Attributed to Antonio Landucci (active 1770 - 1783, Rome)
Set of Seven Armchairs (Poltrone), about 1773
Gilded and painted walnut, 108 x 67.5 x 50 cm (42 1/2 x 26 9/16 x 19 11/16 in.)
This set of seven palatial armchairs are carved in wood and gilded. Most of the chairs’ lines are curvaceous and the decorative motifs abundant, opulent, and expertly rendered. The cabriole legs and feet form a gentle S shape. The aprons (the chair parts that attach perpendicularly to the edges of the seat) and the arms are covered with scroll work, garlands, shell forms, floral elements, and other elegant, intricate, repeating designs. The seats and backs are caned with brown grasses. The center of each of the chair backs has a wooden splat in a curvaceous urn-like shape. The splats are flanked by a pair of ear shaped sections of caning. Each splat is carved to resemble a small animal pelt. Each of the seven chairs is unique because of the individuality of the painted floral scenes on the splats. Those scenes show profusions of stems, leaves, vines, and realistically painted flowers. Flower varieties include roses, pinks, strawberries, anemones, moonflowers, and more. Some of the flowers and leaves are so delicately painted that they are partially translucent. They reveal the gilding underneath, which has been burnished to be less shiny than the gilding on the legs and arms. The horizontal top rail of the seats, at the upper end of each splat, makes a graceful curve to form the two vertical styles that join the back of the chair to the seat. The styles end in a lovely pair of squared gilded tulip motifs. The rear side of the chair legs is carved and gilded but the chair backs are only painted gold.
Titian Room
Commentary
In the center of this gallery are six finely carved and gilded chairs made for the Borghese Palace, in Rome. The remarkably intricate disks and swags around the legs recall ancient Roman decoration. Unusual for chairs of this type, the splats on the back are painted with flowers, insects, and small animals – each chair with a different pattern. Designed to be placed against the wall as room decoration, rather than actually used, these chairs still have their original seat caning. The writer Henry James saw them in Venice and called them “the loveliest I ever saw.” But added, thinking of Isabella Gardner: “They are not a symbol of her attitude – she never sits down.”