Northern Italian Carved Wood & Gessoed Atlas with Celestial Globe Circa 1800

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Description

Rare late 18th–early 19th century carved wooden figure of Atlas supporting a celestial sphere, Northern Italy (Venice or Padua), circa … Read more Rare late 18th–early 19th century carved wooden figure of Atlas supporting a celestial sphere, Northern Italy (Venice or Padua), circa 1780–1820.
This beautifully modeled figure is carved in wood with its original gesso, polychrome, and parcel-gilt surface. Atlas stands balanced on a small globe while holding an exceptional painted celestial sphere decorated in deep lapis blue with gilt stars, a radiant sunburst, a crescent moon, and ecliptic banding. The iconography and painting style are characteristic of Enlightenment-period scientific workshops active in Venice and Padua, where carved allegorical figures were combined with rotating celestial globes, orreries, and early astronomical clocks.

The surface retains authentic age-related wear, revealing the gesso ground and offering a wonderfully rich patina. The sphere shows rotational wear, suggesting it originally formed part of a functional didactic or cosmographic instrument. The current faux marble wood base is a later addition; the carved figure and painted sphere are period and original to each other.

A striking and unusual object that bridges decorative art and early scientific history. Pieces of this type are rarely found outside
Surface wear, losses, and patination consistent with age. Later faux marble plinth. See less