Marble & Ormolu Console

c. 1780

A Roman Neo-classical marble and ormolu console (c. 1780). The top of well-marked, quartered black and white Aquitaine marble within a boldly gadrooned ormolu rim, frieze also inlaid with panels of black and white marble within beaded giltwood framings and centered at front of oval medallion against a blue mosaic ground, with applied ormolu mount, depicting old man "Winter" seated beside a brazier. Suspending swags of flowering foliage on three sides, four legs in form of female terminal figures, with inset panels of blue and white marble. The console is part of a series of four from designs by architect Antonio Asprucci for Prince Marcantonio Borghese. This model, commissioned from sculptor Vicenzo Pacetti, was intended for the ground floor gallery (Hall of Emperors) of the Villa Borghese, Rome. Mounts by Luigi Valadier, marble supplied by dealer Antonio Minelli and carved by Casimirro Ponziani.

Italy

marble

ormolu

giltwood

mosaics

90.2 x 132.1 x 82.5 cm (35 1/2 x 52 x 32 1/2 inches)

Gift of Mrs. Gladys R. Thomas, Mr. Eugene B. Roberts, and Countess Cornelia Coudenhove-Kalergi.

PSNC.2362a-b