Lot 20

ROCOCO CASSAPANCA WITH ALLEGORICAL DEPICTIONS

The term cassapanca refers to a type of Italian bench furniture with paintings that are placed in the offered rococo bench on the backs separated by armrests. On the left is the allegory of Hope, centrally the allegory of Love and on the right the allegory of Faith. The painted scenes of Christian virtues are set in a stylized landscape with Roman ruins referred to by the Italian term capriccio. The subjects thus fit into the canon of Baroque poetics of transience. The paintings are framed by decorative carved gilded cartouches with rocailles. The rich carving in gilded wood, together with the dynamic Baroque morphology contrastingly accentuated by polychrome in dark grey, is an example of a representative piece of furniture intended for the aristocracy from the period around the mid-18th century. The bench on offer comes from the important First Republic collection of Antonín Mack (1872-1923), an important bibliophile, art critic and translator. Good condition with numerous defects and torn fabric, restored in places.