Lot 14: AN ITALIAN POLYCHROME PAINTED CARVED GILTWOOD MIRROR ATTRIBUTED TO GIUSEPPE MARIA BONZANIGO (1745-1820), TURIN LATE 18TH CENTURY

202cm. high, 102cm. wide; 6ft. 7in., 3ft. 3¾in.

Comparative Literature:
Enrico Colle, Il Mobile neoclassico in Italia arredi e decorazioni d'interni dal 1775 al 1800, Milan, 2005, p. 452-453, no. 107.
G Ferraris, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo e la scultura decorativa in legno a Torino nel periodo neoclassico (1770-1830), Turin, 1991, Tav. VI and Tav. VIII, p. 62, plates XVIII 1-2, and p. 63, plates XX 1-2, for related mirrors by Bonzanigo in the Palazzo Stupinigi, Turin.
G.Morazzoni, Il Mobile neoclassico Italiano, Milan,1955, Tav. LXXIX.
V.Viale, Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, Turin, 1963, Vol. III.

This magnificent mirror with its crisp ornate foliate carving represents the apogee of Italian wood-carving in the late 18th century disseminated by the most celebrated official wood-carver to the Crown, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820). The similarity of this mirror to other recorded mirrors by Bonzanigo make it possible to make a firm attribution to him for this piece.

There are four mirrors by Bonzanigo in King Vittorio Emanuele's apartments, in the Palazzina di Caccia, Palazzo di Stupinigi, Turin, illustrated by Ferraris, op. cit., Tav. 6/8, of similar conception ornately carved with flowers and foliage with a similar rectangular framing device with inverted corners to those on this mirror, reproduced here in fig.1. & 2.

Two of these four mirrors are carved with minor variations: e.g. a basket with flowers set to the sides of the stiles. In an account compiled by Bonzanigo in 1784, and published in January of the following year, the four mirrors were described in detail. They were designed for the rooms of Madam Felicità's apartment at Stupinigi.

The painter Michel Rapous was in charge of colouring garlands of leaves and flowers; gilder Ponticelli and glassworker Deangeli also took part in the manufacture of these mirrors. However, the name of the designerof these mirrors is nevertheless unknown. The mirrors seem to match sophisticated designs inspired by works of Leonardo Marini or Charles Randoni as they feature the same construction with interlacing volutes, symmetrically featured on sides of a central decorative motive. Among the drawings published in this book are the sketches probably used as model by Bonzanigo to make a whole series of fans in 1789, made for the Veneria Reale and are now kept in the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge. A drawing by Carlo Randoni, now in the Biblioteca Civica, Turin, for a mirror, from which Bonzanigo must have taken inspiration for this group of mirrors including the present one, is illustrated by Colle, op. cit., p. 252, reproduced here in fig. 3.

Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820). Official wood-carver to the Crown from 1787.

Of Piedmontese origin, he settled in Turin in 1773, where he worked as a sculptor, wood-carver and cabinet-maker and where he was granted the patronage of the royal family. The following year he was elected to the Compagnia of San Luca. He worked for the Savoy Court for the next twenty years until the French invasion in 1796. In 1787, he was appointed official wood-carver to the Crown.

In the accounts of the royal family he is recorded as having supplied numerous stools, chairs, armchairs, benches, sofas, screens, beds and mirrors as well as many ornamental panels and chests of drawers for the Royal Palace in Turin and for the royal residences at Moncalieri, Rivoli, Stupinigi and Venaria. His reputation has grown, due in no small part, to the extraordinary quality of his wood carvings in light wood and ivory, the so-called 'microscuIture' which were highly sought after.

Although his work clearly reflects the influence of French style and design, there does not appear to be any documentary evidence that he visited Paris. However, he did exhibit at the 1808 Paris Exhibition. In 1815, with the fall of Napoleon and the return of the Savoy family, he was re-instated as royal sculptor. His justly deserved reputation was such that on his death in 1820, the Gazetta Piemontese wrote 'la bell'arte dell'intaglio ad aItissimo grado di perfezione con quarant'anni di assidue cure...'.