| Abstrakt: |
The finding of a marquetry (or marquterie) picture inside the Basilica of Superga dated 1835 made with an exceptional double face technique - that is on both sides - takes us on the trail of an early 19th century great master from Piacenza. We are referring to Antonio Bonadè, a cabinetmaker who in his day had been predicted great fame but who in fact was nearly forgotten. Bonadè was born in Piacenza in 1807 and worked in his city for the Duke's court in Parma, which offered him major commissions, including furniture and fittings for Maria Luigia's bedroom designed by the ornamentalist Giuseppe Borsato. He also worked in Bologna where he had a workshop for a few years and was subsequently very active in Rome, before returning to his birthplace where he died in 1873. He was specialised in perspective inlays In the Vatican, he decorated the door that leads from the Sistine Hall to the Apostolic Archive. Bonadè managed to take architectural views in polystorichrome wooden inlays from its 19th century manufacturing centre in Lombardy to the Province of Vercelli, where Ignazio and Luigi Ravelli prospered as well, and to the Region Emilia where he was a master marquetrist. Oddly, his name resurfaced linked to a work depicting a Piedmontese subject, the only known signed one. The master from Piacenza reproduced in wood (1:1 scale) an engraving from Chiese principali d'Europa (the Main Churches of Europe), an imposing study published in Milan in 1824 by the publisher Artaria. It depicts twelve of the most important sacred buildings in Europe, inside and outside. Bonadè's plans may have well ambitiously included the idea of transferring all the churches in Artaria's book in inlayed pictures, even though this never came to fruition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
