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The Philosophers: A pair of Venetian relief-carved statuary marble plaques
c.1710, by Francesco Penso, known as Cabianca, (1666-1737)
each plaque carved in deep-relief with the profile portrait of an elderly philosopher, their opposed faces, one in anguish the other in repose, with wild flowing beards and framed with a striped folded cowl,
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These carved marble reliefs, the heads are approximately life-size – are one of LASSCO’s most wonderful discoveries.
Francesco Cabianca (1666-1737) was one the most revered sculptors of Venice at the turn of the 17th and 18th Centuries. His work was commissioned by Louis XIV, Tsar Peter the Great, a number of the great patrons of Venice at the time – such as for the Palazzo Corner – statues for the Venice Arsenal and numerous figures and relief panels for churches across the City.
LASSCO bought the relief plaques from the family of the late Murray Adams-Acton (1886-1971) a London-based Art and Antiques Dealer, Connoisseur, Advisor and Interior Designer who worked in the mid-20th Century in dealing in panelled rooms and early English furnishings and Architectural Salvage for Sir William Burrell and William Randolph Hearst amongst others.
Click here, to read the full story of the discovery of the plaques and their history.