Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
A rare and important pair of ceremonial console tables in lacquered and gilded wood.
Each console table features a plump child simply dressed in a drape that conceals his nudity.
Kneeling on a rocky mound, he acts as a central support and holds a heavy marble tray on his head and two garlands of fruit in his hands.
The two putti, who turn their heads in opposite directions, face each other and look at each other when the two console tables are positioned side by side, giving a pleasing symmetry to the pair.
Gilded poplar wood for the marble supports and softwood (probably "Pinus Pinea," the Roman parasol painter) for the putti, lacquered white to imitate marble for the body, brown for the rocky mounds, and gold leaf for the drapes and garlands of fruit. Siena yellow marble veneer top inlaid with a purple semesanto marble border with tiny inclusions. Beautifully preserved, with minor repairs to the lacquer, normal restorations, and missing parts to the feet of a putto at the back of one of the two consoles.
Italian work, Rome circa 1750.
Dimensions:
Height: 98 cm for one and 102 cm for the other; Width: 92 cm; Depth: 45 cm.
Our opinion:
Our pair of putti consoles embodies the quintessence of Roman Baroque art. The large figures on our bases were designed to showcase the luxurious marble tops as well as the collections of bronzes and busts that sat on them. Generally positioned in the grand galleries of Italian palaces, they allowed the public to admire the antique collections and thus affirm the power of their owners. The finest example of this art is found in the Colonna Palace, where the seventy-six-meter-long grand gallery probably inspired the Sun King for his Palace of Versailles. The presence of the original furniture still allows us today to admire the series of large consoles with figures of captives that take place on either side of the gallery. The unfortunate Turks defeated at the Battle of Lepanto by Marcantonio Colonna were condemned to support the heavy antique alabaster tops and the endless series of busts of Roman emperors placed on them. It was in fact in Rome, where a profusion of residences with large galleries were built during the Baroque period, that this fashion was most successful. The Palazzo Spada, Doria Pamphili, Corsini, Farnese, Barberini, etc., displayed such consoles before being brought up to date in the 18th century with series of more classical consoles. The extreme rarity of this type of table also comes from the fact that they required very large sections of wood as well as precious marble that all the Roman nobility fought over. Finally, it was necessary to hire a great sculptor because a simple carpenter could not carry out such a work of sculpture where proportions and grace are essential. Often the very harsh theme of the captive or the slave grimacing under the weight of his load is used for this type of work, but our consoles present putti with playful and laughing airs who support the weight with great joy while holding a garland of fruit. The theme of the harvest of fruits and abundance is a recurring theme in Rome, Lazio being an agricultural land par excellence but here it also refers to the Garden of Eden, with childish and innocent telemanons who do not bear the heavy burden of the earth but rather the heavenly paradise, which gives our consoles a strong religious symbolism in accordance with all the Roman creations of the Baroque period.
