Dottor Gustavo Adolfo Rol (1903-1994), Torino;

His collection, sold Sotheby’s Milan, Arredi, Dipinti, Ceramiche e Argenti dalle Collezioni del Dottor Gustavo Adolfo Rol, 14 March 1995, lot 260 (with a previous proveღnance listed as Maestro Ungheria 𓆏Silagi).

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Huchet de Quénetain, “Lorenzo Bononcelli, un artiste «peintre en scagliola» au service de Victor-Amédée II de Savoie”, in Art Italies, Bulletin de l'Association des historiens de l'art italien, n° 21, 2015, pp.31-38.

G. Ferraris, Pietro Piffetti e Gli Ebanisti a Torino, 1670-1838, Turin, 1992, p.26, nr.5.

Exhibiting the full naturalistic effects and expressive potential that scagliola allows, these charming panels can firmly be attributed to one of the most skilled artists in this technique, Lorenzo Bononcelli, who was active in the last years of the 17th century through to the beginning of the 18th century, particularly for the Royal House of Savoy.

A series of four panels created for the Gabinetto della Regina in the Palazzo Reale in Turin made between 1685 and 1689, and documented and signed by Bononcelli, are extremely similar in their style and composition, with distinctive blue ribbons. These panels were so admired that in 1732 they were incorporated in the redecoration of the appartamenti reali, led by Filippo Juvarra, and for which Pietro Piffetti made mother-of-pearl inlaid ebony frames; the ebony extending the black slate background and cleverly using the desi❀gn of the frame over some elements of the scagliola, creating a trompe l’oeil effect. Interestingly, this type of mother-of-pearl framing can also be seen in a cabinet in the royal palace, on which Piffetti employs the same technique toಞ frame wooden marquetry floral still-lives (Ferraris. pp.28-29, nr. 7). 

The bill for the work names both Piffetti and Bononcelli: “Calcolo di spese per lavori stati comandati da S.M. da farsi in tutta sollecitudine al Suo appartemento nel Palazzo Reale […] Gabinetto grande ed altri attigui con il Pregadio / Per le due Scansie dell’Ebanista 5000 / Per Tutto l’orna mento et fattura del coffano forte 1600 / Per la manifattura dell’Ebanista attorno alle pietre del Bonicelli 1000” [Bill of expenses for the works commissioned for his Majesty, to be swiftly executed for His apartments in the Palazzo Reale [...] The Gabinetto grande and other adjacent ones with the Prie-dieu / For the two shelves made by the ebanista 5000 / For all of the manufacture and ornament of the strong coffer 1600 / For the work of the ebanista for the Bonicelli stones 1000]. (In Turin, Biblioteca Reale, Libri dei dis-carichi fondi d’assinazione dell’Ufficio dell’Inten denza generale della Casa di S.M. il Re di Sardegna, vol. IV, p. 4; apud G. Ferraris, p.199, nr. 16).

This type of floral composition can also be seen on a table top signed “Laurenzius Bonuccelli Fecit” sold at Sotheby’s London (30th May 1997, lot 140), an exciting discovery by a until then obscure artist, which achieved a record price for a scagliola piece (£177,500). Christophe de Quénetain has researched Bononcelli’s production in depth, which typically included table tops with trompe l’oeil arrangements of card games, but also of maps (such as the series of tops celebrating the siege of Turin in 1706), and other floral panels. Demonstrating his strong connection to the Royal House of Savoy, his last documented work commissioned by Vittorio-Amadeo II is a table top with the coat of arms of his eldest son, the future Carlo-Emanuele III (1701-1773) (Quénetain, p.31, p.37). Bonnoncelli was one of the best artists working in this technique, a “painter in scagliola” who “démontre que la frontière entre les beaux-arts et les arts décoratifs n’est pas si étanche que certains le pensent” (idem, p.37).