Design for a large wooden confessional

1630. Pen and grayish black ink on cream laid paper, 11 1/8 x 7 1/4 inches (283 x 185 mm), with the center of the sheet removed to create a window frame. Scattered light surface soiling, and a repaired tear in the upper image area, near the figure of the starburst and dove. The activity of the Rovetta-based Fantoni family as marangoni (wood carpenters) or magistri lignaminis (wood masters) is regularly documented throughout the 15th century, however, there is mention reaching as far back as the 1400s of the Fantoni family operating as wood carvers, with Bertulino de Fantonis being acknowledged as the founder of the workshop. The activity of the workshop appears to have reached an apex of production around 1630, under the direction of Andriano Fantoni (1563-1633), who - together with his brothers and his son Donato (1594-1664) - produced a tremendous repertoire, and the frequency of commissions suggests a full and thriving workshop which provided carved ornamentation, civil furnishings, and grand ecclesiastical installations for basilicas throughout the Bergamo and Brescia provinces.

The last years of the workshop took place under Donato Andrea (1746-1817), son of Grazioso, who returned to Rovetta in 1766 after four years of study in Rome and started working with his father, eventually succeeding him in the management of the workshop activity. Donato repeatedly tried with his cousin Luigi (1759-1788) to expand beyond the local borders. He worked to get commissions in the Venetian territory and in the Milanese area, where he worked as a Master woodworker at the "Fabbrica del Duomo," and as teacher at the Brera Academy. After Luigi's premature death, the workshop activity proceeded wearily, and reached its conclusion in the first years of the 1800s. The original workshop space now houses the Fondazione Fantoni and Museum.