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17 juillet 2010

A pair of north Italian giltwood and polychrome-painted console tables. Late 17th/early 18th century

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A pair of north Italian giltwood and polychrome-painted console tables. Late 17th-early 18th century, the painted tops first half 18th century, in the manner of Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2010

Each with shaped tops painted with scenes of Western and Eastern princely hunts on dolphin supports flanked by garlands and on rockwork bases, inscribed to label 'Kavanagh 21.12.35', 35 in. (89 cm.) high; 26½ in. (67 cm.) wide; 17½ in. (44.5 cm.) deep (2) - Estimate £60,000 - £100,000 Price Realized £91,250

Provenance: Mrs. Corinna Kavanagh, Buenos Aires, Sotheby's London, 22 November 1963, lot 45.

Notes: Console tables with a single naturalistically carved support in the form of a tree, rockwork or a dolphin, or a combination of these, were executed in various prominent Italian furniture-making centres in the late 17th/early 18th century, including Rome, Florence, Venice and Genoa. Designs for tables with tree supports resting on rockwork, similar to that on the present tables, feature in the designs attributed to Giovanni Paolo Schor (1615-1674) and other artists in the circle of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, 'Roma E Il Regno Delle Due Sicilie', Milan, 1984, vol. II, p. 92, figs. 180-182). With their sinuous dolphin support, these superb console tables relate to a group of tables executed in Venice in the early 18th century by the sculptor Antonio Corradini (1668-1752), who, just like the celebrated Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732), produced throne chairs, mirrors, tables etc. all sculpted with animals, tress and rockwork (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, 'Il Granducato Di Toscana E Gli Stati Settentrionali', Milan, 1986, vol. II, p. 358, fig. 753.

The tops are finely painted with scenes of princely European and Eastern hunting scenes in the manner of the Italian painter and engraver Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). His collection of etchings, the Venationes ferarum, were directly related to Joannes Stradanus' cartoons for tapestries at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici's villa at Poggio a Caiano in the Florentine countryside. Stradanus' designs blended well-tried renaissance hunting themes with fabulous subject matter drawn from Persia, India and the East. As the first professional printmaker to introduce original etchings of landscapes, battles, animals, hunting scenes and grotesques to the Roman public, Tempesta's compositions were widely imitated by artists throughout Europe long after his death.

The Argentinian socialite and hostess Corina Kavanagh was the daughter of a wealthy Irish immigrant who made his fortune in livestock.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1895, she is mostly remembered for the incredible commission of a futuristic skyscraper, known as the Kavanagh Building. In 1934, Corina persuaded her father to build a visionary skyscraper in the centre of Buenos Aires. The commission was given to the architects Gregorio Sanchez, Ernesto Lagos and Luis Mara de la Torre. Built in the Art Deco Style, The Kavanagh was incredibly ahead of its time, being the highest reinforced concrete structure in the world, as well the tallest building in South America in the first half of the 20th century. Today, it is still considered one of the best examples of early Modernism in Argentina.

Christie's. A View from the Spanish Steps - The Collection of Maria Angiolillo 15 July 2010 London, King Street www.christies.com

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