| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Walnut partly gilded, with bronze, leather and silk velvet |
| Brief description | Bellows, Italian, mid 16th century |
| Physical description | Pair of wooden bellows carved with satyrs, a cupid, and a grotesque mask, with a chiselled bronze nozzle |
| Dimensions | - Height: 70.5cm
- Width: 26cm
- Closed depth: 8.5cm
checked for M&T 4/10/2010 |
| Gallery label | - (5 Oct 2006 - 7 Jan 2007)
- Bellows with the Arms of the Giustiniani and Rossi Families
About 1530
Bellows, usually operated by servants, were a key piece of fireplace equipment. This pair bears the arms of two prominent Venetian families. The fantastical decoration, ranging from dolphins and mermaids to a puffing figure blowing into the pipe, suited the ornate setting of the camera d’oro. [44 words]
Italy
Walnut, partly gilded, with bronze, leather and silk velvet
V&A: 7698-1861
At Home in Renaissance Italy, eds.Marta Ajmar-Wollheim and Flora Dennis (London, 2006), cat.125, pl.10.5
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| Object history | Possibly commissioned for a member of the Jiustiniani and Rossi families of Venice.
Bought from Soulages for £40
Lent to GLORIA DELL’ARTE: a renaissance perspective, an exhibition at Philbrook, Art center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 28th, 1979- January 27th, 1980 |
| Production | |
| Bibliographic references | - Bode, Wilhelm. Die Italienischen Hausmöbel der Renaissance (Leipzig, 1902), p.22
- Wood, carved with satyrs, a cupid, and a grotesque mask; a chiselled bronze nozzle. Italian (Venetian). About 1550....
The front forms a circular cartouche, with scroll ends curled over. It has a rich garland border of fruit and leaves. The centre has a carving of two dolphins. Their tails end in scrolls, which roll over and terminate in demi-figures of savage men wielding clubs and shields. The arms on the shield of the right hand figure are:-bendy of six, witha lion rampant over all. The left hand bears a double-headed imperial eagle displayed, bearing an inescutcheon, charged with a fesse. A mark is carved above, and a scallp shell below, to fill the space left by the divergence with which the figures accommodate themselves to the space. A squatting female figure is carved on the handle. The back has a cartouche on it, and marks, shells, etc., supporting it. The windpipe is formed by a grotesque quadruped, winged, and having its fore-paws aligned under the throat. The old undressed buff leather is still left on the edges, and is fastened on with rosette-shaped nails of bronze...
- H.Avray Tipping, Italian furniture of the Italian Renaissance as represented at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Country Life March 31st 1917, pp. 3-8
- Italian furniture of the sixteenth century by Eveline B. Mitford, from The Connoisseur, December 1906, pp.227-232
- GLORIA DELL’ARTE: a renaissance perspective, an exhibition at Philbrook, Art center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 28th, 1979- January 27th, 1980 (Oklahoma, 1979), cat. No. 83
- The South Kensington Museum. Examples of the works of art in the Museum, and of the decorations of the building, with brief descriptions. Issued in monthly parts, I-XI (1880), XII-XXI (1881), XXII (1882) [Vol. 1. Parts I-XII; NAL: VA.1881.0001]
BELLOWS. WOOD. No. 7698-1861. I. 35
ITALIAN artists in the sixteenth century did not confine themselves to the designing and executing important works, but were also ready to give their aid to the making of furniture, chests, cabinets, tables, &c., in every variety of material and with all kinds of decoration. Even things which one would suppose to be intended only for the commonest domestic use were not beneath their notice. Wood was very frequently employed: and it was ornamented with rich carvings, or with gilding and painting; inlaid with agate, lapis lazuli, or other precious marbles; or with ivory, tortoise-shell, and mother-of-pearl.
The bellows here engraved is Italian of about the middle of the sixteenth century: formerly in the Soulages collection, and an admirable example of excellent design and bold carving in high relief applied to a common object.
The front forms a circular cartouche with scroll ends curled over, half covering a border richly made up with fruit and flowers. The panel has at the top a mask, and the centre is filled with two dolphins, their tails continuing in scrolls which roll over and terminate in demi-figures of men with shields and wielding clubs. The arms on one shield are, bendy of six with a lion rampant over all: on the other a double-headed imperial eagle displayed, bearing an inescutcheon charged with a fesse. Where the bodies of the dolphins leave a space in their sweep towards each other is a scallop-shell, answering to the mask above. A squatting female figure, winged, is carved upon the handle. The body of the bellows rests upon an eagle standing, with outstretched wings: well executed and vigorous in design.
The back of the bellows has also a cartouche, with masks, shells, &c., supporting it. The wind-pipe is formed by a grotesque animal (issuing from a satyr's head) with wings and with the fore paws under its throat. The old undressed buff-leather is still left on the edges, fastened to the wood with rosette-shaped nails of bronze.
The diameter of the bellows is rather less than eleven inches.
Bought for 40l.
- Ajmar-Wollheim, Marta and Flora Dennis, At Home in Renaissance Italy, London: V&A Publishing, 2006.
- Benn, H.P and Shapland, H.P., The Nation's Treasures. Measured Drawings of Fine Old Furniture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & co. Ld and Benn Brothers Ltd., 1910, p. 11, pl. 5
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