Giuliano Da Sangallo
(Florence c. 1443-1516)

An Italian Renaissance Style Carved Marble Chimney/Fireplace Surround 
height 101 in. (256.5 cm.); width 75 3/4 in. (192.5 cm.); depth 13 1/4 in. (33.5 cm.)

After a model by the artist, in The Palazzo Gondi, Florence. Fourth quarter 19th Century.

The upper section with a large panel carved in relief with scrolling foliage, flowers and birds and centered by a medallion depicting Zephyr abducting Chloris, flanked by a putto with avian wings and another with butterfly wings, each standing on a plinth inscribed M.D, surmounted by a rectangular plaque carved with the Harvey family motto SERVATE FIDEM CINERI (Keep the promise made to the ashes of your forefathers), the mantel carved with the Triumph of Neptune, flanked by trophies and supported by pilasters richly carved with masks and foliage.

The design of this fireplace surround is based on a monumental fireplace in the Palazzo Gondi in Florence, designed by Giulano da Sangallo (circa 1443-1516), the preferred architect of Lorenzo the Magnificent and other important figures of the Florentine Renaissance. Only the lower section (mantel and supports) of the present fireplace is based on the Palazzo Gondi model; the upper section appears to be an invention of the stone carver employed to produce the fireplace for the Thaw Mansion.

Benjamin Thaw built his mansion at 5010 Morewood Place in Pittsburgh in 1899, a luxuriously appointed three-and-one-half story construction with twenty rooms, eight baths and a six-car garage. The fireplace was carved and shipped to Pittsburgh for the then-enormous sum of $15,000 – over thirty times the average annual salary of the day.

PROVENANCE:

The Benjamin Thaw Mansion, Morewood Place, Pittsburgh