Agostino Lauro
Italian (1861-1924)
Double parlor from a villa in Sordevolo, 1900-1901
mahogany with silk moiré
The Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection, The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach

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Agostino Lauro, a leading furniture maker in Turin, created this room around 1900 for a textile manufacturer's home outside the city. Here guests were invited to play cards, enjoy an afternoon drink, or chat with one another.

This room is not a replica, but Lauro's original turn-of-the-century interior. On either side of the room, vinelike arches and supports reach up to a trellis on the ceiling, which is lined with linen painted with flowers. Mahogany chestnut blossoms and seed pods decorate the arches and furniture while vine tendrils swirl across the silk moiré upholstery and wall coverings. Extending from the arches are electrified iron lamps shaded by metal iris petals.

Lauro exhibited some of this furniture at the Turin Fair in 1902 in a specially designed villa that was painted with floral motifs. This type of decoration led critics to call the Italian version of Art Nouveau the stile floreale, the floral style.