All Objects

Two tables of the same design were made by Valadier for Palazzo Borghese in Rome and were subsequently moved to the family’s villa (only one is displayed in the exhibition). The tables have sumptuous porphyry tops and bases in colored marbles. Each base is decorated with four extraordinary golden masks representing the Seasons. The tables were originally surmounted by porphyry and gilt-bronze candelabra (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

This coffee pot may have been created to celebrate the marriage, in 1776, of Prince Sigismondo Chigi and Maria Giovanna Medici d’Ottaiano. Its details denote a taste for archaeological motifs. The female head supporting the spout reflects Valadier’s enduring interest in Roman antiquities. Two unusual details are the high neck, which lends atypical proportions to the coffee pot, and the overlay of a leaf on the wooden handle.

This tureen is part of a large silver service created for Prince Sigismondo Chigi. After Luigi’s death, in 1785, the service was completed by his son, Giuseppe. The tureen’s design illustrates the similarity between the styles of father and son in the 1780s and 1790s. The supports, fashioned like lions’ paws, are close to Luigi’s designs, but the handles are more typical of Giuseppe’s style. The prominently engraved coat of arms emphasizes the Chigi patronage.

In the 1780s, Valadier produced a large and impressive silver service for the Borghese family in Rome. Only a few pieces survive, among them, this delicate spoon with the design of a Medusa head on its handle. The rest of the service’s flatware was decorated with similar motifs.

This is one of two very similar oil lamps on view in the exhibition. Both have a particular virtuoso treatment in the foot with a scalloped edge, supported by double scrolls with a shell in the middle. The arm of each lamp is adjustable, and the contoured shades were meant to be engraved with coats of arms.

Trays on which cutlery, bread, and salt were set, caddinets (cadenas in French or panettiera in Italian) were initially used only by sovereigns and princes of the blood but later, in the eighteenth century, by the aristocracy. Valadier designed a number of such objects, but this is the only surviving one. It was created for Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart (1725–1807), Duke of York, the son of James Stuart, the Old Pretender, and younger brother of Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, “Bonnie Prince Charlie.” With the death of Cardinal Stuart, the family of Catholic pretenders to the English throne came to an end.

Valadier designed a number of inkstands, though none survive. This drawing depicts an inkstand — in gilt silver or bronze — that includes two candlesticks. It was inspired by an engraving by Juste-Aurèle Meissonier (1695–1750) that has ink containers with a similar contour.

The decorative motifs in this design consist of small oak branches with a dragon nesting among them. These refer to the coats of arms of the Chigi (oak) and Boncompagni (dragon) families. It is likely that the trembleuse (now lost) was designed for Gaetano Boncompagni Ludovisi (1706–1777) and his wife Laura Chigi (1707–1792). This drawing shows the design for the object from the front and from above.

Between 1768 and 1773, Valadier created the magnificent silver high altar (still in situ) for the Cathedral of Monreale, in Sicily. The altar was decorated with bas-reliefs showing scenes from the life of the Virgin (to whom the church was dedicated). For the top of the altar, Valadier created silver statues of six saints closely associated with Monreale — St. Louis, St. Castrense, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Benedict, and St. Rosalia. These prodigious statues are on display in the exhibition for the first time outside of Monreale.

Between 1768 and 1773, Valadier created the magnificent silver high altar (still in situ) for the Cathedral of Monreale, in Sicily. The altar was decorated with bas-reliefs showing scenes from the life of the Virgin (to whom the church was dedicated). For the top of the altar, Valadier created silver statues of six saints closely associated with Monreale — St. Louis, St. Castrense, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Benedict, and St. Rosalia. These prodigious statues are on display in the exhibition for the first time outside of Monreale.

Between 1768 and 1773, Valadier created the magnificent silver high altar (still in situ) for the Cathedral of Monreale, in Sicily. The altar was decorated with bas-reliefs showing scenes from the life of the Virgin (to whom the church was dedicated). For the top of the altar, Valadier created silver statues of six saints closely associated with Monreale — St. Louis, St. Castrense, St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Benedict, and St. Rosalia. These prodigious statues are on display in the exhibition for the first time outside of Monreale.

In January 1767, Valadier displayed, in his workshop on Via del Babuino, a large and lavish monstrance intended for a church in Mexico. Decorated with symbols of the Evangelists, with the figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and with putti, cherubs, and symbols of the Passion of Christ, the gilt-silver piece was further enhanced by twelve thousand white topazes. Unfortunately, this sumptuous object is lost, but this drawing is likely related to that commission.

In 1760, Prince Camillo Borghese commissioned the refurbishment of his family chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, known as the Cappella Paolina as it was the burial site for Paul V, the Borghese pope. Antonio Asprucci designed a new altar for the chapel, for which Valadier provided the bronze decoration. This is Asprucci’s original design for the altar.

These frames for cartagloria (altar cards) were created for the altar of the Borghese Chapel — the Cappella Paolina — in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Altar cards displayed specific prayers that were regularly recited during the mass and were meant to serve as memory aids for priests. The elaborate design and rich materials of these frames convey their prestigious patron.

The cameo of Bacchus and Ariadne had also belonged to Cardinal Carpegna, like The Triumph of Bacchus. Made of glass, and not stone, it is an exceedingly rare object. Valadier conceived for it a grand frame into which he inserted small cameos and ancient fragments. One of the two bronze goats at the top is ancient, while the other was created by Valadier to match it.

As well as being interested in classical antiquity, eighteenth-century patrons also had a taste for ancient Egyptian art. The Borghese family commissioned an entire Egyptian-style room for their villa on the outskirts of Rome. Valadier designed this extraordinary clock with Egyptian motifs for Villa Borghese.

This vase resembles the drawn modello by Valadier. It is small but of exquisite quality and made with an exotic and seldom used marble, rosso Appennino. This is the only known marble object by Valadier to have gilt-silver mounts. The acorn on the top suggests that the vase may have been commissioned by the Chigi family, whose coat of arms included oak branches.

Winged monopodial lions support two small marble bowls (tazza in Italian). The interior of each tazza is decorated with a Medusa head. The design for these objects was used by Valadier a number of times, including for containers in the first deser of the Bailli de Breteuil. These two were probably made about the same time Valadier was at work on the Madrid deser. 

While in Rome, about 1778, the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel commissioned a series of bronze reductions of famous classical statues for King Gustav III of Sweden. The five shown in the exhibition (from a much larger group) — Antinous, Ludovisi Ares, Apollo Sauroctonos, Cleopatra (today called Ariadne), and Faustina the Younger — are uniform in quality, chasing, and patina and sit on beautifully designed bases in cipollino marble. It was common for foreign rulers and aristocrats to own small versions of some of the best-known statues from Roman antiquity.

While in Rome, about 1778, the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel commissioned a series of bronze reductions of famous classical statues for King Gustav III of Sweden. The five shown in the exhibition (from a much larger group) — Antinous, Ludovisi Ares, Apollo Sauroctonos, Cleopatra (today called Ariadne), and Faustina the Younger — are uniform in quality, chasing, and patina and sit on beautifully designed bases in cipollino marble. It was common for foreign rulers and aristocrats to own small versions of some of the best-known statues from Roman antiquity.

While in Rome, about 1778, the Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel commissioned a series of bronze reductions of famous classical statues for King Gustav III of Sweden. The five shown in the exhibition (from a much larger group) — Antinous, Ludovisi Ares, Apollo Sauroctonos, Cleopatra (today called Ariadne), and Faustina the Younger — are uniform in quality, chasing, and patina and sit on beautifully designed bases in cipollino marble. It was common for foreign rulers and aristocrats to own small versions of some of the best-known statues from Roman antiquity.

An early description of the deser of the Bailli de Breteuil describes two cups, each held by three female bronze figures — now untraced. This design, clearly influenced by the Borghese Three Graces (now at the Louvre), probably relates to these lost objects.

In addition to sketching a frontal view of the Arch of Trajan for the deser of the Bailli de Breteuil (both the sketch and the arch are on display in the exhibition), Valadier’s workshop also made a drawing that shows the arch from its side, as well as a plan and a section of it. Similar drawings probably existed for most of the architectural reductions of the deser.

This drawing of the Temple of Mercury relates to one of the temples of the deser of the Bailli de Breteuil. The temple is made with colored marbles and semiprecious stones, such as amethyst and garnets. The garland at the center of the tympanum and the three small vases at its top are no longer present in the temple of the deser.

This preparatory drawing is related to the Temple of Flora at the center of the deser of the Bailli de Breteuil. The temple was loosely based on the ruins of the Temple of the Sibyl in Tivoli. The small temple for the deser was created with lapis lazuli columns. The design shows a gilt-bronze statuette in the center, sphinxes at the top, and festoons between the columns, which are now missing in the Madrid temple. A working drawing created in Valadier’s workshop, this sketch would have subsequently been drawn in a more finished way to serve as a presentation model.