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A CARVED The International Jury of Class 30 (Furniture and Decoration) awarded a medal to Professor Pietro Giusti for his contribution of carved wood frames in the Renaissance style; they observe also that “the models have been selected with the most perfect taste, and the execution leaves nothing to be desired. The carvings on a gold ground and the borders with gilt ornaments are very well treated. Elegance of design and perfection in workmanship are present in the works of Professor Giusti, and art occupies the first place equally with the works of Barbetti, Frullini, and Gatti.” The frame which we have selected for illustration is in the Cinque-Cento style, carved in walnut-wood, relieved with gilding, and the ground pounced; it was executed in 1862 – height about seven feet, and has been purchased for the South Kensington Museum. It is to be remarked that this branch of art is confined almost entirely to Central Italy, Siena and Florence being the principal seats of the industry. Waring, J. B., Masterpieces of Industrial Art & Sculpture at the International Exhibition, 1862, London, 1863.
Pietro Giusti 1822–1878 Siena, circa 1860 carved walnut cassetta frame in the Renaissance style with guilloche sight moulding and a gadroon back moulding bordering a frieze of scrolling acanthus leaf and birds centred upon cartouches at the top and bottom and wreaths to the sides with coered corners enclosing fruits and leaves, all on a punched ground. One of a pair. Construction: Half lapped pine and peg jointed back frame. See Nicholas Penny ‘The study and imitation of old picture-frames’, The Burlington Magazine vol. CXL, no. 1143, June 1998, pp. 375–382 for a discussion of the revival of Renaissance taste. |
Siena has always been famed for its wood-carvers; the art, however, with all others, declined during the last century, and its revival in the present century is due in a great measure to Antonio Manetti and Angelo Barbetti, in the first place, and subsequently to Pietro Giusti, Antonio Rossi, Ludovico Marchetti, Angelo Lombardi, Pasquale Leoncini, and Achille Savagnani. Amongst these Signor Giusti has particularly distinguished himself, and has been mainly instrumental in bringing to perfection the art of ivory-carving in his native town. He is now superintendent of the School of Ornamental Design at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts, Siena; and since his pupils amount to over a hundred, it is to be inferred that his well-grounded principles in art and masterly practice will produce valuable results. In his own establishment he employs ten principal wood-carvers, three cabinet-makers, and twenty-four assistants, forming a central point from which the best models of an artistic character are continually produced and dispersed abroad.
