A Design for a Stage Set Depicting an Architectural Fantasy

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A Design for a Stage Set Depicting an Architectural Fantasy

About the Item

Giuseppino Galliari was the third generation of the notable family of northern Italian draftsmen, painters and set designers, of which his uncle, Bernardino, and his father, Fabrizio, were the most famous. Bernardino was official set designer for the Teatro Regio in Turin, but also worked in Milan and Berlin, where he was briefly the resident designer in the court of Frederick the Great. Fabrizio was active in Milan, Turin, Innsbruck, Paris and Vienna. Like his father, Giuseppino was active as a set designer in Turin, at the Teatro Regio, and Milan, at the Teatro della Scala, where many of his drawings are preserved at the Museo Teatrale della Scala. Working in artistic tradition established by his father and uncle, with whom he often collaborated throughout his career, Giuseppino was also influenced by the work of Ferdinando Galli Bibiena, the great Emilian stage designer. The style of Domenico Fossati, with its Venetian mood, is also felt in some of Giuseppino’s designs. Also, in his depiction of shadowy prisons and monumental palaces, Galliari owes an unmistakable artistic debt to Piranesi and his architectural prints. Giuseppino was active until at least 1795, the date of his last known works, namely sets designs for the Bergamo stage.

Less ponderous in composition than the work of Giovannino, his brother, or of Gaspare, his cousin, Giuseppino’s stage designs are simultaneously fresh and moody, with a balance of light and shade. This drawing, undoubtedly a design for a stage set, seemingly intended for the Teatro Reale in Turin, is a perfectly composed yet spontaneous work by Giuseppino. Saturated with wash for dramatic effect, predicting the work of Giacomo Quarenghi, this sheet can be compared to two set designs by Giuseppino. Identical in medium and technique, they remain in a bound album of the artist’s drawings, which sold for 1,000 lire in the mid nineteenth century, an astronomical sum at the time (see M. Gordon and M. Aldega, Drawings for the Stage by Giuseppino Galliari, Rome, 1999, nos. 31 and 32).

Dimensions:
Height: 11.75 in (29.85 cm)Width: 17.75 in (45.09 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Pen
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
18th Century and Earlier
Date of Manufacture:
Late eighteenth century
Condition:
Excellent Antique.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: EMD 221stDibs: U090616854392