Milan late 18th century
Description:
The mirror, silvered with mercury, is contained in a carved and gilded frame with beads.
On the pilasters a reserve with a blue background, delimited by a fret with curled ribbon and beads, house two candelabra with pedestals, vases, ribbons and leafy volutes, at the top within two reserves there are two flowered rosettes, between them a horizontal reserve presents an interweaving of branches with different leaves, held by galls. Inside the frame, above the mirror, in a reserve held by a carved Greek fret, a classic flower vase is housed, on the sides of which two rings hold festoons with floral spirals. On the rise, two protruding gouged shelves with a scaled back support the frame of the entablature, inside four ribbons with a love knot hold up three flowery festoons. All the carving is gilded with leaves.
Historical-stylistic analysis:
The object in question is undoubtedly part of a more complex decor than a room that adorned a Milanese building updated according to the neoclassical taste of the Ferdinand era. We can say this with some certainty, as both the architectural layout and the decoration are the result of derivations of what Giocondo Albertolli was doing for Archduke Ferdinando, both for the Palazzo di Milano and for the Villa di Monza, today. Royal palaces. The architectural scheme is re-proposed in different variants that can also be found in the prints of the volumes published by Giocondo Albertolli himself and in various drawings.
In the drawing for the fireplace of the Royal Palace we see the same system and also the proximity of the central reserves with acanthus spirals.
Some things, among other things, are instead taken up on time, for example the shelves on the top are the version, free from masks, of the door of the Sala di Compagnia of the Royal Villa of Monza, pl. V (Some decorations of noble rooms and other ornaments).
The frame of the entablature also has the same projection and the same moldings as the fireplace of the Royal Palace in Milan, pl. X. (Some decorations of noble rooms and other ornaments).
The twirls, the candelabra find numerous examples in the sample books. Even the idea of the intertwining of the slender twigs held by galls is very reminiscent of the interweaving found on the vault of the Dining Room, Royal Villa of Monza. Plate IV (Some decorations of noble rooms and other ornaments).
Bibliography:
– Giocondo Albertolli, Ornamenti diversi inventati da Giocondo Albertolli, 1782
– Giuseppe Beretti, Laboratorio, ed. in limine 2005
– Giocondo Albertolli, Corso elementare di elementi architettonici ideato e disegnato ad uso de principianti da Giocondo Albertolli, 1805
– Francesco de Giacomi, La Villa reale di Monza, ed. Associazione pro Monza 1984
– Giocondo Albertolli, Alcune decorazioni di nobili sale e altri ornamenti, 1787
– Giuseppe Beretti, Il mobile dei lumi, ed. In limine 2010
– Giocondo Albertolli, Miscellanea per i giovani studiosi del disegno, 1796
- Fireplace with golden carvings, Milan, late 18th century
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