Towards the end of the fourteenth century, various types of furniture began to appear in dwellings all over Europe to meet a variety of requirements that derived from middleclass life. Until the thirteenth century, the most commonly used piece of furniture was the chest, a long and practical parallelepiped made of wood with a hinged top, it was used by day to contain food and linen, as a bed at night, and finally as a place of rest at the end of the days. As people gradually increase their wealth it changed shapes; it was fitted with drawers, doors, carved or inlaid decorations and became the sideboard or dresser, writing cabinet, and chest of drawers. Every moment of everyday life had a particular piece of furniture designed for it, and in just a few decades some quite particular designs appeared to cater for specific needs. By the sixteenth century furniture was so characterised that it was quite easy to distinguish a piece made in one country from that made in the next, as each school of carpentry used its own particular models, woods and proportions.

And so it was that even the simple and intimate act of praying to God, required a specific piece of furniture. Craftsmen jumped at the chance of inventing something suitably sacred. Until the fourteenth century (as can be seen in examples of fresco painting or paintings on wood panels) people prayed by simply kneeling on the ground or on a cushion at most. In the fifteenth century furniture designed specifically for this purpose began to appear; the first examples consisted of a base and a vertical element, with shaped boards. The traditional prie Dieu consists basically of a step, which is sometimes mobile, to kneel on, and a small shelf (riser) for the hands clasped in prayer. This shelf can also be used for prayer books, so people don’t have to hold it in their hands all the time. In time the vertical element was enriched with drawers and compartments to such an extent that in the baroque period it became quite a work of art for cabinetmakers, sculptors and painters who used wood or bronze sculptures, paintings, inlays in wood or other fine materials to embellish their designs. In the richer houses of the italian regions in the '600-'700, that was one of the finest pieces of furniture one could possibly possess, a piece to be “shown” to friends and family alike, and not just as proof of one’s devotion. We still have a few fine examples made by the great master craftsmen of Rome, Naples, Florence, Milan and Venice, every one unique, but with one thing in common; the quality of the craftsmanship and the work that went into the design.

Obviously, Charles Emmanuel III’s new Kingdom of Sardinia (Turin 1701 - 1773) had to keep pace with the latest trends in other Catholic states. The cabinetmakers of the Turin court, Piffetti and Prinotto, were often commissioned to produce pieces of this kind, designed and made to the best of their ability and the very limit of their imagination. The oldest example we have come across is the so-called ‘Carlo Alberto prie Dieu’ made in 1732 by Luigi Prinotto (Turin approximately 1685 – 1780) which completely dominated a tiny room on the first floor of the Royal Palace. The prie Dieu itself is positioned in the centre of the wall. It’s made of walnut and kingwood with ivory and mother-of-pearl inlays, six shaped legs support a mixtilinear platform, the riser has a compartment and many drawers and is finished off by a beautiful (Piffetti) crucifix. The other walls are panelled and fitted with shelves to be used for sacred books and other objects, and also here the inlays are just as fine. Carlo Alberto used it of course in the early nineteenth century when he took up residence in that part of the Royal Palace, but it was originally commissioned by Queen Polissena d’Assia-Rotenburg. Many other prie Dieu rooms were designed by the master Pietro Piffetti (Turin, 1700- 1777) for all the House of Savoy residences from 1735 to 1750. Some splendid examples can still be found in the Royal Palace, Palazzo Madama the seat of the Italian Senate, and the hunting residence of the Stupinigi called Stupinigi Palace. As well as these courtly examples, Piffetti, Prinotto and other less famous although no less talented Piedmont cabinet-makers created numerous simpler and less grandeur prie Dieu, wall-mounted fixtures consisting of a hinged predella, a door in the central part and a chest under the upper part. It could be said that in the eighteenth century no bedroom was complete without at least one of these pieces. Some were made by the local menusiere (carpenter) out of fruitwood or walnut, or by a cabinet-maker in town out of a wide range of fine woods with inlays and sculptures.

In 2007 when the furniture of HRH Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy were auctioned off in London, lot 215 consisted of: “...a royal piedmontese ivory-inlaid kingwood, burr-walnut, burr-elm and fruitwood marquetry prie Dieu. Attributed to Pietro Piffetti, Turin, circa 1730... with a green painted inventory mark to the back inscribed ‘P.P.R’ and indistinctly numbered ‘6721’. Provenance: Castello Reale di Racconigi, Turin...” Prudently the auctioneers merely attributed the work to Piffetti, although they were sure the piece came from the Royal Palace, as is proven also by the acronym painted on the rear (P.P.R. - Property of the Racconigi Palace) certifying the piece dated back to the nineteenth century.
Piffetti created many pieces which are all but identical in terms of the structure of the wood used, but it is known that he always made a point of changing the fine woods used for the inlays and decorations. This is evident in the series of four grand consoles (two in the Palazzo Madama Museum, another in the Compagnia di S. Paolo, and the fourth in the Victoria and Albert Museum) or the two superb “doppio corpo” writing cabinets (one in the Accorsi-Ometto Museum and the other in the Quirinal) with the decorations on each showing substantial variations compared to the others.

An all but identical piece to Princess Maria Gabriella’s prie Dieu will be auctioned off by Bolaffi in Turin on 23 April 2015. Identical the shape and size, the background spaces, the choice of subject in the inlay of the upper part, some of the details are however different. In particular it is enriched by elegant ivory spirals carved in floral motifs in the lower part, on the front panel, the uprights and the upper part. Burr walnut, and a thick rosewood veneer are masterfully applied within incisive boxwood spirals decorating the entire piece with chromatic contrasts. The inscription “Petrus Pifeti fecit” has been carved using a burin into one of the spirals, but this probably does not date back to when the piece was made and was almost certainly carved into the piece at a later date to attribute the work to the master craftsman. The inlays on both prie Dieu show an angel holding a goblet for Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. This refers to a chapter in the Gospel according to St. Luke (22, 41-43) :”...He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed: «Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.» Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.”

It has been shown that the great cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century often copied scenes to inlay on their pieces from the masters of old or even of their own time. Piffetti for example frequently used the works of Jacques Stella in the volume “Les jeux et les plaisirs de l’enfance”, published in Paris in 1657, Prinotto used the works of Pietro Domenico Olivero on a regular basis, Bonzanigo made good use of Piermarini’s ideas, as did Maggiolini with those of Giocondo Albertolli. An attentive study of the iconography used in the two scenes would probably reveal the name of one (or two) artists who produced the original paintings or drawings, which were then inlaid in ivory.

By Gianfranco Fina