CIRCA 1560-70

Details

A VERY RARE MILANESE EMBOSSED AND DAMASCENED PARADE MORION
circa 1560-70
Of one piece construction, with almond-shaped skull rising to a small stalk finial, narrow slightly down-turned brim with turned cabled edge, and the base pierced for a row of lining rivets (removed), the skull decorated with a continuous detailed rural landscape before the domes and towers of a city, the respective sides centering on differing scenes of St. George in the Antique style, at left the dragon entwined about a fruit-tree and pierced by a lance, at right the dragon held at bay with a sword, the Princess at prayer, all finely embossed in low relief and the detail picked-out in damascened gold, with further background detail well-studied throughout, including insects, lizards and a snake, and in fine untouched condition
9 5/8in (24,5cm)

Provenance

Galerie Helbing, Munich, Kunstbesitz eines Bekannten Norddeutschen Sammlers, 24-25 November 1909, lot 73, pl. X

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The embossed and damascened decoration belongs to a Milanese school now widely represented almost exclusively in institutional collections. The treatment of the figural subjects and the damascened detail compares closely with a morion in the Odescalchi collection, Rome (inv. 405) and to the Small garniture of Francisco de Medici in the Bargello, Florence.

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