Attributed to FRANCESCO MORINI (1822-1899) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »

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Giltwood, Porphyry

176.00cm wide    104.00cm high    83.00cm deep (69.29 inches wide  40.94 inches high  32.68 inches deep)

Supplied to Marchese Gino Capponi, Palazzo Capponi, Florence, Circa 1860

The exuberance and quality of the carving on this remarkable side table is typical of Francesco Morini’s work (1822-1899). He supplied several pieces for the Pitti Palace, Florence including a pair of elaborately carved and gilded mirrors and consoles for the Salotto della Regina (M. Chiarini & S. Padovani, Gli Appatamenti reali di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1993, pp. 259-261). A closely related table, now in the museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna and also supplied by Morini to the marchese Gino Capponi for the Palazzo Capponi, Florence, features the same armorial cartouche hung with fruit and swags and legs formed of tritons which bear the carved frieze (S. Chiarugi, Botteghe di Mobilieri in Toscana, Florence, 1994 vol. I)

Gino Capponi was an influential figure in Florence’s nineteenth century history, both prior to and under the new regime of the Kingdom of Italy. Although he was blind by 1840, his salon in Florence continued to be a centre for the leading liberal thinkers of Europe and he played an active role in Florentine political life. King Leopold II of Tuscany appointed him Councillor of State in 1847 and, a year later, Minister f State. By 1859 he was serving as Senator in the Tuscan Assembly and in 1860 he was nominated a Senator in the newly created kingdom of Italy. Unfortunately, his failing health prevented him from taking his seat in the Senate and he spent his final years writing his great work, Storia della repubblica di Firenze (1875).

Excellent

The rectangular porphyry top is inset with a lapis lazuli band edged with black and yellow marble. The top sits above a fluted and patera mounted frieze centred by a crown above an armorial which is hung with fruit and leaves and flanked by scrolls and acanthus leaves. The front legs are modeled as putti bearing cornucopiae issuing fruit and foliage and terminating in chimerical heads. The rear legs are headed by scrolls hung with fruit and foliage and like the front legs they terminate in chimerical heads. A shaped and pierced x-frame stretcher joins the legs and is centred by a chimerical head surmounted by a double shell issuing scrolls and acanthus above a trellis work lozenge and shell, on canted rectangular tiered feet. The arms are those of the Capponi family, Florence. Italian, Circa 1860