Set of Seven Armchairs (Poltrone)
furniture makerAttributed to
Antonio Landucci
(active 1770 - 1783, Rome)
Dateabout 1773
Place MadeRome, Lazio, Italy, Europe
MediumGilded and painted walnut
Dimensions108 x 67.5 x 50 cm (42 1/2 x 26 9/16 x 19 11/16 in.)
ClassificationsFurniture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberF26e9.1-7
eMuseum ID717873
EmbARK ObjectID16179
TMS Source ID4524
Last Updated8/15/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIn the center of this gallery are six finely carved and gilded chairs made for the Borghese Palace, in Rome. The remarkably intricate disks and swags around the legs recall ancient Roman decoration. Unusual for chairs of this type, the splats on the back are painted with flowers, insects, and small animals – each chair with a different pattern. Designed to be placed against the wall as room decoration, rather than actually used, these chairs still have their original seat caning. The writer Henry James saw them in Venice and called them “the loveliest I ever saw.” But added, thinking of Isabella Gardner: “They are not a symbol of her attitude – she never sits down.”
BibliographyNotesGiuseppe Giacomini and Vincenzo Capobianchi. Catalogue des objets d'art et d'ameublement qui garnissent le grand appartement au premier étage du palais du Prince Borghese à Rome (Rome: Imprimerie Editrice Romana, 18 March - 9 April 1892), lots 371-373.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p.3, no. 1.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 19.
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925), p. 219.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 222. (Italian, first quarter of the 18th century)
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, ed. Henry James: Letters from the Palazzo Barbaro (London, 1998), p.123.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 128. (1760s)
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), pp. 78-80, fig. 54. (1770s)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), pp. 244-51, no. 114.
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi."'Foresti' In Venice in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Their Passion for Paintings, Brocades, and Glass." Atti dell' Instituto Veneto di Scienze, lettre ed arti (Venice, 2016), p. 7.
Kaeley Ferguson, "Caned Chairs and Their Conservation," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 28 April 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/caned-chairs-conservation
Brittany Luberda. "Women in Workshops" in Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe 1400 - 1800. Exh. cat. (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, and Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2023). pp. 99-100, fig. 13.
Deandra Duarte, "The Prince's Chairs in the Titian Room," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 23 July 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/princes-chairs-titian-room
Isabella Stewart Gardner. Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p.3, no. 1.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 19.
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925), p. 219.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 222. (Italian, first quarter of the 18th century)
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, ed. Henry James: Letters from the Palazzo Barbaro (London, 1998), p.123.
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 128. (1760s)
Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), pp. 78-80, fig. 54. (1770s)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), pp. 244-51, no. 114.
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi."'Foresti' In Venice in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Their Passion for Paintings, Brocades, and Glass." Atti dell' Instituto Veneto di Scienze, lettre ed arti (Venice, 2016), p. 7.
Kaeley Ferguson, "Caned Chairs and Their Conservation," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 28 April 2020, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/caned-chairs-conservation
Brittany Luberda. "Women in Workshops" in Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe 1400 - 1800. Exh. cat. (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, and Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2023). pp. 99-100, fig. 13.
Deandra Duarte, "The Prince's Chairs in the Titian Room," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 23 July 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/princes-chairs-titian-room
ProvenanceNotesCommissioned by Marcantonio Borghese (1730–1800) for the Galleria Terrena of the Palazzo Borghese, Rome around 1773.
Recorded in the Camera di Camino of the Palazzo Borghese in 1816, and on the piano nobile in 1832. In the Salon Rouge in 1892.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner at auction, The Borghese Palace Sale by Giacomini & Capobianchi, Rome on 2 April 1892 (lots 371-373, as "du temps de Louis XV") for 7350 francs through Ralph W. Curtis (1854–1922), American painter and collector.
Recorded in the Camera di Camino of the Palazzo Borghese in 1816, and on the piano nobile in 1832. In the Salon Rouge in 1892.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner at auction, The Borghese Palace Sale by Giacomini & Capobianchi, Rome on 2 April 1892 (lots 371-373, as "du temps de Louis XV") for 7350 francs through Ralph W. Curtis (1854–1922), American painter and collector.
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