Description
Born in
Parabiago in 1738, Giuseppe Maggiolini was the son of the forester
Gilardo
maggiolini and his wife Caterina
Cavalleri. In his childhood, maggiolini worked with his father, under
the rely
of the Cistercian monks, by the Sant'Ambrogio della Vittoria convent.
At the
age of 18 he began to work as a carpenter and some years after he
openned his
first carpentry. In 1765, the Marquis Pompeo Litta assigned to him the
achievement of one “canterano” of his own Villa Litta. At the end of
the work,
the beauty of the art he created was ever more beautiful than the
original
project. Then he collaborated for the decorations of the wedding feast
of the
archduke Ferdinando d'Austria, son of the empress Maria Teresa
d'Asburgo,
beginning to work for the Hapsburg Court. Indeed in 1771, he realized
the floor
of the Court's Palace in Milan, that had been renovated in that time.
The
archduke gave him the title of man of the inlay of the Hapsburg Court.
He
started now to be famous, and his name was known in all the European
court.
That's why the name Maggiolini is associated to the ebony decorations
of the
fornitures. The most typical are: bedside tables, cabinets, caskets and
jewel
box. He worked for the most important families of Milan and for the
most part
of the European courts. Maggiolini specialized him-self in the
achievement of
the chest of drawers, using almost 86 kind of different wood. His
fornitures,
realized with pure geometric lines, as the sober neoclassical taste,
were
decorated with inlay with mythological, allegorical or chinese
characters. They
were fornitures for all the rooms: for the bedroom, the livingroom, the
bathroom and so on. He worked in this way also for the paintings and
for the
interior main doors. In 1796, his patron, the archduke Ferdinando, let
the
power to the revolutionary French. The new ruler brought to Italy the
fashions
and a new kind of fonitures, made of mahogany and brass.
Giuseppe had to adapt at this new wave
of the art. Napoleon liked the Parabiago art quite immediately, and
invited
Maggiolini to work for the Bonaparte family. He worked for Napoleone
only for
four years, and in 1809 he left spontaneously because of the growing
dislikes
for the french regime. Giuseppe Maggiolini died the 16 November 1814 in
Parabiago, at the age of 76 years. He left the carpentry to his son
Francesco,
pupils of Cherubino Mezzanzanica.
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