An Italian carved fruitwood portrait of Napoleon, Workshop of Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, probably by Maurice Blanc, Turin, circa 1800

Sotheby’s, New York, 31 January-1 February 2013, lot 412.

No doubt carved under magnification, this panel is an exquisite statement of  Piedmontese woodcarving, spearheaded during the late 18th and early 19th centuries by Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820) and his workshop which employed multiple assistants including Maurice Blanc.

A closely related relief of Napoleon (1769-1821) —signed by one of Bonzanigo’s principal collaborators Morizio Bianco di Torino (Maurice Blanc) and showcasing an almost identical design as the present — was sold at Sotheby’s, Paris, The Giordano Collection, 27 November 2024, lot 187 (54,000 EUR). Maurice Blanc is recorded exhibiting twelve “bas reliefs en bois” on the occasion of Napoleon’s passage through Turin in April of 1805 (Exhibition Cat. 1990, p. 46). Perhaps these portraits in the exhibition included the present and/or the signed portrait sold at Sotheby’s in 2024. 

The carving can be dated rather closely. Napoleon, always highly conscious of his own image as a propaganda tool, is shown as Premier Consul, a title he held from 1799 to 1804 during the French Consulate Period. This era marked a transition from the French Revolution, with Napoleon consolidating power and establishing a more authoritarian, centralized government. Napoleon was then declared Empereur des Français on 18 May 1804, his additional title of Roi d’Italie was declared on 26 May 1805.

For carved figural works by Blanc’s master, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, see a portrait of a young Bonaparte, after a drawing of 1796 by Longhi, sold at Sotheby’s, London, Treasures, 3 July 2019, lot 27 (£112,500). A self-portrait by Bonzanigo was also sold at Sotheby’s, London, Treasures, 4 July 2018, lot 27 (£250,000).

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Bertolotto, et al., Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo: intaglio minuto e grande decorazione (exh. cat.), Pinacoteca civica, Asti, 1989.

G. Ferraris, Giuseppe Bonzanigo e la scultura decorativa in legno a Torino nel periodo neoclassico (1770-1830), Turin, 1991.