Conservation of the Rezzonico Pier Table, Giovanni Battista Piranesi

The Rezzonico Pier Table (c. 1768), Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian, 1720–1778 While Piranesi is mostly recognized for his etchings of ancient ruins and imaginary prisons, he also designed interiors and furnishings that realized his vision of an eclectic modern classicism. This pier table is one of only two surviving pieces of furniture that can be securely attributed to him. It was completed around 1768 for the apartments of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Rezzonico (1740–1783) in the Quirinal Palace, then the summer residence of the popes. Rezzonico, a nephew of Pope Clement XIII, had been elevated to the cardinalate at twenty-six and served as the pope’s majordomo. As it happens, Rezzonico is also buried in a church Piranesi built for him: Santa Maria del Priorato, on the Aventine Hill. The table’s five legs take the form of chimeras—combining the heads of lions, the wings of birds, and the cloven feet of goats—and support an exuberantly carved apron of ox skulls, urns, scrolling acanthus, floral garlands, and classical moldings, executed in finely carved limewood and gilded over an oak framework by an anonymous craftsman of exceptional skill. Prior to its recent conservation, the table’s gilded surfaces were obscured by accumulated grime, along with insect damage, discolored repairs, and structural weaknesses that threatened its stability. Conservation at MACC stabilized the fragile carving, consolidated the original gilding, repaired structural joins, reduced disfiguring surface deposits, and cleaned the decorative surfaces. All of this restored the brilliance and legibility of Piranesi’s design while preserving the object’s historic elements. Mia has long held one of the finest collections of eighteenth-century Roman art in the United States—and this newly restored table stands as one of that period’s greatest examples.