Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
E. Dillon, Glass, London, 1907, pp. 232-234
J. Barrelet, La Verrerie en France, Paris, 1954, pp. 118-119
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlungen Schloss Ambras, Die Kunstkammer, Innsbruck 1977, nos. 178 ff., plates 14, 15
Nevers had been an important centre for glass production from the sixteenth century, when the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua had imported Italian glassworkers into the dukedom of Nevers, another of the Gonzaga possessions (Dillon, op. cit., p. 232). The city's reputation grew in the seventeenth century to the extent that it was known by Corneille as the "petit Murane de Venise". Its earlier repertoire emphasized figural series, such as the Four Seasons or the Gods of Olympus (Barrelet, op. cit., p. 118), however this was later expanded to include group scenes, both religious and secular. The present tableau shows the Holy Family in the center foreground, with the Three Magi approaching from the left and the Annunciation to the Shepherds in the middle ground, with Bethlehem at top center.
Similar tableaux with minuscule figures modelled in molten glass in different colors feature in the posthumous inventory of the Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol (1596). Though their origin is unknown they appear to be Verre de Nevers, rather than local products from the Innsbruck or Venetian glassworks, as suggested in the catalogue.
E. Dillon, Glass, London, 1907, pp. 232-234
J. Barrelet, La Verrerie en France, Paris, 1954, pp. 118-119
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlungen Schloss Ambras, Die Kunstkammer, Innsbruck 1977, nos. 178 ff., plates 14, 15
Nevers had been an important centre for glass production from the sixteenth century, when the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua had imported Italian glassworkers into the dukedom of Nevers, another of the Gonzaga possessions (Dillon, op. cit., p. 232). The city's reputation grew in the seventeenth century to the extent that it was known by Corneille as the "petit Murane de Venise". Its earlier repertoire emphasized figural series, such as the Four Seasons or the Gods of Olympus (Barrelet, op. cit., p. 118), however this was later expanded to include group scenes, both religious and secular. The present tableau shows the Holy Family in the center foreground, with the Three Magi approaching from the left and the Annunciation to the Shepherds in the middle ground, with Bethlehem at top center.
Similar tableaux with minuscule figures modelled in molten glass in different colors feature in the posthumous inventory of the Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol (1596). Though their origin is unknown they appear to be Verre de Nevers, rather than local products from the Innsbruck or Venetian glassworks, as suggested in the catalogue.