What were the habits of eighteenth-eighteenth century nobles: precious silverware from Palazzo d'Arco on display in Mantua

From March 30 to November 30, 2019, the d’Arco Palace Museum in Mantua is hosting the exhibition The Spirit of Things. Silverware and Precious of the d’Arco Counts, showcasing the family silverware, jealously guarded as a family treasure to be passed on as an inheritance from generation to generation, which restores memories of the lively past and reveals among its reflections, precisely, the “spirit of things.” Curated by Francesca Rapposelli, the exhibition displays a rich and varied collection of cutlery, services, and sought-after men’s and women’s accessories, reconstructing noble customs between the 18th and 19th centuries under the banner of elegance and style.

These are objects that have never been exhibited to the public: the collection dates mainly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the decorative arts played a predominant role and the precious objects with which the aristocracy surrounded themselves interacted with their environments. To reconstruct the past of these works, services were reassembled, coats of arms and monograms were identified, and the punches impressed on the silverware were analyzed, carrying out a study of all specimens. Nuclei of German, English, and French silverware emerged, giving an international character to the collection, and among the national manufactures an extraordinary group of Milanese works that convey memories of important historical events stood out. The rich array of silverware becomes eloquent testimony to a glittering universe that spilled over from the dinner table into all domestic environments. Objects that at that time associated a representative task with the functional one of objects of use, reflecting the changing needs of patrons. Silverware, then, present in everyday aristocratic life, punctuated by worldly receptions that alternated with the more intimate moments of the prissy women’s drawing rooms or accompanied the love of writing in the domestic walls. Precious, at the same time, which characterized the typically male pastimes in the fumoirs, or the more informal meals upon returning from hunting, offering an illuminating demonstration of aristocratic customs.

During the exhibition, the services will take up residence on tables and in drawing rooms, bringing those objects to life by unifying them with the original context as only a house museum can still offer. The evocative nature of the museum has paved the way for multiple narratives of the family’s daily living based on solid scholarly research conducted in the mansion’s archives. The contemporary English living museum proposals thus find full fruition in Palazzo d’Arco by combining the purposes of education and delight.

The different types of the Palazzo’s antique furnishings have divided the exhibition’s itinerary into five sections: the first is dedicated to the table services of Emanuele Caber and Giuseppe Brusa, a nucleus of table silverware representative of Milanese production in the second decade of the 19th century. The works of Emanuele Caber and Giuseppe Brusa, the city’s most prominent Milanese silversmiths, will be displayed in the Hall of the Ancestors, where the family’s wealth and ancient origins documented by dynastic paintings justified the display of household silverware during official ceremonies.

The second section, titled The Objects of Vexatious Feminine Rituals, takes us back to the time of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century d’Arco mistresses of the house, namely Matilda of Canossa (1744 - ?), namesake of the famous historical figure, who in 1762 married Count Gianbattista Gherardo, Amalia Sanvitale (1770 - 1846), mistress of Count Francesco Alberto, and Giovanna de’ Capitani d’Arzago (1813 - 1870) consort of Count Luigi. All were women with strong personalities and not only in the domestic sphere. The precious silverware in the d’Arco collection related to women’s dressing tables and intimate drawing rooms can be traced back to these noble figures as well as to the last d’Arco descendant, Countess Giovanna Marchesa Guidi di Bagno. According to the customs of the time, the women’s dressing room had to follow a very precise arrangement of furniture in which the shelf on which the accessories necessary for beauty rituals were placed was of fundamental importance. By the 18th century the time of grooming had also become the time of breakfast. In this context is the nucleus of Mantuan silverware with works by Giovanni Bellavite and Francesco Rizzardi juxtaposed with the French manufactures of Francois Diosne, Luis Bruneau and Charles Murat.

The third section is devoted to the casa d’Arco fumoir. The spread of fumoirs in nineteenth-century Italy can be traced to a broader observance of aristocratic rules of sociability, which saw the French salon as the model of reference. In a context of strict social separation, there thus came to be a distinction between women’s conversation salons, in which the mistress of the house had a central role, and exclusively male moments of aggregation, such as circles, cafes or, indeed, fumoirs. Tobacco created a pattern of custom, and its use generated an unlimited production of smoking objects: pipes, snuff boxes, cigar boxes and cigarette cases, a repertoire of craftsmanship often of great taste and refinement that legitimized and contributed, in turn, to the spread and consumption of tobacco itself. Silver snuff boxes that had not only a practical function, but above all an aesthetic and self-celebratory one, fitting into a much broader context of etiquette, of savoir faire: given as a token of love or as a diplomatic tribute, used in real social rituals, they became a reflection of fashions and tastes over the different centuries. It is precisely in this boundless and eclectic market that the English silverware by W.T. Wright and F. Davies, French and German silverware on display in the Red Room of the Palazzo d’Arco, and an interesting nucleus of Hanau manufactures are placed.

Again, the fourth section, The Bon Ton at the Desk, focuses on the writing service, which becomes a sign of distinction for those who produce it and those who use it; and it is through letters that the most beautiful and intense pages of history come alive. The writing desks of Joan of Arc and her father Francis Anthony jealously guard many sheets, still virgins, along with all those writing objects, so loaded with signs, which for the Romantics translate into a universe of sensations: the gleam of silver and the purity of mother-of-pearl, the indelible stain of bister and sepia, the cobalt blue of dust and the smell of melted wax, the precious one, which melted on envelopes, preserved secrets from gossips, and the one of sevo, which dripped on lies. In the Palace’s Old Library, the family’s writing services and furnishings will be on display.

Finally, the Victorian Brunch section, which takes its place in the 1823 Wallpaper Room, will ensure that the drawing room tables will be furnished with the silverware necessary for the perfect English brunch. The dawn of brunch is to be found in the so-called Hunt Breakfasts, the traditional hunting breakfasts: a convivial moment that provided a generous and restorative meal for the gentlemen who gathered after practicing the art of hunting. A passion that for hunting and thoroughbreds is certainly not lacking in the House of Arco and especially in the figure of Count Francis Anthony (1848-1917). The palace’s ancient library houses a very rich collection of hippology that features more than two hundred volumes, some valuable sixteenth-century books and specialized journals. The Count d’Arco was an attentive collector and patron of fine English table silverware by J. Grinsell, Oreste Franzi, T&J Creswick and French, as evidenced by the fine coffee and chocolate service produced by the Christofle company.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with author’s texts and images, as well as several scholarly contributions and technical sheets of the works. Opening hours: Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesdays from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The ticket office closes one hour early, and tours are escorted or guided only. Tickets: full 8 euros, reduced 2 euros (for schools and children up to 11 years old), special reduced 5 euros (children from 12 to 18 years old, FAI and TCI members, groups of at least 10 and maximum 25 people, visitors with entrance ticket to the Bertone Park visited on the same day). Free for disabled and accompanying persons, and for two teachers per class. Guided tour service is included in the ticket. Info and reservations (required for groups) at 0376 322242 or info@museodarcomantova.it, or on the Palazzo d’Arco website.

Pictured: women’s breakfast service.

What were the habits of eighteenth-eighteenth century nobles: precious silverware from Palazzo d'Arco on display in Mantua

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