A PAIR OF ITALIAN EMPIRE GREY-PAINTED, PARCEL-EBONIZED AND PARCEL-GILT CONSOLE...
Each of demilune form, its veined grey marble top supported on a winged lion monopodium, one marble inscribed 'M Bareaux' at its underside, the other inscribed 'Bareaux / 36 / Nepo?'
351⁄2 in. (90.5 cm.) high, 361⁄4 in. (92.5 cm.) wide, 17 in. (43.5 cm.) deep
Provenance
Acquired from Gerard Orts, Paris.
Lot Essay
Lion-form monopodia, clearly derived from ancient Roman protoypes, are one of the defining motifs of the Empire à l’antique style. Similar monopodia feature in the enormously influential design book Receuil de decorations intérieures (published from 1801-1812) by Napoleon’s court architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, for instance as supports for a table in a panel painting in ‘citoyen V’s’ bedroom on plate 17. When Napoleon established his courts in Italy, proclaiming himself King of Italy and installing his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, as viceroy in 1805, it was natural that the Empire style would accompany for the furnishing of the royal residences, particularly those in Milan and Monza, where the Milanese architect Luigi Canonica was employed. Closely related monopodia feature in designs by Canonica, now housed in the Biblioteca Communale, Lugano, illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Impero, Milan, 1998, pp. 258 and 267, while a sedan chair supplied to Eugène de Beauharnais by the painter and designer Giuseppe Borsato, now in the Villa Nazionale, Stra, is illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milan, 1955, fig. CCCLXXVII.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Each of demilune form, its veined grey marble top supported on a winged lion monopodium, one marble inscribed 'M Bareaux' at its underside, the other inscribed 'Bareaux / 36 / Nepo?'
351⁄2 in. (90.5 cm.) high, 361⁄4 in. (92.5 cm.) wide, 17 in. (43.5 cm.) deep
Provenance
Acquired from Gerard Orts, Paris.
Lot Essay
Lion-form monopodia, clearly derived from ancient Roman protoypes, are one of the defining motifs of the Empire à l’antique style. Similar monopodia feature in the enormously influential design book Receuil de decorations intérieures (published from 1801-1812) by Napoleon’s court architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, for instance as supports for a table in a panel painting in ‘citoyen V’s’ bedroom on plate 17. When Napoleon established his courts in Italy, proclaiming himself King of Italy and installing his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, as viceroy in 1805, it was natural that the Empire style would accompany for the furnishing of the royal residences, particularly those in Milan and Monza, where the Milanese architect Luigi Canonica was employed. Closely related monopodia feature in designs by Canonica, now housed in the Biblioteca Communale, Lugano, illustrated in E. Colle, Il Mobile Impero, Milan, 1998, pp. 258 and 267, while a sedan chair supplied to Eugène de Beauharnais by the painter and designer Giuseppe Borsato, now in the Villa Nazionale, Stra, is illustrated in G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Neoclassico Italiano, Milan, 1955, fig. CCCLXXVII.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
