A decorative taste of the early 19th century
The decorative taste of this fireplace mirror is a clear example of Lombard cabinet-making in the early 19th century. It offers solid stylistic confirmation in many works that were made after the mid-18th and much of the 19th century for the ambitious campaign to modernise the Court residences and palaces of the aristocracy of the time.
In fact, similar fireplace mirrors were designed by Luigi Canonica and can be found in the “Achille Bertarelli” document collection in the Milano Castello Sforzesco. Achille Bertarelli (1863 – 1938) was an important Italian art collector and writer. He collected an extensive assortment of the documents and drawings of Luigi Canonica.
The fireplace mirror was probably carved by Giuseppe Foresti (Brescia 1810-1855).
Cristoforo Maria Luigi Canonica
Cristoforo Maria Luigi Canonica (Swiss 1762 – Milan 1844) was a Swiss architect and urban planner whose prominent career as an exponent of neoclassicism was spent mainly in Milan and Lombardy. He was the designated architect of the short-lived Repubblica Cisalpina and, following the fall of the Napoleonic empire, of the kings of Sardinia. In Milan, he was assigned to modify Giovanni Antonio Antolini’s ambitious project for the Foro Buonaparte and the Arena. He also designed two theatres in Milan, the Teatro dei Filodrammatici and the Teatro Re.
