and conservatory as well as supporting one of Europe’s leading orchestras. 

The offered cassapanca is painted with a central grisaille medallion of Hercules, but the surrounding trompe l’oeil decoration of flanking tritons, dragon’s heads, grotesque and lion’s masks and garlands of fruits and flowers is identical on both pieces. The iconography of Ceres and Hercules is not uncommon in Italian art and can be seen most notably in the ceiling panel by Veronese entitled ‘Ceres and Hercules bear Homage to Venice’ in the Galleria dell’ Accademia in Venice. It is clear from the simulated fall of light on the two cassapanche that they were placed originally on opposite walls and that the torchères in the present group flanked the Santa Cecilia bench.

The cassapanca is essentially the combination of two types of furniture, a panca (bench) and the cassone, a low chest with a lid that was often painted.  As such it exemplifies the noble tradition in Italian cabinet-making of large-scale painted furniture. Cassone first appeared in Italian interiors in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, and according to contemporary inventories were normally the most expensive pieces of furniture in the house. They were often given as part of marriage dowries or celebrations and painted with historical and landscape scenes by the pre-eminent artists of the day. By the 17^th century, the cassone had generally become obsolete and was superceded by the cassapanca, which served not only as a functional piece of furniture but also as a vehicle for exuberant decoration by baroque painters, who tended to cover the entire surface of the bench and back panel with family crests, allegorical figures and trompe l’oeil architectural and sculptural elements.

Comparable work by different artists is found on other surviving cassapanche in Central Italy. For example, hanging floral garlands flank a central grisaille cartouche on the back of a cassapanca in the Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista, Siena, illustrated by Massinelli,  op. cit., p.70, fig.120.  It is in the region of Emila Romagna, however, where the taste for elaborately painted illusionist furniture found a particular resonance. A series of six large panche (benches not incorporating a chest) also painted with sea nymphs and volutes for the Jesuit College of Parma in the early 18^th century and attributed to the artist Galeotti are now in the Palazzo dell’Università in Parma, one illustrated by Cirillo and Godi, op. cit., p.93, pl. 213a. A smaller bench from the Parma region, decorated with putti and volutes, is in an Italian private collection illustrated by Colle, op. cit., p. 261.  

In Modena, three small cassapanche painted with scrolls and volutes incorporating the arms of the Molza family are in the entrance to the Palazzo Molza, now the Chamber of Commerce illustrated by Manni, op. cit., p.34, pl. 63. Also in Modena, three drawings for panche with similarly elaborate architectonic decoration survive in the state archives, illustrated by Colle op. cit., p.260, one of which is reproduced here in fig.1.