An Italian Rococo Carved, Painted and Parcel-Gilt Oval Mirror

An Italian Rococo Carved, Painted and Parcel-Gilt Oval Mirror

The oval plate is set within a moulded slip, painted green and edged with gilt. It is enclosed by a pierced frame of boldly carved C-scrolls and acanthus leaves, painted in pale grey and heightened in gilt. The shoulders are carved with trailing sprays of roses and flowerheads, and the sides break into open scrolls with foliate clasps. A shaped scrolling apron sits at the base. The whole is surmounted by a tall asymmetric crest of rising and curling acanthus scrolls. The plate has scattered foxing throughout.

Probably Venetian, 19th Century, replaced Mirror plate

The combination of painted grounds with parcel-gilt carving was a hallmark of the Italian Rococo, particularly in Venice. There the fashion for lacca and painted decoration in soft, pale tones reached its height in the mid-18th century. The asymmetry of the crest, the pierced and broken scrollwork and the naturalistic flowers are drawn directly from the vocabulary of the rocaille, which spread from France across Europe in the 1730s and 1740s. Italian carvers interpreted it with a characteristic lightness and theatricality. Mirrors of this type were produced in Venice, Genoa and Piedmont and were widely revived in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The pale grey and verdigris-green palette here gives the piece considerable charm and decorative appeal.