Pilaster decoration - with animals

In contrast with the plain surface of the relief, the base is punched. The longish pilaster is covered with a delicate, spiral tendril with stylized and oak leaves springing from it. There is a dragon, a snake and an owl at the bottom a lizard, bugs and a bird appear at the top. Luigi Frullini (1839-1897) aimed at the revival of woodcarving, which was flourishing in Florence and Siena in the Renaissance period. Already at the age of twenty-six he was honoured professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. His first works, furniture, pannos, oak frames were sent to be exhibited at the Florentine National Exhibition in 1861. The London World Exhibition in 1862 and the successive international exhibitions brought him a great number of orders, his name was known well over the borders of Italy, his works were bought by famous European and American museums. Frullini modelled old Florentine arts, studied Michelangelo, Raphael, Ghiberti and revived the delicate form of Quattrocento. The two woodcarvings in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, with inventory numbers 5373 and 5374 were also made by him. They are mentioned on page three in the "Report about objects purchased at the Vienna exhibition, from the 50.000 fts granted for the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts by the Parliament", which can be found in the Archives Department of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts (see doc. No. 500/1874), as follows: "Olaszország Frullini 3 pilaszter cofano 267 forint 75 krajcár" (Italy, Frullini's three pilasters cofano, 267 forints, 75 pennies).