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A PAIR OF ITALIAN LATE BAROQUE GILTWOOD PICTURE FRAMES Made for the portraits of Prince...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:120,000.00 - 180,000.00 USD
A PAIR OF ITALIAN LATE BAROQUE GILTWOOD PICTURE FRAMES Made for the portraits of Prince...
A PAIR OF ITALIAN LATE BAROQUE GILTWOOD PICTURE FRAMES

Made for the portraits of Prince Johann Wilhelm Joseph von der Pfalz, Elector of the Palatine (1658-1716) and Princess Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici of Tuscany (1667-1743), Florence, circa 1691 His frame: the oval plate framed by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece issuing from a Princely crown supported by a pair of rampant lions flanked by martial trophies and Roman emperor portrait medallions, above cornucopia with sheaves of corn and vines wrapped with palms, the bottom centered by a reclining putto holding Hercules' club above a double volute apron Her frame: the oval plate framed by palms and berried laurel, tied above with a portrait medallion chain below a Princely crown supported by winged putti blowing trumpets bannered with the Medici arms, the sides draped with ermine, above a pair of embracing putti flanking a flaming heart before lily sprays 69 X 57 IN. (175 X 145 CM)

$120,000-180,000

Provenance probably schloss bensberg, düsseldorf By repute Richard Temple, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776-1839), Stowe House, Buckinghamshire Christie's London, July 4, 1996, lot 274. THE DECORATION AND ICONOGRAPHY of These frames, conceived in the 17th- century, "Roman" or "antique" manner, were executed for portraits of Prince Johann Wilhelm Joseph von der Pfalz, Elector of the Palatine, and Princess Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici (figs. 1 & 2), probably at the time of or shortly following their marriage on June 5, 1691.

The triumphal bejeweled medallion frame for the husband, comprising a peace trophy of arms ensigned with a Princely crown guarded by lions issuing from palm-twined cornucopia and symbolizing Ceres' triumph as goddess of Peace and Plenty, is borne by Love displaying Hercules' club, recalling his power in the enslavement of that mighty hero. The chain to the sight edge is that of the Order of the Golden Fleece to which he was elected a knight on September 6, 1685, and in which he was invested by the Emperor in Vienna on January 12, 1686.

The frame of his wife, ensigned with a Princely crown and wreathed by palm and laurel branches, is tied by a portrait medallion chain, presumably depicting figures such as Cosimo I, from whom she descended directly, accompanying a couple's jeweled portrait medallion, presumably that of her parents, and borne by Love's displaying banners with lily-enriched escutcheons, trumpeting the fame of the Medici. In addition, the stately decoration reveals Love's triumph

with Psyche and Cupid attending Venus' enflamed heart-altar. Each circular shield decorated with six balls is that of the prominent Florentine banking family, the Medici. The lily symbolizes the city of Florence.This type of decoration is based on designs by Roman Filippo Passarini, who published his Nuove Invenzioni d'Ornamenti in 1698, and on those of Giovanni Gardini, who published Disegni diversi inventati da Giovanni Giardini da Forli argentere del Palazzo apostolico e Fonditore della Reale Camerea in 1714. Although these frames are based on Italian designs, their compositions, the modeling of the figures, the cornucopia and, from an Italian viewpoint, possibly not the most harmonious decoration, may point to a more northern point of manufacture, such as Germany or, more specifically, Düsseldorf, where the couple resided at Schloss Bensberg. A similarly decorated oval Swedish baroque frame of roughly the same size and date carved to a design attributed to Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654-1728) for a portrait of King Charles XI of Sweden (1655-1697) by David Klocker Ehrenstrahl (1629-1698) is in the Sinebrychoff Museum of Foreign Art, Helsinki (Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts, Frameworks. London, 1996, pp. 141-42, fig. 107).

THE PALATINE/MEDICI PROVENANCE Prince Johann Wilhelm Joseph von der Pfalz, Elector of the Palatine, was the son of Philippe Wilhelm (1615-1690), from whom he inherited the title of Elector, and of Elisabeth Amelie von Hessen-Darmstadt (1658-1716). Princess Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici was the daughter of Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1642-1723) and of Marguerite Louise d'Orleans (1645-1721).

the present frames probably hung at the royal hunting lodge, Schloss Bensberg, near Düsseldorf, where the couple lived from 1705 when it was completed (fig 3), there also hung there 14 paintings celebrating the life and reign of the Elector painted between July 1713 and August 1714 by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741), for which the oil sketch of The Marriage of the Elector Palatine survives at the National Gallery, London (NG 6328) (fig 4). the series of paintings now hangs in the staatsgalerie, schleisheim with the portraits of the couple (figs 1 & 2). it is not known when the present frames left schloss bensberg. Perhaps their fate was similar to that of The Quack, 1652, by Gerrit Dou, now in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, which belonged to Johann Wilhelm Joseph and was passed down through the German Royal collections to the Königliche Gemälde-Galerie in Munich, later the Alte Pinakothek, from which it was deaccessioned in 1938 (Gerrit Dou: Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt. Ex. cat. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000). These impressive frames were later reputedly at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, and would have had to have been acquired by the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos or by his son who spent several years in Italy in the early 19th century. However, lacking their original paintings, they are nearly impossible to trace. There are several large paintings with richly carved frames mentioned in the sales that took place at Stowe on August 15, 1848 (37 days), July 4, 1921 (24 days), and on October 11, 1922 (4 days)
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