Description
This superb carved and gilded wooden console adopts a scalloped shape and a decoration of the greatest originality, specific to the carpenters of the Regency period. The belt is composed of openwork oves, foliage and scrolls standing out against a trellis background.
In the center appears the portrait of an elegant woman in a medallion, of great finesse of sculpture. The base is also of the most beautiful decorative effect.
It is made up of two large face-to-face « Cs », sculpted at the top of grimacing faces whose headdress forms an extraordinary volute. The two feet are connected at the bottom by a spacer decorated with a shell and flowers.
She is wearing a marble top.
This remarkable work of sculpture, the abundance of the decor and the great respect for symmetry make this console a true masterpiece of its kind. This work is attributed to the great ornamentalist Jean-Bernard Honoré Turreau, dit Toro.
Dimensions 86 cm H x 120 cm W x 63 cm D
Artist from Toulon, the latter published in 1716 a collection of models engraved with the greatest finesse by Cochin and Rochefort and published by Dubuisson.
He made himself the champion of the Regency style as shown by two of his creations preserved at the BNF On these consoles, we find in the center the portrait of an elegant woman in a medallion, the scrolls but also in the lower part and on the shoulders the amazed fantastic figures which adorn the top of the uprights of our work.
Toro worked mainly in Provence, in the cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in particular.
Its great originality of inspiration is a subtle blend of Parisian models and Italian baroque. We know today very few works that are attributed to him with certainty.
The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris keeps a console from the Regency period, without attribution of a very similar structure and decoration. Also sculpted with a central medallion with the bust of a woman, it offers a belt with a trellis bottom and a face-to-face « C » shaped base.
The lion heads are capped with the same plume front and back and the two feet flanking the central « nut » are also similar.
Jean-Bernard Honoré (or Bernard) Turreau, known as TORO (1672-1731) Designer of ornaments and sculptor, born in Toulon in 1672, died in the same city on January 28, 1731. Son of Pierre Turreau. He was influenced by Puget.
He sculpted the high altar of Aix Cathedral in 1719.
Museums: Lyon: the door of the Hôtel d’Arlatan-Lauris
Toulon (Navy Museum): two Africans
In E. Benezit, Dictionary of painters, sculptors and draftsmen engravers, Gründ, 1976