RCEWA – An Italian Baroque Cabinet by Giacomo Herman Statement of the Expert Adviser to the Secretary of State that the cabinet meets Waverley criteria two and three. Further Information The ‘Note of Case History’ is available on the Arts Council Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/reviewing-committee-case-hearings Please note that images and appendices referenced are not reproduced. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief Description of item An Italian Baroque cabinet (or ‘studiolo’) by Giacomo Herman, on an early 18th century giltwood console table. The ebony veneered cabinet is mounted with lapis lazuli, jasper and gilt bronze, together with fourteen guache miniature paintings depicting views of Rome. Within the pediment is a nocturnal clock by Giovanni Wenderlino Hessler and concealed within the base a virginal by Giovanni Battista Maberiani, dated 1676. The later table, formed of two male figures, masks and scrollwork, supports a veneered verde antico and lumachella marble top. The cabinet is surmounted by a gilt bronze equestrian figure. Height: 284cm; Width 172cm; Depth 72.5cm. 2. Context Provenance: The cabinet recorded in 1669 as one of four cabinets from the workshop of Giacomo Herman in Rome. Mrs Baston, Sunderland, sold Phillips, London, 19 September 1972. Mr & Mrs Joseph Gordon, London, sold Sotheby’s, London, 4 December 2007, lot 60 (£1,084,500). The table made for the cabinet in Rome in the early 18th century. Probably separated from the cabinet when acquired in the mid-20th century by John Bowes Morrell, York, who gave it to the York Assembly Rooms, c.1951. York Conservation Trust, sold Sotheby’s, London, 4 December 2007, with the cabinet. The gilt bronze equestrian figure recorded in a London collection, 1970, and acquired in France by Daniel Katz Limited, 1998; sold to Dr Gert-Rudolf Flick, from whom purchased in 2009 (£275,000). Exhibited: Baroque: Style in the Age of Magnificence, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2009, cat.24. 3. Waverley criteria The item meets Waverley criteria two and three. DETAILED CASE 1. Detailed description of item(s) if more than in Executive summary, and any comments. The cabinet is one of a group of four similar cabinets, apparently completed between 1669 and 1678. The other three are today housed at Rosenborg Castle, Fredensborg Castle and the Chapel of the Virgin of Loretto in Kraków. Of identical size and format, each once contained the remarkable combination of nocturnal clock and virginal. The Kraków cabinet has lost its clock and virginal, as well as a large equestrian figure and other gilt bronzes. However, the other three cabinets retain identical clocks and virginals. The virginal in the present cabinet is signed by Maberiani and dated 1676; the Rosenborg virginal is dated 1678. All three remaining clocks are signed by Hessler and are numbered consecutively 3, 4 and 5. The guache miniatures on the other three cabinets are Biblical scenes derived from Raphael’s Vatican Logge. Principally representing Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Solomon and David, no scene is repeated yet nor are the scenes distributed systematically. In contrast, the miniatures on the London cabinet depict Roman basilicas and the city-wide procession that would take place following the coronation of a new Pope. The London, Rosenborg and Fredensborg cabinets are all placed on console tables of a near identical design with similar, though not identical, marble tops. The Rosenborg and London frames are sufficiently similar to be by the same hand whereas the Fredensborg frame may be from another workshop. What is clear, however, is that all three cabinets must have been in Rome in the early 18th century when these tables were designed. Giacomo Herman (1615-85) was Rome’s leading cabinet maker during the 1660s and 1670s, documented as working for four successive popes and noble Roman families. In an account for expenses incurred on 20 November 1669 he noted that he had, by order of Cardinal Giacomo Rospigliosi, taken four large cabinets to the Palazzo del Quirinale to be inspected by the Cardinal’s uncle, Pope Clement IX. Pope Clement died two weeks later. Nevertheless, in 1680 the son of another of Clement IX’s Rospigliosi nephews inherited from his mother’s uncle, Cardinal Lazzaro Pallavicini, an ebony cabinet surmounted by an equestrian figure and containing both a clock and a virginal. In combination with the dates on the virginals, this would suggest that although Herman had substantially completed four identical cabinets in 1669, he was not able to dispose of them until the late 1670s. The Kraków cabinet appears to have been given to King Jan III Sobieski by Pope Innocent XI after the liberation of Vienna in 1683, passing to the Capucins of Warsaw in 1720. The two cabinets in Denmark, however, were purchased for the Danish Royal Collection in 1767. Although Herman’s workshop is well recorded, only a very few surviving items are documented, among them two monumental cabinets at the Palazzo Colonna. Perhaps his greatest work, signed by him in 1668, is today at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna: a large architectonic ebony and hardstone cabinet with painted scenes from the life of the Emperor Constantine. Not only does that cabinet feature a nocturnal clock (by Campani), the figure of Constantine on horseback is identical to those found on the Danish cabinets. Probably in the mid-20th century, the London cabinet was fitted with a 19th century gilt bronze figure after the Capitoline Marcus Aurelius. However, a bronze identical to those of the Herman cabinets in Denmark and Vienna was identified in a private collection in London by Alvar González-Palacios as early as 1970. This figure was re-united with the cabinet for the Baroque exhibition at the V&A in 2009 and then acquired by the present owner of the cabinet. 2. Detailed explanation of the outstanding significance of the item(s). 1. There is no close connection with our history and national life. 2. Outstanding aesthetic importance. The cabinet is one of the outstanding productions in furniture of the Italian Baroque. The work combines exceptional craftsmanship in several forms and media: the design and execution of the cabinet work itself, the nocturnal clock and virginal, and the later console which has supported the cabinet since the early 18th century. The recent addition of the Constantine figure, almost certainly only removed in the mid-20th century, has increased the value of the ensemble. The present cabinet is on a par with the Rosenborg cabinet. The Fredensborg ensemble is arguably weaker on account of the execution of the console, and the Kraków cabinet is sadly compromised. Although additional to the original design concept, the console is an exceptionally dynamic and powerful piece of carving, clearly designed to maintain the status of the treasured cabinet within a contemporary palatial setting. The figures and masks are unusually bold and expressive and the depth of the complex composition is notable. 3. Outstanding significance for the study of art, design and cultural history. An unusual degree of information surrounding the genesis of this work contributes towards its outstanding significance for the study of Baroque decorative art and cultural history. Documented work of significance from 17th century Italian workshops is so rare that items like this cabinet form the foundation of scholarly understanding in the subject. Although not signed by Herman, two of the four cabinets, including this one, are signed by the artisan Johannes Meisser of Freiburg, offering a glimpse into workshop practice. That the work was apparently produced speculatively is itself of great interest. Herman possibly sought multiple sales: to the pope, to the papacy as a potential diplomatic gift, to the cardinal-nephew Rospigliosi, and perhaps to other powerful individuals from within the inner circle of noble Roman families. What we know of Herman’s output suggests that he was part of small group of innovative craftsmen following the court’s favoured architects and designers (Bernini, Borromini, da Cortona, and J. P. Schor). In 17th century Rome, furniture was a medium which partook of new architectural ideas, an extension of the inventive spirit. Schemes ranging from church and palace interiors to carriages and festive decorations established a common language of dramatic form and narrative representation that informed the decorative arts throughout Europe. The additional significance of the studiolo as an object lay in its ability to export the baroque manner to the heart of allied courts. The diplomatic gesture was reinforced by the compliment of giving something not only rich and imposing but which also spoke to the virtue of the recipient through the inclusion of learned narrative (the miniatures and gilt-bronze mounts) and exclusive works of cultural machinery (the clock and virginal). The delight that this multi- layered luxury would evoke in use was an essential component in its exclusivity. The relative rarity today of a signed Roman virginal, and of a nocturnal clock from the period of their invention and novelty, add significantly to the interest and value of this ensemble work of art. We are today not much closer to understanding the full provenance of the cabinets than we were a decade ago. Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios has shown that one of the four cabinets was by 1680 housed in the Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi. An inventory of 1682 mentions not only the clock, virginal and equestrian figure but also miniatures representing the story of Joseph, indicating that it was one of the cabinets now in Denmark. That cabinet had belonged to Cardinal Lazzaro Pallavicini, whose niece had married a further nephew of Clement IX. The exact manner and timing of the distribution of the cabinets across northern Europe remains unclear. It has been assumed that the present cabinet came to Britain during the 19th century as part of the general trade in Italian art.