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69 - 17th century ITALIAN LAPIS-LAZULI PLATE Representing two fig…
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Estimate €10,000 - €15,000
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Description
17th century ITALIAN LAPIS-LAZULI PLATE Representing two figures draped in the antique style, one seated and holding a feather, a book on her lap, the other playing the lyre, in a carved and gilded wooden frame. Dimensions (the plate): 21 x 15.5 cm (8 ¼ x 6 in.) Dimensions (with frame) : 44,5 x 38,5 cm (17 ½ x 15 in.) An Italian 17th century lapis-lazuli plaque Lapis lazuli, mined in Afghanistan, has been coveted since ancient times for its intense, unique blue, as a gemstone for ornaments and cult objects in Mesopotamia and Egypt, or as a pigment. Rare and expensive, it coloured the most beautiful illuminations of the Middle Ages and the Islamic world, and later the most precious parts such as the cloaks of the Virgin during the Italian Renaissance. An ornamental stone, its ultramarine blue is dotted with yellow pyrite flakes. If these or the white calcite veins are too numerous, it loses its value. On 10 November 1662, Colbert insisted on the quality of lapis being "the finest that can be found" and asked Strozzi to "take care that it is a beautiful blue and especially that there are not so many white breasts as there were on the one you sent me last June" (1). Used for the depth of its blue colour, it adorned the richest cabinets and marble and polychrome stone marquetry table tops from the 16th century onwards. Lapidaries used it to make vases, which were then adorned with precious goldsmith's and silversmith's mounts. These works of unprecedented luxury were then added to the cabinets of curiosities of Europe's greatest collectors and sovereigns, who obtained their supplies from the Miseroni workshop, which had been established in Milan since the mid-sixteenth century, and whose supremacy in this field was undisputed. The expertise of this dynasty of lapidaries spread to Prague when Ottavio Miseroni (1567-1624) entered the service of Rudolf II of Habsburg (1152-1612). Emperor from 1576, he established his court in Bohemia and was the first to found a specialised factory modelled on Ferdinand I de Medici's Galleria dei Lavori (1588). This initiative was later taken up by the kings of France, Naples and Spain. One example is a large lapis lazuli vase, made in 1583 in the grand ducal workshops in Florence, decorated with an enamelled gold frame by Jacques Bylivelt, based on a design by Bernardo Buontalenti and now in the Museo degli Argenti in Florence (2). Some pieces feature carved parts or ornaments in bas-relief. However, few bas-reliefs as such are executed in lapis lazuli. Most of the time, the lapis background is used as a deep, turbulent blue sky in marquetry compositions or as a background for a painted scene whose composition is based on the veins in the stone. A private devotional altar with a central lapis plaque painted with the Adoration of the Magi, executed in Rome around 1620, is in the collections of Corsham Court in Wiltshire, England (3). Medallions such as the cameo representing the profile portrait of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, sculpted in Italy around 1567-1588, or another illustrating the Judgement of Paris, also executed in Italy around 1580-1600, are known and are kept in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum. There is also another medallion with an allegory of Music, dating from the second half of the 16th century, made in France and measuring 12 cm in height, in the collections of the Musée du Louvre. The lid of a snuffbox from the late 17th century, probably Dutch, still in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is decorated with the figures of Diana and Callisto. The bottom is decorated with the coat of arms of William IV or V of Orange. Wouldn't this bas-relief have been intended to decorate a cabinet? Its mythological subject, depicting Apollo or Orpheus holding his lyre next to a Muse or an allegory of Poetry and Literature, makes it ideal for a cabinet, as does the marble and hardstone marquetry depicting Orpheus playing his lyre to charm the animals on the Barberini cabinet, executed in Florence at the Galleria dei Lavori around 1606-1623 and now in the Metropolitan Museum in Paris. New York (4) and the cabinet in the Detroit Institute of Art, or the gilded bronze bas-relief representing Apollo having Marsyas flayed at the top of the cabinet in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg (5). There is also a Roman cabinet from around 1640, entirely lined with plain lapis lazuli plaques, in the Belton House collection in Lincolnshire, England (6). (1) S. Casteluccio, Les meubles de pierres dures de Louis XIV et l'atelier des Gobelins, Dijon, éditions Faton, 2007, p. 44. (2) A Giusti, La marqueterie de pierres dures, Citadelles, 2005, fig 38, p. 51. (3) S. Swynfen, D. Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Arcadia, National trust, 2015, fig 62. p.54. (4) W.Koeppe, A Giusti, Art of the Royal Court, Yale University Press, 2008, n°41, pp 176-177. (5) S. Casteluccio, Les meubles de pierres dures de Louis XIV et l'atelier des Gobelins, Dijon, éditions Faton, 2007, p. 23. (6) S. Swynfen, D. Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Arcadia, National trust, 2015, fig 16. p.15.
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About the sale Furniture and Works of Art - Evening Sale (Lot 1-170)
Auction location
Auction time 06/16/2026 at 5:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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