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| An Important Pair of Italian Baroque Giltwood Torchères, in the form of Classical Female Figures holding Baskets of Fruit
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Florence or Genoa, early 18th Century
Height: 6 ft. 2 ¾ in. (190 cm)
Width of bases: 2 ft. 4 ½ in. (72.5 cm)
Depth of bases: 2 ft. 2 ½ in. (67 cm)
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Giltwood torchères in the form of classical or allegorical figures were produced throughout Italy in the seventeenth and early 18th centuries, and contemporary inventories of palazzi and patrician residences contain numerous references to reggitorciere, reggilume and portacandelabri that served as stands for candelabra or vases. Despite their obvious popularity, however, the number of surviving examples is relatively small. The majority are now in public collections or still in situ in private houses or institutions, and the present pair represents an extremely rare appearance of this uniquely Italian type of carved furniture on the market.
The diffusion of this type of sculptural furniture throughout the peninsula renders a precise geographical attribution problematical. Stylistically, one of the closest comparable examples to the present figures are the torchères in the form of a satyr and satyress now in the Ospedale di San Giovanni di Dio, Florence (illustrated in Il fasto e la ragione. Arte del Settecento a Firenze, exhibtion catalogue, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, 2009, no.42, p.153). This pair shares the same stylised modelling of the female form combined with almost identical turned vases of luxuriantly rendered fruit and foliage raised above the head with a similarly vigorous upward movement. Until recently they were considered to emanate from either the hand or the circle of the leading Florentine baroque sculptor and court architect Giovan Battista Foggini (1652-1725), but recent scholarship has attributed them to Giovanni Antonio Noferi (1687-after 1754), a sculptor working in the orbit of the Settignano-born Giovacchino Fortini (1670-1736). Sandro Bellesi (idem, p.152) links these figures with a ‘paro di torcieri di Legno rappresentanti due satiri’ supplied by Noferi in 1723 to the Luca Girodano gallery in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence.
The present pair of torchères, which was presumably destined for a comparable setting in a princely dwelling, also displays parallels with the work of another important Italian centre for the plastic arts, Genoa. The leading producer of large sculptural reggitorciere in Genoa during the baroque period was the sculptor Filippo Parodi (1630-1702). Parodi trained initially in Rome and was influenced by both Algardi and Bernini, and following his return to Genoa in 1661 he received commissions throughout Northern Italy. Among the surviving torchères that have been attributed to Parodi, the most closely-related examples to the Pelham pair are the figure of Autumn in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan and a series of figures representing the four seasons in the Villa Durazzo, Albisola (illustrated in Alvar González-Palacios, Il Mobile in Liguria, Genoa 1996, fig.81-22, p.74-75; fig.83-85, p.78-79; fig.102, p.89). All these works exhibit a similarly exuberant stylisation of the hair, drapery and rockwork bases contrasted with a more naturalistic treatment of the faces, bodies, and fruit and flowers, as well as a particularly elegant sense of contrapposto alluding to Parodi’s Roman influences. Similar flowers and cornucopia of fruit also appear on a pair of triton and eagle vase stands in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome, that have been attributed to Parodi (González-Palacios, p.84, fig.91-92).
It is not known whether Parodi was responsible for all the actual designs of his work, as he is believed to have collaborated with the prolific Genoese painter Domenico Piola (1627-1703) and Piola’s son-in-law Gregorio di Ferrari (1644-1726). The Piola family ran a large studio, called the Casa Piola, which effectively monopolised the design and production of painted and stucco ceiling decoration in Genoa for much of the 17th century. Two sculptors associated with the Casa Piola -Anton Maria Maragliano (1664-1739) and Bernardo Schiaffino (1678-1725) – are also known to have executed torchères in the manner of Parodi. Either artist could conceivably be the author of several surviving reggitorciere comparable to the present pair but by a different hand: a set of the Four Seasons in the Musée des Art Décoratifs, Paris (ill. Enrico Colle, Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, Milan 2000, p.218); a further set of four seasons divided among a private collection, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (one illustrated in González-Palacios, p.90, fig.104); and a pair of torchères more abstract in nature in the form of a single enormous acanthus scroll on a rockwork base, now in the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa (ill. Colle, p.230).
Highly distinctive rockwork bases of this type appear frequently on torchères of the period and ultimately derive their inspiration from Bernini, who employed the device on some of his sculptural pieces and notably in the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in the Piazza Navona, Rome (for illustrations of preparatory studies for the fountain and examples of Roman carved objects inspired by its design, see Colle, p.100-101).
Regardless of their origin, these figures are an excellent incarnation of the late baroque aesthetic in Italian art, an all-encompassing spirit that viewed even a functional piece of furniture such as a candle- or vase-holder as a sculptural work of art, deserving of the finest treatment and materials.
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