Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814) is one of the most renowned Italian cabinetmakers of the 18th and early 19th century. Particularly famed 
is his work in marquetry, on commodes, chests, writing desks and tables. Neoclassical in design, his pieces employ a variety of richly-colored woods, geometric shapes, and intricate patterns.
This chair, one of a set of four neoclassical chairs in our collection, is derived from the klismos chair, a Greek invention that evolved from a simple throne. Splayed, sabre-form legs and uprights connected by a concave backrest are characteristics of these chairs, which became popular in the late-18th and 19th centuries for their gracefulness and lightness of form, as well as their reference to antiquity. The present chairs are illustrative of the variations on the klismos form that occurred at the end of 18th century during the Neoclassical period in Italy, when furniture was relieved of ornament in favor of simple lines more closely modeled on its classical forbears.
We’ve just had an interesting new find! A pair of 17th century painted plaster pedestals in our collection are nearly identical to stucco versions formerly in the Villa di Vignamaggio.
17th century Italian pedestal brackets, Carlton Hobbs LLC.
Vignamaggio pedestals. (Photo: Pratesi, Scultura Fiorentina, Vol III, 1993. Pl. 428, 429.)
Vignamaggio is a Tuscan villa dating to the 14th century and was owned by the Gherardini family. It has been rumored that the grounds of the villa inspired the landscape for Leonardo da Vinci’s La Gioconda (the Mona Lisa), and that Anton Maria Gherardini’s daughter, Mona Lisa, served as the model.