Magnificent Wall-mounted Table, Rome, 17th Century

Magnificent wall-mounted table in carved, sculpted, and gilded wood

Top in red Sicilian jasper

Rome, 17th century

90 x 182 x 90 cm

Provenance: Rome, Palazzo Grazioli

In this piece of furniture, where various decorative elements blend together, the carving takes on a solemn appearance, and the varying projections of the complex sculptural interlacing, together with the carved and engraved ornamentation, create a strongly dynamic sense of chiaroscuro.

Furniture of such ostentatious splendor, adorned with masks and female heads, furnished the most important palaces of Rome.

Stylistically, the piece belongs to the last quarter of the seventeenth century and bears a direct resemblance to examples in the Sacchetti, Corsini, and Spada collections.

As for its execution, one can point to the woodcarver Filippo Passarini, who embodied the ideas of artists strongly influenced by Bernini, such as Ciro Ferri and Giovanni Paolo Schor.

The gilding was ultimately entrusted to masters such as Rocco Lolli and Marco Antonio Andrini.

These pieces were often embellished with tops of rare marbles, such as this one, which features Red Jasper from Sicily.

Bibliography: Alvar Gonzales Palacios, “Furniture in Rome from the Renaissance to the Baroque,” 2022, Ugo Bozzi Editore, pp. 302–306