An Italian cabinet with eglomisé panels
Reverse glass oil painting, tortoiseshell, ebony and ebonised wood on walnut and softwood, ormolu mountings. A so-called “stipo” cabinet, the upper section open with four drawers on either side and two eglomisé reverse glass paintings flanking a central portico with a breakfront gable supported by four columns. The paintings depicting Italian landscapes with ruins beneath a blue sky in gold frames. The central eglomisé panel concealing four rows of five drawers surrounding a small secret compartment in the centre. The stand with barley-twist supports and a large, pierced cartouche beneath the apron bearing a Neoclassical portrait of a man in a round medallion. The locks missing, numerous minor losses to the mouldings, tortoiseshell inlays, and metal mountings, earlier insect damage. H 208, W 170, D c. 53 cm.
Naples, 1680 – 1710, the reverse glass paintings attributed to the studio of Luca Giordano.
Enrico Colle describes a cabinet of similar design but with more opulent décor in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in which even the framing panels are inset with narrow eglomisé panes. Barely any wood is visible in the cabinet as it is almost entirely inlaid with gold-backed tortoiseshell. The eglomisé panels are traditionally attributed to the studio of Luca Giordano or rather to his pupils Carlo Garofalo, Andrea Vincenti, Domenico Perrone, Ciccio della Torre, and Domenico Coscia.
Provenance
South German private ownership.
Literature
Cf. the cabinet with reverse glass paintings in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, mus. no. 293:1 to:17-1870
Cf. Colle, Il mobile barocco in Italia. Arredi e decorazioni d'interni dal 1600 al 1738, Milan 2000, no. 14.