A pair of Italian carved giltwood armchairs, Genoa, late 18th century

Duke Gian Nicolò de Ferrari collection, Genoa

G. Morazzoni, Il mobile genovese, Edizioni Alfieri, 1949, p. 114, cat.n. 288.

G. Wannnes, Mobili d'Italia, 1984, p. 185.

The highly unusual split armrest of these armchairs makes them all but unique in design and a remarkable example of Genovese Neoclassicism.

The most unusual feature of this chair’s design, which is otherwise a typical embodiment of the cool and refined Neoclassicism of the late eighteenth century, is the bifurcating armrest. While the downwardly-sloped armrest is a common sight in French and Italian armchairs in this style, not only for its grace but also assumedly for its ergonomics, there are very few documented examples that have the armrest divide in two and also include a lower ‘branch’. The organic term feels apposite here given that this feature seems to grow organically out of the foliate carving that adorns the armrests – although the chairs are far from the preceding Rococo style with its strong influence of natural forms, this forked armrest does seem to visually recall the splitting of a tree branch.

The rare split armrest feature can also be spotted on an armchair by Bonzanigo in the Royal Palace of Turin, where it curiously replaces the vertical support entirely – E. Colle links this to the ever-widening hems of skirts across European fashions as the eighteenth century progressed, leading the supports of armrests to move ever further backwards for the sake of comfort (E. Colle, Il Mobile Neoclassico in Italia, 2005, p. 454). Another example of this form of armrest also pictured in the same publication, fig. 85, p. 362, but on a painted chair that draws on chinoserie decoration so is far less neoclassical in overall spirit.

Another armchair of this model sold at Christie’s London, 16 November 2021, lot 576, and a set of six sold at Rubinacci, Genoa, 22nd May 2008. It is worth noting that an armchair from this suite is pictured alongside a hall or dining chair with no armrests in G .Wannenes, Mobili d’Italia, Turin, 1984, p.185, implying that the original suite contained examples of both.

Genoa was one of the most powerful maritime republics in Italy for centuries, and much like its rival Venice is nicknamed La Serenissima (‘The Most Serene’), it is also commonly known as La Superba, ‘The Proud One’. As was the case for most of Italy, there was some delay before the new goût grec and the Neoclassicism that followed in its wake displaced the prevailing Rococo style. However, Genoa’s geographical and cultural proximity to France meant that the style began to appear in the mid-1770s, and the restorations to the Doge’s Palace after the major fire in 1777 were executed in the Neoclassical manner. Generally, Genovese Neoclassicism in furniture remains closer to the clean lines and rigid balance of the French style than in some other regions of Italy, and the scholar on Genovese furniture Giuseppe Morazzoni notes that the fine seat furniture made for Genoa’s Palazzo Spinola “could be taken for works of Georges Jacob” if their construction were not typically Ligurian (G. Morazzoni, Il Mobile Genovese, 1949, p.77).