An important pair of very richly carved walnut and blackened wood ceremonial armchairs. The armrests feature putti playing in foliage held in place by maures forming the uprights and resting on wide braces of leafy oak branches and tree trunks. Venetian work from the late 19th, early 20th century in the style of Andréa Brustolon Height 126 cm - Width: 68 cm - Depth: 71 cm (small dents; restorations) Provenance:Sale Ader- Picard - Tajan, Hôtel Drouot, 2 December 1974, lot 143 Reference : Enrico Colle: Il Mobile Barocco in Italia, ed. Electa, Milan, 2000, pp. 336-339 Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732) was one of the greatest Venetian sculptors of the Baroque period. His extravagant curves and sumptuous ornamentation profoundly renewed the iconographic and stylistic models of wood sculpture. His fame was such that many Venetian scholars and noble families commissioned works from him to decorate their palaces. In 1706, Pietro Venier, a member of one of the most powerful families in Venice, commissioned sumptuous furniture to furnish the ceremonial room of his palace in San Vio. His palace was destroyed in the 19th century, but all forty pieces of this furniture can now be seen in the Palazzo Ca'Rezzonico.