Bronze mortar made using the lost-wax casting technique, decorated in bas-relief with vegetal motifs and bearing an inscription, surmounted by a pair of musician cherubs, with the words "Innocentius De Madiis fecit Brixiae". Below the inscription appears, in Roman characters, the date MDCC LXXV, i.e. 1775.
De Madiis is one of the many surnames with which, as early as the 12th century, members of the Maggi family, an important Guelph family from Brescia, are remembered.
Our artisan is Innocenzo Maggi who, in 1794, together with a certain Gaetano Soletti, cast the main bell of the Torre del Popolo in Brescia and from it obtained the four bells which still exist today.
On the facade opposite the inscription is the name of the Brescian apothecary for whom the mortar was made: Girolamo Simoni, whose existence is confirmed by careful research in the State Archives of Brescia, Superior Prefectural Chancellery, envelope 42.
Measurements: base diameter 21 cm x top diameter 37 cm x height 34 cm
This work, like all our other items, is sold with certificates of authenticity and lawful origin.
We personally handle and organize the packing and shipping of artworks with insurance worldwide.
If the artwork is purchased by non-Italian customers, it will require a certificate of free circulation.
The gallery will take care of the bureaucratic and economic aspects of this.
All costs of the operation are therefore included in the price.
ABOUT INNOCENZO MAGGI AND FAMILY
MAGGI
Family of bell founders who first appeared in Brescia in a deed from 1721 with Giuseppe Maggi, son of Giuseppe, from Novara, residing in Brescia in Strada Nova, as a "peltraro" (pewterer).
Contrary to what P. Guerrini supposes, the Maggi bell founding activity may have begun with the marriage of Felice, son of Giuseppe, with Maria Filiberti, from the family of renowned founders.
The launch of the Maggi foundry occurred with Innocenzo (1726-May 27, 1801), who in 1795 had a tomb prepared for himself in the Sanctuary of the Graces but was instead buried in the church of S. Giovanni.
To him is due the largest bell, the "campanone" of the Torre del Popolo or del Pegol (1794). In 1774-1776, he cast the bells of the parish church of Cortenedolo. He also cast the main bell of the Sanctuary of S. Maria dei Miracoli in Brescia.
His activity was continued by Innocenzo junior (+ March 11, 1828) and Giuseppe (March 18, 1835).
The bell of Navono dates from 1779, the set of bells of Pezzoro from 1804, and the set of five bells of Polaveno from 1848.
In 1857, Innocenzo Maggi presented a set of three bell tower bells at the Brescian Exhibition, which, according to Cocchetti, proved that "if we are far from having reached perfection in this art, we should not be placed among the last either."
The Maggi activity ceased around 1860.
Guerrini writes that "almost all our bells from the first half of the 19th century came out of the Maggi workshop (at La Pallata)," large (like the 1794 Torre del Popolo bell tower bell) and small (like that of the parish church of Camignone, 1794, and the sanctuary of SS. Gervasio and Protasio of Bagolino, 1806).
