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拍品專文
By Alvar González-Palacios
The companion to the present table-top is at the Palace of the Schönbrunn (Inv. No. S.23374) in Vienna. As might be expected from works intended as pairs to be shown near each other, the position of the ornament has been reversed; for example, the red and blue birds on the Vienna table-top are placed in the opposite direction to that on this piece.
Unfortunately, there is no precise information about the origins of the Vienna table-top. However, according to a tradition in the Imperial Administration, it arrived, along with another table-top which will be discussed later, from Florence in 1790 when Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany succeeded his brother Joseph II as Emperor Leopold II.
Jacopo Ligozzi and Hardstone Decoration
The many naturalistic motifs, especially those of birds and flowers, employed on this table-top and its pair undoubtedly derive from the repetory which Jacopo Ligozzi (c. 1547-1627) created specifically for the Galleria dei Lavori in Pieter Dure. Born in Verona but active mainly in Florence, this great artist spent much of his life in the service of the Grand Dukes; he even occupied his own workshop in the Corridor of the Uffizi for a number of years from 1588. His drawings and plans continued to be used by the grand ducal artisans for a long time partly because some of them were comissioned to be used at a later date1. However, if individual elements of the ornament on the two table-tops were inspired by Ligozzi, the compositions as a whole do not correspond to his thought as an artist. This includes the tray with fruit in the centres, which is, in fact, a rare motif in Florentine hardstone production. It is found on only two other works: a table-top in St. Petersburg and its pair at Rosenburg Castle in Copenhagen 2.
The table tops which were either created by Ligozzi or directly inspired by him are different in style. He tends to use the surface as a single field, thus creating unified compositions, as can be seen, for example, on the table-top with the View of the Port of Livorno (1601-1604) in the Pitti Palace, on that of the Fiori sparti (1616-1621), also in the Pitti Palace, and even on the octagonal table-top (completed in 1649) in the Tribune of the Uffizi, which is not entirely his invention3.
Mid Seventeenth-Century Table-Tops
A complex system of framing lines has been introduced into the present table-top and its pair at Schönbrunn, imparting both a different visual approach and new sense of movement to the compositions. Moreover, there is a small plaque in the Borghese Gallery, Rome, with a red bird like the one figured in our table-top. Both show a Cardinal bird, member of an American species which was relatively rare in Europe at that time, and are based on a cartoon undoubtedly executed by Ligozzi himself about 1604,4 proof that the same idea could be repeated in the Galleria dei Lavori to different effect after a lapse of years. The division of the surface with framing lines in yellow chalcedony is also found on a table-top in the Villa della Petraia, which dates to the mid seventeenth century.5
The same yellow framing lines appear in the other table-top at Schönbrunn (Inv. No. S23733, 74 x 127 cm), that also arrived in Vienna with Leopold II as mentioned above. The model is identical to that of a work, studied by the present writer some years ago, which originally belonged to Cardinal Mazarin and is now in the Louvre. The ornamental elements, consisting mainly of fruit, flowers and birds, were also inspired by Ligozzi, but the composition is more crowded and divided by the fluttering yellow lines. This creates a less geometric effect that in the final analysis is totally different from Ligozzi. Since the Louvre table-top and a companion appear in the 1653 inventory of Cardinal Mazarin's furniture,6 it seems clear that they were executed in Florence, a city with which Mazarin and his factotum Colbert maintained close contacts in the years around 1650. This would appear to be a likely date from the making of the present table-top and its companion at Schönbrunn.
This difference in approach becomes apparent when we compare the group of table-tops at Christie's, Schönbrunn and The Louvre with the one in the Prado which was almost certainly executed in Florence in 1624 to Jacopo Ligozzi's plans both in the details and over-all conception, and given by the Nuncio Innocenzo Massimo to King Philip IV of Spain.7 Although the flowers are, as it were, separated from each other in groups, the composition retains its cohesion being united by a garland with a parrot at its centre.
Late Baroque Table-Tops
It would seem appropriate at this point to discuss a second group of table-tops in order to clarify the chronological development of the Grand Ducal Galleria dei Lavori during the second half of the seventeenth century and early years of the eighteenth in relation to the present object. Stylistically, this second group shows a progressive evolution away from Ligozzi's taste, while, at the same time, maintaining some of his ideas with a sense of historic memory.
The most important work undertaken in the Galleria after 1650 was undoubtedly the table-top which was executed in 1658 and given to Pope Urban VIII's nephew, Cardinal Antonio Barberini8. The Cardinal was closely linked to France, and this fact had a certain political and dynastic importance for Florence. Here, and in another group of table tops that will be mentioned below, the composition is still divided by lines which enclose the decorative elements like bizarre frames. The important central rectangle of this table-top with a unifying swarm of bees - the Barberini heraldic emblem - is further broken up by a large dividing line that destroys that cohesion so dear to Ligozzi. Other objects which are similar in style include two table-tops, perhaps formerly a pair and now in the reserve collection of the Louvre and the Presidential apartments in the Hofburg, Vienna, as well as one at Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, and two more that were formerly at Marchmont in Berwickshire. 9
Towards the very end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, the artisans of the Galleria dei Lavori, since 1695 under the direction of Giovanni Battista Foggini, made a number of works which introduce a new taste. Three table-tops, dating to 1716 and housed in the Pitti Palace in Florence and Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich, clearly show the division of the surface into a central rectangle with a richly decorated outer border. However, the ornament is less geometrically arranged, and there is a playful and pleasing use of ribbon-like lines, mainly yellow in colour, that recalls the decoration of the second table at Schönbrunn. Foggini brought this new tendency to its logical conclusion in the table-top given by Grand Duke Cosimo III to the King of Denmark, where a new sense of decorative unity abolishes the old divisions in a different formal context. This table-top dates to 1709, and therefore, was executed at an earlier date than the other three which just proves that chronology and style don't necessarily walk hand in hand.10
Conclusion
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a period when new ideas and new forms of artistic endeavour in Florence helped to create some of the most memorable masterpieces of the European decorative arts. The present writer has tried to place this table-top within the mid seventeenth-century context of the Galleria dei Lavori. It is an impressive example of the fusion of impeccable craftsmanship and incredibly precious materials with that extraordinary feeling for ornament which was created by Jacopo Ligozzi and adapted by his followers.
Translated from the Italian by Donald Garstang
NOTES
1. On 22 August 1622, towards the end of Ligozzi's life, the Grand Ducal Secretary wrote that 'se non ci fusso occasione di impiegarlo (Ligozzi) facciaseli fare de'disegni per salvargi in Galleria' (if there is no work for him, perhaps it would be the case to have him make drawings to be saved for the Gallery'). (Arhchivio de Stato, Florence, Guardaroba Medicea, 403, c.30)
2. E. Efimova, Western European Mosaic of the 13th-19th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage, Leningrad, 1968, no. 13; the table-top, which measures 93 x 135 cm, was given by D. P. Tatischeff in 1846. The Rosenburg table-top (Inv. no. 21-116) measures 94 x 143 cm. Both works are magnificent examples of Florentine hardstone production of about 1650. Some years ago, the present writer erroneously thought the Hermitage table-top was Neapolitan in origin and eighteenth-century in date.
3. U. Baldini, a. M. Giusti & a. Pampaloni Martelli, la Capella dei Principi e le pietre dure a Firenze, Milan, 1979, figs. 123-124 & 126. A. González-Palacios, 'Jacopo Ligozzi in Galleria' with unpublished documents, in Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp.389-399.
4. A. González-Palacios, 'Xas Colecciones Reales Españolas de Mosaicos y Piedas Duras, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 2001, p. 23.
5. Baldini, Giusti & Pampaloni, La cappella dei Principi ...op. cit cat. nos. 112-113, p. 296, pl. 171. A M. Giusti in her entry notes this work is stylistically extraneous to the table-top of the so-called fiori sparti.
6. H. d'Orlaeans, Inventaire des Meubles du Cardinal Mazarin dressé en 1653, London, 1861. An identical table-top to that in The Louvre was sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, 15 June 1996, Lot 81. It probably cam from Cardinal Mazarins collection because the table-top at Schönbrunn, illustrated in this entry, has been in Vienna since the end of the eighteenth century.
7. González-Palacios, Los Colecciones ... op. cit., cat. no. 12, pp. 93-96.
8. González-Palacios, Il Gusto ... op. cit., pp. 404-405, fig. 719.
9. The table-top in The Louvre measures 77 x 124 cm; that in the Hofburg (Inv. no. A3881) 79 x 124 cm. J. Hein & P. Kristiansen, Rosenburg Castle. A Guide ot the Danish Royal collections, Copenhagen, 1999, state that the Rosenburg table-top is numbered 101. Those at Marchmont, Greenlaw, Berwickshire, were sold from the collection of Lady McEwen, Christie's House sale, on 5 June 1984, lot 175-176.
10. For the first of the two tables at the Pitti Palace cf., A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan 1986, fig. 127; for the second cf. A. M. Giusti, Pietre Dure. Hardstone in Furniture and Decorations, London, 1992, colour pl. 42; and for those in Nymphenburg and Copenhagen cf., González-Palacios, Il Tempio ...op. cit., figs. 128 & 133.
The companion to the present table-top is at the Palace of the Schönbrunn (Inv. No. S.23374) in Vienna. As might be expected from works intended as pairs to be shown near each other, the position of the ornament has been reversed; for example, the red and blue birds on the Vienna table-top are placed in the opposite direction to that on this piece.
Unfortunately, there is no precise information about the origins of the Vienna table-top. However, according to a tradition in the Imperial Administration, it arrived, along with another table-top which will be discussed later, from Florence in 1790 when Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany succeeded his brother Joseph II as Emperor Leopold II.
Jacopo Ligozzi and Hardstone Decoration
The many naturalistic motifs, especially those of birds and flowers, employed on this table-top and its pair undoubtedly derive from the repetory which Jacopo Ligozzi (c. 1547-1627) created specifically for the Galleria dei Lavori in Pieter Dure. Born in Verona but active mainly in Florence, this great artist spent much of his life in the service of the Grand Dukes; he even occupied his own workshop in the Corridor of the Uffizi for a number of years from 1588. His drawings and plans continued to be used by the grand ducal artisans for a long time partly because some of them were comissioned to be used at a later date
The table tops which were either created by Ligozzi or directly inspired by him are different in style. He tends to use the surface as a single field, thus creating unified compositions, as can be seen, for example, on the table-top with the View of the Port of Livorno (1601-1604) in the Pitti Palace, on that of the Fiori sparti (1616-1621), also in the Pitti Palace, and even on the octagonal table-top (completed in 1649) in the Tribune of the Uffizi, which is not entirely his invention
Mid Seventeenth-Century Table-Tops
A complex system of framing lines has been introduced into the present table-top and its pair at Schönbrunn, imparting both a different visual approach and new sense of movement to the compositions. Moreover, there is a small plaque in the Borghese Gallery, Rome, with a red bird like the one figured in our table-top. Both show a Cardinal bird, member of an American species which was relatively rare in Europe at that time, and are based on a cartoon undoubtedly executed by Ligozzi himself about 1604,
The same yellow framing lines appear in the other table-top at Schönbrunn (Inv. No. S23733, 74 x 127 cm), that also arrived in Vienna with Leopold II as mentioned above. The model is identical to that of a work, studied by the present writer some years ago, which originally belonged to Cardinal Mazarin and is now in the Louvre. The ornamental elements, consisting mainly of fruit, flowers and birds, were also inspired by Ligozzi, but the composition is more crowded and divided by the fluttering yellow lines. This creates a less geometric effect that in the final analysis is totally different from Ligozzi. Since the Louvre table-top and a companion appear in the 1653 inventory of Cardinal Mazarin's furniture,
This difference in approach becomes apparent when we compare the group of table-tops at Christie's, Schönbrunn and The Louvre with the one in the Prado which was almost certainly executed in Florence in 1624 to Jacopo Ligozzi's plans both in the details and over-all conception, and given by the Nuncio Innocenzo Massimo to King Philip IV of Spain.
Late Baroque Table-Tops
It would seem appropriate at this point to discuss a second group of table-tops in order to clarify the chronological development of the Grand Ducal Galleria dei Lavori during the second half of the seventeenth century and early years of the eighteenth in relation to the present object. Stylistically, this second group shows a progressive evolution away from Ligozzi's taste, while, at the same time, maintaining some of his ideas with a sense of historic memory.
The most important work undertaken in the Galleria after 1650 was undoubtedly the table-top which was executed in 1658 and given to Pope Urban VIII's nephew, Cardinal Antonio Barberini
Towards the very end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, the artisans of the Galleria dei Lavori, since 1695 under the direction of Giovanni Battista Foggini, made a number of works which introduce a new taste. Three table-tops, dating to 1716 and housed in the Pitti Palace in Florence and Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich, clearly show the division of the surface into a central rectangle with a richly decorated outer border. However, the ornament is less geometrically arranged, and there is a playful and pleasing use of ribbon-like lines, mainly yellow in colour, that recalls the decoration of the second table at Schönbrunn. Foggini brought this new tendency to its logical conclusion in the table-top given by Grand Duke Cosimo III to the King of Denmark, where a new sense of decorative unity abolishes the old divisions in a different formal context. This table-top dates to 1709, and therefore, was executed at an earlier date than the other three which just proves that chronology and style don't necessarily walk hand in hand.
Conclusion
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a period when new ideas and new forms of artistic endeavour in Florence helped to create some of the most memorable masterpieces of the European decorative arts. The present writer has tried to place this table-top within the mid seventeenth-century context of the Galleria dei Lavori. It is an impressive example of the fusion of impeccable craftsmanship and incredibly precious materials with that extraordinary feeling for ornament which was created by Jacopo Ligozzi and adapted by his followers.
Translated from the Italian by Donald Garstang
NOTES
1. On 22 August 1622, towards the end of Ligozzi's life, the Grand Ducal Secretary wrote that 'se non ci fusso occasione di impiegarlo (Ligozzi) facciaseli fare de'disegni per salvargi in Galleria' (if there is no work for him, perhaps it would be the case to have him make drawings to be saved for the Gallery'). (Arhchivio de Stato, Florence, Guardaroba Medicea, 403, c.30)
2. E. Efimova, Western European Mosaic of the 13th-19th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage, Leningrad, 1968, no. 13; the table-top, which measures 93 x 135 cm, was given by D. P. Tatischeff in 1846. The Rosenburg table-top (Inv. no. 21-116) measures 94 x 143 cm. Both works are magnificent examples of Florentine hardstone production of about 1650. Some years ago, the present writer erroneously thought the Hermitage table-top was Neapolitan in origin and eighteenth-century in date.
3. U. Baldini, a. M. Giusti & a. Pampaloni Martelli, la Capella dei Principi e le pietre dure a Firenze, Milan, 1979, figs. 123-124 & 126. A. González-Palacios, 'Jacopo Ligozzi in Galleria' with unpublished documents, in Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, pp.389-399.
4. A. González-Palacios, 'Xas Colecciones Reales Españolas de Mosaicos y Piedas Duras, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 2001, p. 23.
5. Baldini, Giusti & Pampaloni, La cappella dei Principi ...op. cit cat. nos. 112-113, p. 296, pl. 171. A M. Giusti in her entry notes this work is stylistically extraneous to the table-top of the so-called fiori sparti.
6. H. d'Orlaeans, Inventaire des Meubles du Cardinal Mazarin dressé en 1653, London, 1861. An identical table-top to that in The Louvre was sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, 15 June 1996, Lot 81. It probably cam from Cardinal Mazarins collection because the table-top at Schönbrunn, illustrated in this entry, has been in Vienna since the end of the eighteenth century.
7. González-Palacios, Los Colecciones ... op. cit., cat. no. 12, pp. 93-96.
8. González-Palacios, Il Gusto ... op. cit., pp. 404-405, fig. 719.
9. The table-top in The Louvre measures 77 x 124 cm; that in the Hofburg (Inv. no. A3881) 79 x 124 cm. J. Hein & P. Kristiansen, Rosenburg Castle. A Guide ot the Danish Royal collections, Copenhagen, 1999, state that the Rosenburg table-top is numbered 101. Those at Marchmont, Greenlaw, Berwickshire, were sold from the collection of Lady McEwen, Christie's House sale, on 5 June 1984, lot 175-176.
10. For the first of the two tables at the Pitti Palace cf., A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Milan 1986, fig. 127; for the second cf. A. M. Giusti, Pietre Dure. Hardstone in Furniture and Decorations, London, 1992, colour pl. 42; and for those in Nymphenburg and Copenhagen cf., González-Palacios, Il Tempio ...op. cit., figs. 128 & 133.