Details
A PAIR OF GILT AND BLACK LACQUER DOORS INLAID WITH MOTHER-OF-PEARL AND HARDSTONES
VENETIAN, LATE 16TH CENTURY
Each panel of decorated with Moresque ornaments in gold and silver highlighted with accents of red and elaborately inlaid with a variety of specimen marbles including sardonyx, lapis lazuli, agate and jasper mounted with gilt-metal hinges and crescent moon hasps and backplate (losses)-57 5/8in. x 41¼in. (147cm. x 105cm.)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
H. Huth, The Lacquer of the West, The History of a Craft and an Industry 1550-1950, Chicago, 1971
These panels, possibly doors from a grand cabinet, were conceived in the lacquer workshops of 16th century Venice. The architectural design "with colorful marble slabs cut into roundels and squares are arranged very much like those seen on the facades of Venetian palaces of the early 16th century" (Huth, p. 6). Combined with the Moresque technique and ornaments, this forms a most sophisticated and accomplished decorative work of art. The present panels share similar gilt decoration in the strapwork surrounds of the more commonly known frames and boxes (Huth, plts 9, 12, 15-16). The sumptousness of the combination of hardstone, mother-of-pearl and gold, silver and red decorated black lacquer are seen only in the more elaborate cabinets and caskets which date from circa 1580 (Huth, plts. 19, 27). Except for a folding table (Huth, pl. 29), no other work of this scale has been recorded. (2)
VENETIAN, LATE 16TH CENTURY
Each panel of decorated with Moresque ornaments in gold and silver highlighted with accents of red and elaborately inlaid with a variety of specimen marbles including sardonyx, lapis lazuli, agate and jasper mounted with gilt-metal hinges and crescent moon hasps and backplate (losses)-57 5/8in. x 41¼in. (147cm. x 105cm.)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
H. Huth, The Lacquer of the West, The History of a Craft and an Industry 1550-1950, Chicago, 1971
These panels, possibly doors from a grand cabinet, were conceived in the lacquer workshops of 16th century Venice. The architectural design "with colorful marble slabs cut into roundels and squares are arranged very much like those seen on the facades of Venetian palaces of the early 16th century" (Huth, p. 6). Combined with the Moresque technique and ornaments, this forms a most sophisticated and accomplished decorative work of art. The present panels share similar gilt decoration in the strapwork surrounds of the more commonly known frames and boxes (Huth, plts 9, 12, 15-16). The sumptousness of the combination of hardstone, mother-of-pearl and gold, silver and red decorated black lacquer are seen only in the more elaborate cabinets and caskets which date from circa 1580 (Huth, plts. 19, 27). Except for a folding table (Huth, pl. 29), no other work of this scale has been recorded. (2)