PROBABLY CARPI, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This striking scagliola panel, which originally formed an antependium mimicking a richly-embroidered silk tablecloth, is closely related to the work of the scagliolisiti from Carpi, in Emilia-Romagna, near Modena, Bologna and Parma. The richly-scrolling lush foliage accentuated by a variety of exotic birds is arranged in a rigorously symmetrical and mirrored fashion, which is typical of scagliola work from this region. The figural reserve centering this panel is also a feature much-employed by scagliolisti carpigiani, as seen in a number of closely-related examples illustrated D. Colli, et. al., La Scagliola Carpigiana, Modena, 1990, pp. 38-39, 90. Two of the cited panels also include comparable birds as well as reserves with kneeling saints very similar to the monk seen on the present lot. The masters of the Carpi scagliola tradition whose oeuvres relate closest to this panel are Marco Mazelli, Ludovico Leoni, Giovanni Pozzuoli and Giovanni Massa. The designs of all four employ mirrored foliate scrolls centered by figural reserves executed in vivid tones, see G. Manni, I Maestri della Scagliola in Emilia Romagna e Marche, Modena, 1997, pp. 86-137 and pp. 152-199.