ENRICO SCALABRINI (1843-1881)

AIGUIERE AND ITS BASIN OF THE SENATOR ROSSI DI SCHIO Milan, 1874 Steel, silver and gold H. 31 cm, D. 34 cm Signed and dated on the neck of the ewer: "E. Scalabrini fece - Milano 1874". Provenance Commissioned by Senator Alessandro Rossi, 1874 Exhibition Philadelphia, 1876, Universal Exhibition BIBLIOGRAPHY L'Esposizione Universale di Filadelfia del 1876 illustrata, Milan, 1876, reproduced on pp. 22-23 Enrico Colle, Angela Griseri and Roberto Valeriani, Bronzi decorativi in Italia: bronzisti e fonditori italiani dal Seicento all'Ottocento, Milan, Electa, 2001, reproduced p. 315 and cited p. 328 note 77 Our ewer and its basin are a jewel of the Italian industrial arts of the 1870s. A silver bas-relief freely inspired by Antiquity decorates the body of the steel ewer, highlighted by gold inlays, between two friezes of acanthus and water iris. Lovers riding tritons accompany the figures of Neptune, who can be recognized by his trident, and Venus anadyomene, naked on a shell. The cove is formed by a female figurehead, a Nereid, her hands joining two dolphins and her feet resting on a goat-headed hybrid. This marine theme is repeated on the wing of the basin, where the chariot of Bacchus, who is drinking greedily, and that of Ceres, with a sheaf of wheat in her hand, are invited in the midst of the little lovers. The procession is bordered by a light frieze of pearl gadroons. This ensemble, created by Enrico Scalabrini (1843-1881) in 1874, was commissioned by the great industrialist and politician Alessandro Rossi (fig. 1). It was exhibited two years later in Philadelphia in 1876 (fig. 2). Our artist drew his inspiration from the great Florentine Renaissance bronziers, from Ghiberti to Cellini, in search of fantasy nourished by learned culture. His contemporaries praised his exquisitely fine metal objects, and the queen herself commissioned him to make small caskets like the one presented at the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873.