An important pair of carved limewood frames by Giuseppe Bonzanigo
Finely carved with vase motifs and naturalistic tendrils and flowerheads, baskets of fruit, medallions, angels and eagles with outstretched wings. Mounted on ebonized wood veneer. Minor losses and older insect damage. H 55.5, W 44 cm, frame inner dimensions H 42.5, W 31.5 cm.
Turin, Giuseppe Bonzanigo (1745 – 1820), last quarter 18th C.
This exceptionally well-preserved pair of frames in exquisite micro-carving illustrates the extraordinary craftsmanship that made Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo so popular with his royal patrons. One can assume that the minute details were carved under magnifying glasses. They are typical of Bonzanigo's work and testify to a delicacy and precision rarely found in sculpture of this period.
Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo was born in Asti in 1745 and settled in Turin in 1773. There he was engaged for about 20 years at the princely court as a woodcarver and cabinetmaker, from 1787 as official royal ménuisier and sculptor, ""scultore della casa reale"", for Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia-Piedmont and Duke of Savoy. Surviving invoices document deliveries of numerous pieces of seating furniture, mirrors, ornamental panels and chests of drawers for the royal palace in Turin and for the royal residences in Moncalieri, Rivoli, Stupinigi and Venaria.
Provenance
Private collection, Rome.
Literature
For more on Bonzanigo see Bertolotto/ Villani (ed.), Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo. Intaglio minuto e grande decorazione,Turin 1989; Ferraris, Giuseppe Bonzanigo e la scultura decorativa in legno a Torino nel periodo neoclassico (1770 - 1830), Turin 1991; Dalmasso/ Bertolotto, Palmieri in cornici di Bonzanigo, Antologia di belle Arti. Il Neoclassicismo III, Turin 1992, p. 80 ff.