19th Century Screen with Grotesques Painting Oil on Canvas

About the Item

Nineteenth century Screen with grotesques Measures: (5) Oil on canvas, 158 x 185 cm The screen analyzed is made up of five panels, each divided into two panels decorated with elements of the natural world on the upper level and grotesque decorations on the lower level. The grotesque is a type of ornamentation often used in painting, sculpture and minor arts, for example in ceramics and tapestries, developed at the end of the 15th century. The five upper panels refer to as many famous Aesop's fables, i.e. the first panel depicts the fable of The frogs ask for a king, the second panel instead represents the roosters and the partridge, the third panel has as its protagonist the famous fable of the Hare and the tortoise, while the fourth The crow and the fox, while the last panel probably represents the episode of the Fox and the stork. The screen owes its name to its singular and ancient origin; after the discovery of these decorations in 1480 in Nero's Domus Aurea, a palace that had been buried for centuries, under the pretext of imitatio antiquitatis, they were re-proposed in contemporary palaces. The palace of Nero was visited by many explorers, who descended into it and had the impression of being inside a cave, which is why, as Benvenuto Cellini tells us, these particular decorations rediscovered there were called grotesque. The great success that the grotesques had is testified by Raphael's decorations in the Vatican Loggias, in the grotesque room of Palazzo Te in Mantua or in the Grotesque Room of the Castello della Manta in the province of Cuneo. With the end of the Mannerist, the grotesque did not die out as a decorative system, but persisted in the form of an arabesque and later alternated as a decorative system of the chinoiserie. The recovery of classical ornamental forms is evident in the five panels analyzed. Layout according to a geometric construction that is repeated with some variations, plant elements, animals and small objects are placed. Slender and whimsical vegetable shoots, leaves and colored flowers on a monochrome background, give rise to frames, candelabra and weaves, while maintaining an airy and light construction. The decoration present in the compartments examined can be compared with the works of Jean-Baptiste Pillement, an artist from Lyon (1728-1808) known for his magnificent and delicate paintings of harsh pre-Romantic landscapes, appreciated in England in the 13th century, but it is through the his engravings and ornamental designs "in the style of chinoiserie", which became known by spreading the Rococo style throughout Europe. Early in his career, he briefly worked in the Gobelins factory as a designer. Then, from 1745, he traveled to Spain, Portugal, Austria or even Vienna. He lived in London from 1754 to 1762, where he published his first collection of Chinese-inspired drawings. It was in 1778 that he was appointed "painter of Queen Marie Antoinette" who commissioned numerous decorative paintings for the Petit Trianon in Versailles.

Dimensions:

Height: 62.21 in (158 cm)Width: 72.84 in (185 cm)Depth: 1.19 in (3 cm)

Materials and Techniques:

Canvas,Wood,Hand-Painted,Oiled,Painted,Polished

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

19th Century

Date of Manufacture:

19th Century

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.