Andrea Brustolon. When sculpture becomes furniture

Andrea Brustolon (Belluno, 1662 – 1732) was one of the great protagonists of late Baroque sculpture in the Veneto region between the 17th and 18th centuries. He was a pupil of Filippo Parodi in Venice, who gave him a liveliness and elegance of composition that has always remained in his style, and a memory in his mature phase of the Gothic memories and the presence of other artists, such as the painter and friend Gaspare Diziani. Monumental was his conception of statuary, which also manifested itself in the craft tradition of wood sculpture, a decorative taste that led him to devote a considerable part of his activity to the production of furniture, frames and other furnishings that brought him fame and generous, lasting critical acclaim. Among his most representative works are the large sets he made for the Correr family (highchairs, plant pots, etc.), now in Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice, and for the Pisani family (boxwood chairs with symbols of the months), now in the Quirinale.

The forthcoming furniture auction on 28 May will feature 410 lots that belonged to Gina Lollobrigida, an icon of Italian cinema beloved by Italian and international audiences, who spent her last years as a cosmopolitan in her beloved home on the Appia Antica in Rome.

Andrea Brustolon’s work includes three armchairs in patinated boxwood, with the front feet in the form of crouching lions and the back feet on a clawed ball, forming a rich naturalistic mesh, allegorical cherubs sitting on the legs and those on the armrests with heads of fantastic animals and eagles (lot 155); and a pair of carved and patinated wood armchairs attributed to the workshop of Valentino Panciera, known as Besarel, whose structure simulates sturdy tree trunks with Moorish servants on the front legs and cherubs and fauns on the armrests, imitating Brustolon’s stylistic features (lot 48).