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19th Century Pair of Desks with portraits of Petrarch and Leonardo Alabaster

About the Item

19th century Pair of desks with portraits of Petrarch and Leonardo (2) Alabaster, 34 and 35 cm diam The pair of alabaster discs features a central cameo with the effigy of Petrarch and Leonardo, probably part of a larger series that featured illustrious characters from Italian history. On the openwork frame of Petrarch there are portraits of some characters who face each other, combined for centuries, as can be seen from the shapes of the garments that span several centuries: from the thirteenth century, in which men wear long-tipped bonnets, to the fifteenth century and Sixteenth century, the two characters at the top, in the seventeenth century, with wide collars, up to the eighteenth century. Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) embodies the figure of the humanist intellectual par excellence, entirely dedicated to the study of Latin conceived as the only form of expression worthy of a man of letters, so as to serve any form of written communication, including letters and the reflection on himself witnessed in the Secretum. A personality made more complex by obsessive perfectionism, which led him to a continuous and infinite editing of the work which he also flaunted to consider as minor and which instead ensured him an undying fame among posterity, the Canzoniere. But the only aspect fixed in the collective imagination is that of the lover who idolizes the places where his ideal love blossomed and where it remained hovering after the death of his earthly object. The dimension of the memory of an unconsummated love, made of contemplation and desire, capable of transfiguring the place of encounter or vision, the longing for an ideal beauty as a poetic inspiration are the themes that attract lovers of the Petrarchian myth. The typical representation of Petrarch, as well as part of his literary fortune, ends up by grasping an absolutely marginal and partly strongly deviant aspect of the public and sought-after image of the great man of letters. Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and died in Amboise in 1519). He personified the Renaissance genius that revolutionized both the visual arts and the history of thought and science. He presents himself with a letter that represents a kind of curriculum in which he describes his aptitudes as a civil engineer and builder of war machines to the Duke of Milan Lodovico Sforza, who welcomed him well. Here the pictorial masterpieces are born: the Virgin of the Rocks in the two versions of Paris and London and the exercise for the bronze equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza. In 1489-90 he prepared the decorations of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan for the wedding of Gian Galeazzo Sforza with Isabella of Aragon while, as a hydraulic engineer, he took care of the reclamation in the lower Lombardy region. In 1495 the fresco of the Cenacle begins in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. In 1499 Leonardo escaped from Milan because it was invaded by the troops of the French king Louis XII and took refuge in Mantua and Venice. In 1503 he was in Florence to fresco, together with Michelangelo, the large Council Hall in the Palazzo della Signoria. Leonardo is entrusted with the representation of the Battle of Anghiari which, however, he will not complete, due to his obsessive search for artistic techniques to be experimented or innovated. In 1513 the king of France Francis I invited him to Amboise. Leonardo will take care of projects for the celebrations and will continue with his hydrological projects for some rivers of France. In 1503 he was in Florence to fresco, together with Michelangelo, the large Council Hall in the Palazzo della Signoria. Leonardo is entrusted with the representation of the Battle of Anghiari which, however, he will not complete, due to his obsessive search for artistic techniques to be experimented or innovated. In 1513 the king of France Francis I invited him to Amboise. Leonardo will take care of projects for the celebrations and will continue with his hydrological projects for some rivers of France. In 1503 he was in Florence to fresco, together with Michelangelo, the large Council Hall in the Palazzo della Signoria. Leonardo is entrusted with the representation of the Battle of Anghiari which, however, he will not complete, due to his obsessive search for artistic techniques to be experimented or innovated. In 1513 the king of France Francis I invited him to Amboise. Leonardo will take care of projects for the celebrations and will continue with his hydrological projects for some rivers of France. In 1513 the king of France Francis I invited him to Amboise. Leonardo will take care of projects for the celebrations and will continue with his hydrological projects for some rivers of France. In 1513 the king of France Francis I invited him to Amboise. Leonardo will take care of projects for the celebrations and will continue with his hydrological projects for some rivers of France.

Dimensions:

Height: 13.78 in (35 cm)Diameter: 13.78 in (35 cm)

Sold As:

Set of 2

Materials and Techniques:

Alabaster

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

19th Century

Date of Manufacture:

19th Century