The Characteristics of Italian Collections of Gilt Leather as an Element of the Research into the Provenance of the Gilt-Leather Wall Hangings in Wawel Royal Castle

Abstract

The Wawel Royal Castle is home to a large collection of gilt-leather upholstery from the Baroque period (1720s). They were not part of the original furnishing of the Wawel Caste, but were acquired in 1930s from the castle in Moritzburg, the seat of Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus II the Strong. In the course of complex studies on these wall hangings, the question of their provenance has not been investigated yet. Knowing that the king was interested in gilt leather from Venice, I am focusing on the collections found in several regions of Italy. The largest assemblage of gilt leather in Europe can be found in Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia. Thanks to the preserved archival materials of the Chigi family, their provenance has been linked to Roman workshops, even the names of craftsmen, and the dates of origin have been established, which is an extraordinarily rare exception. When it comes to other collections found in Rome, Umbria, Tuscany and Bologna, there is no data concerning the provenance of the pieces of art, nor the palce and source of their purchase. The largest collections of gilt leather can be found in two museums: the Stefano Bardini and the Stibbert museums, which constitute the embodiment of the collecting passion characteristic of the late 19th century. When compared with the leathers from Kraków, the Italian ones are earlier, as most of them are dated to the 17th century, they also differ in their decorative patterns and character respectively. Their decorations (the arrangement and motifs) echo the patterns used on fabrics. Unfortunately, in the archival material investigated and presented here there are no examples of gilt wall hangings that are decoratively analogous to the ones found in the collection of the Wawel Castle. In regards to the techniques used, the gilt leathers from Kraków feature those with a flat surface, variegated with the aid of punching, and with patterns highlighted with paint, which were most often manufactured in Italy. The technological aspects, however, cannot confirm where a given piece was made, as flat gilt leather was produced in other European countries. Similarly the place of origin cannot be determined by the analysis of the type of punching used. On account of that, the topic requires further investigation, with emphasis on the study of Venetian workshops.