FLORENCE, LATE 17TH CENTURY

Scagliola, also known as ‘Bossi work’, achieved great popularity in Europe between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Originally developed in Lombardy and Emilia Romana - Carpi being the main centre for its production - the technique, which strove to simulate more precious marble, soon spread across to neighbouring Tuscany, becoming well-established in Florence by the mid-17th century. It was during the 18th century, however, that Grand-Tourists visiting the Tuscan capital discovered and grew to appreciate the ingenious technique, frequently returning home with scagliola panels as souvenirs of their travels. Upon their return, these would often be transformed or incorporated into furnishings, commonly turned into table tops or fitted into cabinets. This is true of the present pair of panels, which appear illustrated in A. M. Massinelli, Scagliola, l'arte della pietra di luna, Rome, 1997 p. 20., as the top of an English table.

Finely depicting a parrot and peacock on fruiting peach-trees, the panels here offered are closely related to a table top by Carlo Ghilbertoni in the Collezione Canelli, Milan, which is centred by a very similar panel of a bird on a peach-tree branch (ill. A. M. Massinelli, Scagliola, l'arte della pietra di luna, Rome, 1997 p. 19). Ghilbertoni was one of the foremost Florentine producers of scagliola panels of the late 17th century, and was renowned for his works in several Florentine churches, as well as for a number of exquisite scagliola table tops which meticulously reproduced geographical maps.