ITALIAN SCHOOL, 19TH CENTURY

These four trompe-l’œils seem inspired by the work of the Italian artist Pietro Jacopo Palmieri, author of a similar pendants at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 69.14.1, 69.14.2; see F. Dalmasso, ‘Trompe l’œil di Pietro Palmieri e la cultura figurativa in Piemonte a fine ‘700’, Commentari, XXIII, nos. 1-2, 1972, pp. 132-133, ill.). As in Palmieri’s works, these compositions show engravings after French and Northern artists of the 17th and 18th Centuries, such as François Boucher and Nicolaes Berchem. But in contrast to Palmieri, the author of the present works combined actual prints pasted onto the paper with drawn sections, in effect creating sophisticated collages.