Luigi Valadier

Luigi Valadier (1726–1785) was an extraordinarily inventive Roman metalsmith, talented draftsman, and maker of both table decorations and objects in gilt bronze, marble, and hard stone. His exquisite table centerpieces—produced for popes, royalty, and aristocrats, in Rome, as well as in France, England, Spain, and Portugal—were considered the height of luxury in the eighteenth century, and his fame spread far and wide.