Gabinetto (Withdrawing Room)

This small withdrawing room, called a gabinetto in Italian, was originally part of a palazzo outside the city of Turin, in the northern Italian province of Piedmont. Rooms with painted panels imitating Chinese lacquer, called japanned work, enjoyed a fashion amongst the royal family of Savoy during the mid-18th century. Although such panels exist in several palaces around Turin, only two rooms are found outside Italy, with this being the sole example in the United States.

This room was originally part of a palace owned during the mid-18th century by San Martino d'Agliè di Garessio, a member of the Savoy royal entourage. The room had four points of entry: one from the central corridor of the house, most likely the primary entrance; French doors that led to a terrace (across from the viewer's vantage point); and two smaller doors covered with red lacquer panels to the right, which led to internal staircases or service areas.

The recent discovery of preparatory drawings in Turin reveal that the designs for many of the Chinese-inspired decorations on these panels come from a book published in Paris in 1735 by Jean-Antoine Fraisse. The procession on the central panel to the left and the camels and horsemen on the central panel to the right are both simplified from Fraisse's illustrations.