Tommaso Bigatti
born in 1760 – died in 1820
Design for a wall decoration featuring Apollo and Silenus
Circa 1800
Gouache on vellum.
329 mm x 541 mm – 12 5/16 x 21 5/16 in.
Antique gilded wooden frame.
Tommaso Bigatti was an Italian painter, ornamental draftsman, and veduta artist active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Best known for his highly precise gouaches on vellum, he specialized in classical interior architecture, ornamental motifs, and decorative fan designs.
This sheet illustrates the artist’s neoclassical sensibility and meticulous execution in interior designs inspired by antiquity, combining fine detail with the clarity of a compartmentalized composition.
It is a wall decoration design featuring, at its center, a mythological scene depicting Apollo and Silenus, based on a work by Annibale Carracci.
The central panel, set within a gilded frame, is flanked by vertical panels on a blue background featuring suspended allegorical female figures. The entire composition is bordered by rich neoclassical ornamentation combining foliage, arabesques, griffins, and bucrania (bull’s heads). The lower register features an architectural plinth adorned with geometric motifs, cups, and ram’s heads in the style of the wall paintings at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
A similar example of this composition is housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. 2017.126.3, gift of David H. McDonnell). Bigatti produced vedute (views of Roman ruins and monuments) as well as decorative art objects such as fans and souvenir gouaches, intended for Europeans undertaking the Grand Tour.
Condition: In good overall condition. A few creases at the top and bottom left. Framed under glass.
