Giuseppe Maggiolini

Who was Giuseppe Maggiolini?

Giuseppe Maggiolini, himself a marquetry-maker, was the pre-eminent cabinet-maker in Milan in the later 18th century. Though some of his early work is Late Baroque in manner, his name is particularly associated with blocky neoclassical forms veneered with richly detailed marquetry vignettes, often within complicated borders. His workshop's output is somewhat repetitive, making attributions to Maggiolini a temptation. His clientele reached to Austria and Poland.

Born in Parabiago, near Milan, he was the son of Gilardo Maggiolini, a forester in the service of the Cistercian monastery of Sant'Ambrogio della Vittoria, and after apprenticeship in a woodworking shop he opened his own bottega in the town's central piazza, which today bears his name. In 1757 he married Antonia Vignati, from Villastanza; they had a single son, Francesco, born the following year.

The painter Giuseppe Levati consigned to Maggiolini work for marchese Pompeo Litta at Villa Litta, Lainate, near Milan, to Levati's designs, with unexpectedly fine results. Maggiolini was invited to collaborate on designs for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the Habsburg governor of Lombardy, with Maria Beatrice d'Este, initiating Maggiolini's work for the Habsburgs, rulers of Lombardy, for which he opened a second workshop, in Milan. In 1771 Maggiolini produced the marquetry flooring in the Palazzo di Corte in Milan, being rebuilt under the direction of Giuseppe Piermarini, which put Maggiolini in contact with a wider circle of artists and designers: the painter Andrea Appiani and the architect Giocondo Albertolli. In 1777 he produced marquetry floors and furniture for the royal villa near Monza. Named intarsiatore to the Habsburg granducal court, by 1780 Maggiolini in his turn was able to commission from Piermarini a new façade for the Church of Saints Gervasio and Protasio in his natal Parabiago, and from Albertolli its internal redecoration.