Lot 61: - A pair of Italian gilt-bronze and porphyry candelabra after the Antique, with Apollo Belvedere and Mattei Amazon, Workshop of Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839), Roman late 18th/early 19th century

each 54cm high;1ft. 7 1/4in.

Private European Collector

Comparative Literature:
W. Koeppe and A., Giusti, Art of the Royal Court, Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, New York, 2008, p. 310, no. 121.
Alvar Gonzàlez-Palacios, Two candelabra by Luigi Valadier, Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal, 30, 1995, pp. 97-102.
Alvar Gonzáles-Palacios, L'Oro di Valadier, un genio nella Roma del Settecento, Exhibition Catalogue, Villa Medici, 29th June -8th April 1997, pp. 129-131, no. 27.
Alvar Gonzàlez-Palacios, Arredi e ornamenti alla corte di Roma, Milan, 2004, pp. 345-347.
A. Koutchoumov, Pavlovsk, Le Palais et le Parc, Leningrad, 1976,p. 229, plate 184. The present pair of candelabra will appear in a future publication by Alvar González-Palacios, `Nostalgiae e Invenizione'. The hexagonal plinths and porphyry socles are conceived in a similar vein to those on a pair of candelabra by Luigi Valadier with porphyry bases cast with bucrania made for the Palazzo Borghese, in Rome around 1774, which are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by A.G.P., op. cit., p. 130, no. 27, reproduced here in fig. 1. The upper section of the aforementioned pair is composed of three figures, based upon ancient prototypes, as on the present pair, centred around a porphyry shaft supporting a tazza from which the candlebranches issue. One of these figures is a reduction of a celebrated Antiquity, the Mattei Amazon in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, the reduction of which is also used for one of the present candelabra. Her pairing with Apollo Belvedere is novel, as in the candelabra made for Palazzo Borghese in 1774 ( see ante). The very same figures appear in 1810, amongst the models in wax, plaster and bronze in an inventory of the workshop of Giuseppe Valadier, who inherited the stock-in-trade fom his father Luigi in 1785. It was common practice in the Valadier workshop to repeat successful models; for instance the palazzo Borghese candelabra of 1774 were repeated on the occasion of the visit in 1782 to Rome of the future Tsar of Russia, Paul I and his consort Maria Feodorovna. They are now in the Palace of Pavlovsk outside St. Petersburg, see Kouctchomov, op. cit., p. 229, plate 184, for a pair in la salle de séjour.
The present examples, therefore, are completely consistent with the production of one of the most famous neo-classical workshops in Rome, that of Luigi Valadier, which after his death in 1785 was directed by his son Giuseppe. In the latter's day, until he passed the enterprise over to the Spagna family, its manufacturers reutilised the models, moulds and tools of the previous decades, as is shown by the present superb examples. We are indebted to Professor Alvar González-Palacios for the above footnote written in 2005.