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Lot Essay
This extraordinary mirror is a spectacular tour de force of baroque Italian carving, with a dizzying array of mythological reserves after engravings by Simon Vouet surrounded by dense, scrolling foliage entwining putti, dolphin, wild men and other beasts, all within a complex but clearly thought out iconographic scheme focused on the symbolism of the Four Elements of Air, Water, Fire and Earth, but possibly also with a deeper contemporary symbolism. Even more remarkable is the fact that it is signed, an extreme rarity among Italian baroque works of art.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The frame features four narrative reserves carved with extraordinary detail, each symbolizing one of the Four Elements and following engravings by Michel Dorigny after now lost paintings by Simon Vouet. The top and bottom reserves, with images of Jupiter and Neptune symbolic of Air and Water, are based on Vouet paintings, created as a part of a decorative scheme for the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria,for the Vestibule de la Reine at the château de Fontainbleau. The left and right hand reserves, with Hercules slaying the Lernean Hydra emblematic of Fire and Apollo slaying the Python at Delphi emblematic of Earth (the Python was aid to dwell in the center of the earth) are based on Vouet paintings made for the decoration of the lower gallery of the hôtel Séguier, and symbolize Louis XIII’s victory over the Huguenots and the capture of the Huguenot stronghold at La Rochelle.
The richly symbolic nature of these carved reserves may also have a contemporary allusion, and can possibly be seen as an allegory of the relationship between Parma, Spain, and France during the period of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Parma, one of many independent political entities in Italy, was at first closely attached to Spain. Alessandro Farnese, was the greatest general of the Spanish army, serving mostly in the Spanish Netherlands. He became Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586 to 1592. He lost the favor of the Spanish king partly due to the failure of the Spanish Armada. Parma then became more closely allied to France. Odoardo Farnese, the Duke of Parma, visited the Court of Louis XIII in 1636 seeking a military alliance. The grandson of Louis XIV, Philip V, who had become the Bourbon King of Spain, supplanting the Habsburgs, met the Duke of Parma in Italy in 1702. A priest, Giulio Alberoni, an advisor to the Farnese Court, became translator and liaison between Parma and the French general, the Duke de Vendôme, who was waging war in northern Italy. Alberoni became a friend and adviser to Vendôme and followed him to France and later to Spain, where he was a counselor to the King, and later was elevated to Cardinal. It was Alberoni who promoted Elisabetta Farnese to become the wife of the recently widowed Philip V, and thus the Queen of Spain following their marriage in 1714.
Thus the unusual depiction of a pheasant near the cresting could refer to so-called Isle of Pheasants which lies between France and Spain and was the site of many historical moments between the two nations. In 1526, the captive French king, François I, was exchanged there for the two sons of the Spanish ruler. In 1615, Louis XIII met his Spanish bride, the future mother of Louis XIV, there, while the Spanish King simultaneously met his French bride. In 1659, Louis XIV met his future bride, Anne of Austria, there. In 1679, the Spanish king, Charles II, met his bride, Louis XIV’s niece, on the island. Since he had no heirs, Charles II decreed his crown should pass to the son of the Grand Dauphin, the Duke of Anjou, in part because of his significant Spanish heritage. He became Philip V, provoking the War of the Spanish Succession. The dolphins could therefore refer to the Dauphin and the sunflowers to Louis XIV as Sun King; the doves symbolic of love could refer to the union of Elisabetta Farnese and Philip, while the oak leaves of the frame could refer to the Farnese as ‘farnia’ is Italian for oak. The mythological roundels could also have contemporary resonance, with Jupiter symbolizing Louis XIV; Apollo slaying the Python referring to Philip overcoming the Habsburg Emperor, the hydra being the league of states opposed to the Bourbons and their Italian allies while the Neptune panel could symbolize Elisabetta’s voyage to Spain to marry Philip. Could this mirror or frame have therefore originally been commissioned at the court of Parma to refer in a subtly allusive way to these complex alliances between Italy, Spain and France?
THE SIGNATURES AND DESIGN SOURCES
The rare presence of signatures proudly proclaiming the maker or makers for this extraordinary work of art only adds to its allure and the mystery of its original commission. It has been suggested that ‘GIUSEP.’ (presumably for Giuseppe) could refer to ‘Maestro Giuseppe’, Giuseppe Bosi, intagliatore and scultore at the court of the Farnese Dukes of Parma and the Marchesi di Soragna from the 1680s to the early 1700s and was known to have taught the famous sculptor Andrea Fantoni when he was in Parma in the late 1670s. A series of bills for payments to craftsmen for their work at the Castello Rocca di Soragna and the Palazzo di Parma include a number of payments to ‘Giuseppe Buzzi’ and ‘Giuseppe Bosi’, including one in 1701 for a complex and rich series of architectural carvings for ‘Il Gabinetto’, (see G. Cirillo and G. Godi, Il Mobile a Parma Fra Barocco e Romanticismo, Parma, 1983, p. 268 and A. Bardelli, Il Maestro Fantoni a Parma, online article Antiqua.Mi, March 2013). The AVP signature is even more mysterious- could it refer to another artist involved in the commission? Interestingly Pietro Antonio Avanzini (1656-1733, the initials could form AVP in reverse) is recorded as a painter at the court of Parma and was a drawing teacher to Elisabeth Farnese.
A design for a related frame by Fantoni, Maestro Giuseppe’s pupil, incorporates similarly lush foliage and putti together with a narrative reserve. Perhaps the most fecund imagination of all among Northern Italian carvers was that of the Venetian sculptor Andrea Brustolon - a design for a mirror frame by Brustolon of circa 1690, replete with putti and allegorical symbolism (including emblems of the Arts and Sciences and Valour), is in the Museo Civico, Belluno. Further comparably executed works include a frame, offered from the collection of the Dukes of Westminster; Sotheby’s, London, 10 June 1994, lot 4, and a series of frames, including one in the Chiesa di San Bagio, Modena and one in Zibello, near Parma, with similar combinations of flying putti and lush foliage, illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p. 256.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The frame features four narrative reserves carved with extraordinary detail, each symbolizing one of the Four Elements and following engravings by Michel Dorigny after now lost paintings by Simon Vouet. The top and bottom reserves, with images of Jupiter and Neptune symbolic of Air and Water, are based on Vouet paintings, created as a part of a decorative scheme for the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria,for the Vestibule de la Reine at the château de Fontainbleau. The left and right hand reserves, with Hercules slaying the Lernean Hydra emblematic of Fire and Apollo slaying the Python at Delphi emblematic of Earth (the Python was aid to dwell in the center of the earth) are based on Vouet paintings made for the decoration of the lower gallery of the hôtel Séguier, and symbolize Louis XIII’s victory over the Huguenots and the capture of the Huguenot stronghold at La Rochelle.
The richly symbolic nature of these carved reserves may also have a contemporary allusion, and can possibly be seen as an allegory of the relationship between Parma, Spain, and France during the period of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Parma, one of many independent political entities in Italy, was at first closely attached to Spain. Alessandro Farnese, was the greatest general of the Spanish army, serving mostly in the Spanish Netherlands. He became Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586 to 1592. He lost the favor of the Spanish king partly due to the failure of the Spanish Armada. Parma then became more closely allied to France. Odoardo Farnese, the Duke of Parma, visited the Court of Louis XIII in 1636 seeking a military alliance. The grandson of Louis XIV, Philip V, who had become the Bourbon King of Spain, supplanting the Habsburgs, met the Duke of Parma in Italy in 1702. A priest, Giulio Alberoni, an advisor to the Farnese Court, became translator and liaison between Parma and the French general, the Duke de Vendôme, who was waging war in northern Italy. Alberoni became a friend and adviser to Vendôme and followed him to France and later to Spain, where he was a counselor to the King, and later was elevated to Cardinal. It was Alberoni who promoted Elisabetta Farnese to become the wife of the recently widowed Philip V, and thus the Queen of Spain following their marriage in 1714.
Thus the unusual depiction of a pheasant near the cresting could refer to so-called Isle of Pheasants which lies between France and Spain and was the site of many historical moments between the two nations. In 1526, the captive French king, François I, was exchanged there for the two sons of the Spanish ruler. In 1615, Louis XIII met his Spanish bride, the future mother of Louis XIV, there, while the Spanish King simultaneously met his French bride. In 1659, Louis XIV met his future bride, Anne of Austria, there. In 1679, the Spanish king, Charles II, met his bride, Louis XIV’s niece, on the island. Since he had no heirs, Charles II decreed his crown should pass to the son of the Grand Dauphin, the Duke of Anjou, in part because of his significant Spanish heritage. He became Philip V, provoking the War of the Spanish Succession. The dolphins could therefore refer to the Dauphin and the sunflowers to Louis XIV as Sun King; the doves symbolic of love could refer to the union of Elisabetta Farnese and Philip, while the oak leaves of the frame could refer to the Farnese as ‘farnia’ is Italian for oak. The mythological roundels could also have contemporary resonance, with Jupiter symbolizing Louis XIV; Apollo slaying the Python referring to Philip overcoming the Habsburg Emperor, the hydra being the league of states opposed to the Bourbons and their Italian allies while the Neptune panel could symbolize Elisabetta’s voyage to Spain to marry Philip. Could this mirror or frame have therefore originally been commissioned at the court of Parma to refer in a subtly allusive way to these complex alliances between Italy, Spain and France?
THE SIGNATURES AND DESIGN SOURCES
The rare presence of signatures proudly proclaiming the maker or makers for this extraordinary work of art only adds to its allure and the mystery of its original commission. It has been suggested that ‘GIUSEP.’ (presumably for Giuseppe) could refer to ‘Maestro Giuseppe’, Giuseppe Bosi, intagliatore and scultore at the court of the Farnese Dukes of Parma and the Marchesi di Soragna from the 1680s to the early 1700s and was known to have taught the famous sculptor Andrea Fantoni when he was in Parma in the late 1670s. A series of bills for payments to craftsmen for their work at the Castello Rocca di Soragna and the Palazzo di Parma include a number of payments to ‘Giuseppe Buzzi’ and ‘Giuseppe Bosi’, including one in 1701 for a complex and rich series of architectural carvings for ‘Il Gabinetto’, (see G. Cirillo and G. Godi, Il Mobile a Parma Fra Barocco e Romanticismo, Parma, 1983, p. 268 and A. Bardelli, Il Maestro Fantoni a Parma, online article Antiqua.Mi, March 2013). The AVP signature is even more mysterious- could it refer to another artist involved in the commission? Interestingly Pietro Antonio Avanzini (1656-1733, the initials could form AVP in reverse) is recorded as a painter at the court of Parma and was a drawing teacher to Elisabeth Farnese.
A design for a related frame by Fantoni, Maestro Giuseppe’s pupil, incorporates similarly lush foliage and putti together with a narrative reserve. Perhaps the most fecund imagination of all among Northern Italian carvers was that of the Venetian sculptor Andrea Brustolon - a design for a mirror frame by Brustolon of circa 1690, replete with putti and allegorical symbolism (including emblems of the Arts and Sciences and Valour), is in the Museo Civico, Belluno. Further comparably executed works include a frame, offered from the collection of the Dukes of Westminster; Sotheby’s, London, 10 June 1994, lot 4, and a series of frames, including one in the Chiesa di San Bagio, Modena and one in Zibello, near Parma, with similar combinations of flying putti and lush foliage, illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan, 2000, p. 256.