Venetian carver active in the 17th century

Carved, gilded and polychrome wood

Frame size: 79 x 66 cm. (light 42 x 32 cm.)

Provenance: Private collection, Rome

This precious pair of Venetian frames, the work of a seventeenth-century carver, show off all their opulence with a sculpted in high relief with flat volutes that intertwine, with fruit festoons, cherub heads, and whole figures of angels.

They are two beautiful works defined as 'Sansovinesche', or Sansovino, named after the famous Italian Renaissance architect and sculptor Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570).

Florentine by birth, he turned his training to Rome, and then moved to Venice, introducing Roman classicism into the elegant Venetian architecture and harmoniously integrating the monumental style of Mannerism with a taste for meticulous ornamentation.

Therefore, his unique style, which we find in full in the works proposed here, represents the recovery of a certain Mannerist classicism, treasured from the Renaissance lesson, but in some way anticipating the typical Baroque movement.

On the sides of each frame we find two full-length angels, with faces hinting at a smile and framed by curly hair. The garments, which leave the upper part of the bust uncovered, consist of a tunic tied above the knees by a clasp, from which the drapery of the fabric departs. The base of the mirrors is finally decorated with the face of a winged cherub placed between two garlands adorned with fruit, presumably pomegranates.

The frames, intact in the carved part, have been perfectly cleaned and restored in our laboratory.