The Sotheby's Milan auction held on June 13th is a collection that includes about 80 lots, in which, for the part dedicated to Sculptures and Art Objects, it is interesting to note how all the most refined techniques are represented they cross the artistic styles from the Renaissance to Neoclassicism.
Some of the furnishings can be considered real Works of Art, according to the wunderkammer cut given by the collector and, by way of example, we mention the Roman Console made between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with support in the form of a military trophy with volutes and the top veneered in Sicilian jasper and verde antico (Est. 20,000-30,000 EUR).
The Roman Consul finds similar examples in the catalog of the Fasto Romano exhibition held in 1991 at Palazzo Sacchetti in Rome curated by Alvar Gonzàlez-Palacios.
The Baroque is represented by the large bronze inkwell from the workshop of Niccolò Roccatagliata (c. 1570-1636), 17th century, surmounted by the allegorical figure of Fame between two Cupids and inscribed “Non Omnis Moria” (Est.12,000-18,000 EUR) .
Also from the seventeenth century is the pair of plaques in semi-precious stones, each depicting a landscape with buildings in chalcedony, agates, semi-precious stones, with jasper hills and a lapis lazuli background (Est. 15,000-25,000 EUR).
Already made and coming from the collection of the Duke of Norfolk (of which it bears a paper label of origin), the casket - also in semi-precious stones - ebony and applications in gilded bronze, was made by the Granducali workshops of Florence between 1680 and the 1720. This precious art object has an estimate of 40,000-60,000 EUR. The lid of the casket is decorated with a semi-precious stone plaque depicting the Annunciation from the fourteenth-century fresco preserved in the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. The quality of the clerk, the cabinetry and the gilded bronze applications of this box allow a comparison with some boxes conceived and designed by Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725). Between the end of the seventeenth century and the first quarter of the eighteenth century the activity of the Granducali workshops was characterized by the brilliant artistic direction of Foggini.
It was above all under the long reign of Cosimo III (1670-1723) that the Medici factories of the Granducale Galleria dei Lavori, on the first floor of Vasari's factory in the Uffizi, specialized in the creation of precious artefacts to be donated to rulers and the aristocracy of every part of Europe.
Made up of eight drawers, each decorated with two squares in country stone, is the Stipo in country stone and ebonized wood from the early 17th century. The plaques on this cabinet are very similar to those that decorate the coin cabinet – conserved in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan – which belonged to Canon Manfredo Settala, also famous for his collection of bizarre stones (Est. 12.000 – 18.000 EUR).
The wonderful pair of compositions in catfish wood made with micro-carving depict Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and a scene from Ostrich Hunting. This is a pair of Micro-carvings that should be placed in relation to the activity of the Bolognese engraver Antonio Bonini, documented from the end of the seventeenth century to 1710, and was part of the Zambeccari collection, now conserved at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. This pair of Works of Art best represents the typology of objects conserved in these artificia collections that were intended to generate a sense of wonder in the visitor (Est. 30.000-50.000 EUR).
Giovanni Francesco Pieri (1699-1773) is the Neapolitan artist who created the bucolic relief in polychrome wax on glass within a coeval wooden and gilded tablet frame, depicting a Bacchic scene. This wax figure is part of a group of works in which Pieri infuses the same irony typical of the Neapolitan spirit that we find in the genre scenes of the nativity scenes and porcelain groups produced by the Real Fabrica di Capodimonte. Our wax relief should be compared with those kept in the Wallace Collection in London. (Est. 8.000-12.000 EUR).
Among the terracotta sculptures in the collection, the couple of Venus and Bacchus (h.50 cm approx.) stands out, already exhibited in the beautiful exhibition organized at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence in 2009: Fasto and Reason, eighteenth-century art in Florence; it is a pair of terracottas made by Giovanni Baratta (Carrara, 1770-1747) who was an internationally renowned sculptor and decorator. The care and skill with which the two figures of Venus and Bacchus are created, must be placed in relation to a high-ranking client.
Baratta also worked at the court of the King of Denmark for whom he created some sculptural groups in the garden of Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. The sculptor, a pupil of Foggini, also worked for the Savoys and for the King of Spain in Madrid. The estimate for the pair of terracottas is 40.000-60.000 EUR.
The famous Roman sculptor Francesco Righetti (1749-1819, one of the most successful sculptors in Rome at the end of the eighteenth century, trained in the workshop of Luigi Valadier) interprets the amazing success of Bernini's Apollo and Daphne with a bronze (h.40cm) already from Betterton House, Oxfordshire, GB. The bronze which has an estimate of 30,000-50,000 euros, is published in The Loyd Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London, 1991.
The Milanese Cabinet also contains a group of very precious and rare Corals, among which the 17th century casket, Trapani, in gilded copper, silver and coral stands out.
This toilet box was made of wood and covered in gilded copper with superimposed decorations in coral and silver; it is very rare since there are very few examples of large coral boxes that have come down to us (Est. 80,000-120,000 EUR).
A table clock cannot be missing from the collection, and here we point out the one in carved, gilded and silvered wood with pastille finishes, in the shape of a two-handled amphora, surmounted by a basket of metal flowers from which garlands descend. The watch bears the inscription: Antoine Vasquete e fils/orologer du prins du Carignan/Racconis and is signed on the back plate of the mechanism Antonio Vascheti a Racconigi (h.56cm; Est 15,000-25,000 EUR).
For brevity, in this story of the Collection, we point out in the part dedicated to Oriental Art, the Chinese Figure of Guanyin in gilded bronze, dating back to the Ming dynasty, and depicted in a seated position, wearing a long robe open on the chest which reveals a elaborate necklace (Est. 40,000 – 60,000 EUR).
Included in the Milanese collection, formerly from the De Carlo antiquarian in Florence, is a seventeenth-century oil on canvas Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus on the island of Nasso by Francesco Morosini, known as Il Montepulciano. In the large canvas of 120×180 cm (Est. 40.000 – 60.000) Ariadne wears an almost theatrical costume in the Florentine taste; and the same care is dedicated to Theseus' robes: the gold-colored jacket is outlined by many small red pendants, her shirt is draped with puffed sleeves and the purple tunic is closed on one side by a gold thread. Particular attention is also paid to the accessories, from the hair clip to the long pearl necklace, from the cobalt blue fur hat with red and white feathers, to the purple ankle boots, up to the hilt of the dog-headed sword. A further note of preciousness to the scene is given by the numerous shells depicted in the lower left of the painting.
The canvas at auction, which has a preparatory model kept in a private collection in Florence, is a precious testimony of the commitment Morosini made to the commission, undoubtedly prestigious, and it would seem to be dated around 1630, falling within the taste shown by some members of the Medici family for paintings with literary subjects, i.e. inspired by Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, Guarino's Pastor Fido and precisely Rinuccini's Arianna a Nasso, set to music by Monteverdi.
In the collection there is no shortage of architectural Capricci by Coccorante, Venetian views of the circle of Guardi, a beautiful Diziani The Finding of Moses (Est. 50.000 - 70.000 EUR) but the collector's predilection was expressed in particular towards eighteenth-century portraiture.
In addition to the portrait of a gentleman by Frà Galgario (Est. 30.000 – 40.000 EUR) already illustrated in Gozzoli's monograph in I Pittori Bergamaschi, il Settecento, Bergamo, 1982, two portraits by Rosalba Carriera stand out.
Published in the 1988 and 2007 monographs dedicated to the most famous Venetian portraitist of her time – Rosalba Carriera – Half-length Portrait of a Gentlewoman (Est. 30,000-50,000 EUR), it follows the Half-length Portrait of a Gentleman, already in the Sotheby's catalog in London in 1973 and today at auction in Milan with a valuation of 50,000-70,000 EUR. The famous painter – also known for the portrait of Louis XV, now in the Dresden Gallery – was also mentioned by the Mercure de France in 1722, with a praise of her activity, on the occasion of her extraordinary admission to the Acadèmie Royale de Peinture which l 'had welcomed among its members.
Included in the catalog of the beautiful exhibition in Trento in 2001, A portraitist in the Europe of the courts. Giovanni Battista Lampi 1751-1830 curated by Fernando Mazzocca, the Portrait of a Gentleman in Red (Martin Knoller?), by Giovanni Battista Lampi the Elder, appreciated portraitist of the European aristocracy of the eighteenth century (Est. 20,000-30,000 EUR). The canvas comes (formerly) from the collection of the Museum Georg Schaefer, Schweinfurt.
