Pair of Torchères ‘Retour d'Egypte' attr.Agostino Fantastici, Florence 1820

Pair of Egyptian style Torchères with hermes and female busts on the stems, on flared griffon feet. The plates are supported by finely worked palmettes. Mahogany, partly black lacquered and gilded. Attr. Agostino Fantastici, Siena circa 1820

Born in 1782 to Bernardino and Margherita Boddi. He learned his first notions of architecture from his father, a professor of mathematics at the University of Siena and a hydraulic engineer.

He trained first in Siena, then in Rome, and was active both during the French occupation and, above all, during the Restoration period.

His work was very wide-ranging and included numerous projects, mainly in Senegal. The first years of activity included the prison in the former convent of Santa Marta (1811), the conversion of the convent of Sant'Agostino to the Liceo (1811), the church of San Salvatore (1812-1832), work on Palazzo Griffoli in Lucignano (1815-1818), the new tribune for the church of the Madonna (1812-1832) ; the new tribune for the church of the bishopric of Santa Maria della Scala (1815-1818); the Duomo of Montalcino (1817-1832), his masterpiece as a sacred building, and the façade of the Duomo of Colle di Val d'Elsa; the portico and scaffolding of the Council of Tolome in Sant'Agostino (1818, with Francesco Paccagnini).

In Siena he also worked at the Teatro dei Rinnovati (1832), the Teatro dei Rozzi and the Duomo, as well as creating ponti, dighe, steccati and pescaie ; in the fifth century of the Ottocento, he worked on the church of San Giuseppe, where a new chapel was created, on the church of San Leonardo, on the altar of the church of Saints Peter and Paul, on the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre and on the slates of the church of Santa Maria in Provenzano, and on the church of San Pietro alla Magione.

Among his works of residential architecture, he designed the façade of Palazzo Pozzesi (1823), the refurbishment of Palazzo Puccioni, Palazzo Staderini, Palazzo Brancadori (1828) and the Borghesi Casino (1825), the gardens of Villa di Scorgiano and Casa Malavolti, the extension and interior stage of Villa Spannocchi, Villa Il Pavone (1825-1828) for which the slates in imperial style were also dismantled. [1]

Curò anche gli arredi della botteghe Croci, Cioli e Cipriani e del Caffè Bottegone (1820-1824) e la nuova Sala degli Esami per l'Università di Siena, del 1828. In the same year, he restored the Pieve di Fogliano and built a new canonica.

In the thirties, he created the chapel of the Villa Finetti in Malignano (1831), the aforementioned Teatro dei Rinnovati, the chapel in Sestano and the premises of the Accademia dei Rozzi, and presented his own opera in the Palazzo Piccolomini Bandini, the Palazzo Sozzini-Malavolti, the Villa Chigi Saracini in Castelnuovo Berardenga, the Villa Arceno and the Villa Piccolomini Clementini di Solaia (1834-1835), the Ville Ercolani, the church of Santa Maria Maddalena (new façade, 1839).
In the following decade, he presented his opera at the Palazzo dei Conti in Elci (1840), in the chapel of the Villa Tancredi Savini, at the Villa Sergardi in Torre Fiorentina (1842), at the Villa Spannocchi in Marciano (1842), at the Propositura dei Santi Giusto e Clemente in Castelnuovo Berardenga (1843-1846), with a Greek image preceded by an Ionic voice.