The Giordano Collection: Une Vision Muséale Part II
The Giordano Collection: Une Vision Muséale Part II
Maurizio Bianco
Portrait of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy, Turin, dated in the Year XII (1804), circle of Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820)
Auction Closed
November 27, 04:27 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Maurizio Bianco (Maurice Blanc)
active from 1792 to 1815
Turin, dated in the Year XII (1804), circle of Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820)
Portrait of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy
important and finely carved pearwood (partly tinted), orange and Mahogany relief
signed and dated FAIT PAR MAURICE BLANC A TURIN l’AN XII ., entitled NAPOLEON / EMPEREUR DES FRANCAIS / ET ROI D’ITALIE
bust-length and facing left within an oval medallion, surrounded by trophies of War and Arts; the frame with flowering urns and foliage scrolls, each corner with allegorical figures of the Four continents
frame: 14¾ by 12⅝ by 1 in. ; 37.5 x 32 x 2.7 cm
relief: 11⅝ by 9⅝ in. ; 29.5 x 24.5 cm
Private collection, Hanover;
Sotheby’s Amsterdam, 27-29 March 2007, An Important private collection from Hanover, lot 1208.
Genio e Maestria, Mobili ed ebanisti alla Corte Sabauda tra settecento e ottocento, exh. cat. Venaria Reale, Reggia di Venaria, 2018, cat. 60 (ill.), p. 278-279
RELATED LITERATURE
Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, exh. cat. Comune di Asti, Pinacoteca Civica, October 1989 - January 1990.
Objets d’arts manufacturés et métiers étalés dans les sallons d’expositions honorés de l’auguste présence de LL.MM.II. et RR Napoléon et Joséphine, Turin le 4 Floréal an 13 (April 1815).
Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, Comune di Asti, Pinacoteca civica, October 1989 - January 1990.
Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, sculptor to Victor Amadeus III, King of Savoy, received great acclaim through the “quadri in scultura” of wood and ivory, that he produced with the help of many assistants in Turin, during the last two decades of the 18th century until his demise in 1820. Among these assistants, individually listed in 1793 (exhibition Cat. 1990, p. 36), we find Morizio Bianco di Torino. That same artist, by the name of Maurice Blanc, is recorded exhibiting twelve “bas reliefs en bois” on the occasion of Napoleon’s passage through Turin in April of 1805 (idem, p. 46). The artist was at this time probably working on his own account, continuing however in the same style as the “atelier Bonzanigo”.
The carving can be dated rather closely. L’an XII, as adopted by the Jacobin-controlled National Convention in 1793, offers a window between September of 1803 and September of 1804. Napoléon Bonaparte is shown as Premier Consul, wears however the Plaque of the Légion d’honneur, which he instituted in May of 1802, but only started bestowing on 15 July 1804, - the Plaque was created on 30 January 1805. Napoléon was declared Empereur des Français on 18 May, 1804, the additional title of Roi d’Italie was declared on 26 May 1805. It is thus suggested that the artist had carved the likeness during the summer of 1804 and then updated the inscription, quite possibly in time for the exhibition in April of 1805.
The relief offered here with displays the same very fine workmanship that the Bonzanigo workshop produced, - another portrait relief from the same workshop, carved with the likeness of Napoleon’s younger brother Jérome Bonaparte was sold in these same rooms in February 2003. The present portraitis of great rarity, as it appears to be the only work of art signed by Maurice Blanc recorded in the conventional literature.
You May Also Like
