Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo heralded from a family of wood-carvers in Asti, and in 1773, he began working for the Savoy family. Over the course of the following decades, he produced countless pieces of furniture and other decorative objects for the Palazzo Reale in Turin, including chairs, benches, beds, mirrors, and ornamental panels, as well as for the royal residences at Rivoli, Venaria and Govone.
Working with teams of architects and assistants, Bonzanigo was commissioned to furnish entire rooms in the palaces of the Savoy, with a particularly fine example being the State Rooms at Stupinigi. Stylistically, his work marked a departure from Franco-Piedmontese traditions of inlay and marquetry cabinet-making in favour of a greater use of carving. Bonzanigo embraced elegant neoclassical forms, and his works are distinguished by a profusion of finely carved garlands, emblems and trophies carrying complex symbolic and allegorical significance.
In 1787, Bonzanigo was appointed wood-carver for Victor-Amadeus III. When Piedmont was conquered by Napoleon, Bonzanigo’s reputation grew further, overshadowing that of many of his colleagues, and in 1808 he exhibited at the Salon de Paris. Upon the return of the Savoy family in 1815, he was reinstated as royal sculptor. As a sculptor Bonzanigo is perhaps best remembered for his small bas-relief portraits in light wood or ivory, which, set in their refined frames, evoke the cameo and wax silhouettes of the eighteenth century.
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