Triple-back settee (part of a set)

Date:
ca. 1790–1800
Culture:
Italian, Sicily
Medium:
Carved, gilded and painted walnut, reverse painted glass, cut and voided 17th-century crimson velvet
Dimensions:
H. 38-3/4" (98.4 cm.); W. 78-3/8" (199 cm.); D. 26" (66 cm.)
Classification:
Woodwork
Credit Line:
Gift of John P. Richardson, 1992
Accession Number:
1992.173.1
  • Description

    This settee is from a large set of seat furniture, which included at least four settees and twenty side chairs. It was formerly thought to have been commissioned for the Villa Palagonia at Bagheria near Palermo, but the provenance remains undocumented, and the initials in the cipher at the center of the back, "PPL," are as yet unidentified. The reverse-painted glass panels in imitation of agate, lapis, and marble are a distinctive feature often used on late-eighteenth-century Neoclassical Sicilian furniture.

  • Provenance

    Derby House, London, England (Earl of Derby)The Earl of Derby ; Mrs. Violet van der Elst ; [ Christie, Manson and Woods ] ; Geoffrey Houghton-Brown ; John P. Richardson (until 1992; to MMA)

  • See also
    What
    Where
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
120024218

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