Carved console

Style: Barocchetto (1720-1770)

With this term we designate, for what specifically relates to furniture, a part of the production carried out in Italy in the period of time between the Rococo era and the first phase of neoclassicism.
It is characterized by the formal and decorative structure still rigidly adhering to the dictates dear to the Baroque period (hence the term baroque) and to the Louis XIV fashions and yet the new times are captured in the adoption of smaller volumes, more decorative modules. elegant, often directly inspired by French fashion, but always executed with rigorous principles of ornamental symmetry.
The tendency to assimilate formal and volumetric novelties but not to incorporate their ornamental elaboration finds natural explanation in Italy in the fact that in this century the great aristocracy experienced an unstoppable political and economic decline.
If in the previous century there was a great profusion of furnishings destined to adorn newly built homes, to proudly show the power of the client family, in the eighteenth century they rather take care to update the building with only the furniture strictly necessary for the new needs imposed by fashion or functional needs.
The old scenographic apparatus is maintained and the new must not contrast too much.
Find out more about the Barocchetto with our insights:
Classic Monday: discovering Barocchetto
Classic Monday: between Baroque and Barocchetto
Classic Monday elegant and unusual with two Barocchetto balustrades
FineArt: Pair of Barocchetto chairs, Venice
Emilian canterano first quarter XVIII century, first Barocchetto
Ribalta a urn, Milan mid-18th

Main essence: Walnut

Walnut wood comes from the plant whose botanical name is juglans regia , probably originally from the East but very common in Europe. Light or dark brown in color, it is a hard wood with a beautiful grain, widely used in antique furniture. It was the main essence in Italy throughout the Renaissance and later had a good diffusion in Europe, especially in England, until the advent of mahogany. It was used for solid wood furniture and sometimes carvings and inlays, its only big limitation is that it suffers a lot from woodworm. In France it was widely used more than anything else in the provinces. In the second half of the eighteenth century its use decreased significantly because mahogany and other exotic woods were preferred.

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