The celebrated Piedmontese sculptor, furniture maker and ornamentalist Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo (1745-1820)  was born into a family of woodcarvers in Aste. By 1773 he had settled in Turin where he was engaged at the Savoy court. His first recorded commission there was for picture frames for portraits in the Royal apartments. The Royal account books reveal that over the following twenty years he supplied an array of objects including chairs, stools, sofas, mirrors, screens, beds and panels for the Palazzo Reale in Turin as well for the Savoy residences at Moncalieri, Rivoli, Stupinigi, Venaria and Govone. In 1787 Vittorio Amadeo III, acknowledging his ‘singular mastery’, appointed him official woodcarver to the Crown.  Read more... (307 words, 4 images, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)