.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This spectacular cabinet is a tour de force of the art of ‘paintings in stones’ and displays the full array of dazzling techniques perfected by the pietre dure artists of Florence, ranging from fully sculpted illusionistic fruit and flowers to intricate inlaid pictorial panels and employing throughout the natural grain of the colorful hardstones to create these remarkable images. Its opulence and richness is the perfect embodiment of le goût Rothschild and harmonized perfectly with the palatial grandeur of the Château de Ferrières. Its direct connection to the Medici, the greatest bankers of the 16th and 17th century, would also certainly have been of special significance to the Rothschilds who were acutely aware of their own place in history, both as collectors and financiers.
THE PIETRA DURA PANELS
The art of inlaying in pietre dure was prized at all the courts of Europe, but it was at the Medici court of Florence that it reached its apogee, particularly under the patronage of Cosimo I (r. 1569-74), his son Francesco (r. 1574-87), and Cosimo's brother Ferdinand I (r. 1587-1609), who formally established the Grand Ducal workshop, the Galleria dei Lavori, in 1588.
Ferdinand had lived in Rome as Cardinal before succeeding as Grand Duke in 1587, and it was there, surrounded by the glorious ruins of ancient Rome, that he developed a passion for hardstones. One of the most important and consuming projects of his reign was the creation of the celebrated Capella dei Principi in San Lorenzo, a spectacular mausoleum for the Medici rulers which was a dazzling display of hardstones and marbles and for which the foundation stone was laid in 1604.
A number of important painters and designers worked on the chapel, including Iacopo Ligozzi, Matteo Nigetti, Bernadino Poccetti and Ludovico Cigoli, whose nephew credited Ferdinand with inspiring the Florentine art of ‘pittura fatta non con colori e pennelli ma con composizione di varie pietre commesse’ [‘painting not done with colours and brushes but by fitting together various different stones’].
THE PIETRA DURA ORNAMENT
Much of the ornament in pietra dura on this cabinet find parallels with other documented works created in the Grand Ducal Workshops in the 17th century. The distinctive panels centering the groups of three panels either side of the jasper columns, with delicate relief landscapes framed by canted corners of diaspro rosso, are closely related to one on a celebrated jewel cabinet supplied circa 1669 to Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Ferdinand II de’ Medici, and now in the Bayerische Nationalmuseum, Munich, R2094 (see W. Koeppe and A.M. Giusti, Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, exh. cat., New York, 2008, pp. 186-7, cat. 47).
The lavish use of polished, illusionistic fruit pouring from the cornucopiae of the cresting recall the extraordinary prie-dieu designed by Giovanni Battista Foggini in 1706 and sent by Cosimo III de’ Medici to his daughter Anna Maria Luisa after her marriage to the Elector Palatine, now in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (see Koeppe and Giusti op. cit., pp. 200-1, cat. 55).
Perhaps most spectacular of all is the extraordinary panel at the center with a goldfinch perched on a fruit-filled tazza, with grapes modeled from amethyst and a fruit splitting open to reveal its glistening seeds. A similar goldfinch flanked by grapes and perched on fruit features on a spectacular casket attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops and dated 1710-20 (sold Christie’s, London, 5 July 2012, lot 13, £657,250). However, even closer in design are the two panels centering the cabinets supplied by Domenico Cucci to Louis XIV, the last known survivals of this fabled group and now in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle.
The Sun King was so impressed by the work of the Grand Ducal workshops that he aimed to emulate them by creating the Gobelins workshops in 1667, and imported craftsmen from Florence such as Cucci. It is not known with certainty if the pietra dura panels on the Alnwick Cucci cabinets were created in the Gobelins workshops or were imported from Florence, but it is interesting to note other similar panels of fruit-filled vases, attributed to the Gobelins workshops and reused on later pieces of furniture, for instance on a Louis XVI commode by Martin Carlin in the British Royal Collection (with 2 plaques signed by Gian Ambrogio Gacchetti who is recorded as working at the Gobelins) and on a pair of cabinets supplied to William Beckford circa 1824 (see S. Swynfern Jervis, Roman Spendour British Arcadia, London, 2015, p. 32. fig. 36 and p. 34, fig. 39). It is fascinating to note therefore that the panel on the Rothschild cabinet shows signs of having been modified in the mid-18th century, which was just the time when Louis XV ordered many of the great Louis XIV cabinets to be dismantled or sold.
THE CABINET
This cabinet has long been traditionally attributed to Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725), Director of the Grand Ducal Workshops during the reign of Duke Cosimo III (1670-1723); however, although the lavish use of hardstone fruit is particularly associated with his oeuvre, this attribution must be treated with caution. Indeed, its distinctive architectural form, with its boldly scrolling pediment, recalls a distinctive group of reliquaries and portable altars produced in Rome in the early 17th century, for instance examples in the Palazzo Pallavicini and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, vol. II, pp. 364-5, figs. 709-710). The fact that both the upper register with the silvered shell and the central panel between the jasper columns show signs of modifications could indicate that these sections of this cabinet could originally have served a different function such as displaying a sculpture or altar.
It is also fascinating to compare a pietra dura cabinet with closely related pediment incorporating cornucopiae which was probably acquired by Baron Alphonse’s brother Salomon-James de Rothschild (and sold by his widow Baronne Salomon in 1923), more recently sold from the collection of Akram Ojjeh; Christie’s, Monaco, 11-12 December 1999, lot 13. At the time of the Ojjeh sale it was described as Florentine, but the lavish use of hardstone inlay in distinctive geometric patterns could also point to a Roman origin, as does the distinctly auricular nature of the gilt-bronze masks and the volute scrolls of the ebony frame of each of these two cabinets. An unsigned drawing for a cabinet in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam also features a similar architectural framework, shell cresting and winged grotesque masks, showing that the Rothschild cabinet offered here clearly reflects the prevailing taste of baroque designers in Rome and Florence.
THE PIETRA DURA PANELS
The art of inlaying in pietre dure was prized at all the courts of Europe, but it was at the Medici court of Florence that it reached its apogee, particularly under the patronage of Cosimo I (r. 1569-74), his son Francesco (r. 1574-87), and Cosimo's brother Ferdinand I (r. 1587-1609), who formally established the Grand Ducal workshop, the Galleria dei Lavori, in 1588.
Ferdinand had lived in Rome as Cardinal before succeeding as Grand Duke in 1587, and it was there, surrounded by the glorious ruins of ancient Rome, that he developed a passion for hardstones. One of the most important and consuming projects of his reign was the creation of the celebrated Capella dei Principi in San Lorenzo, a spectacular mausoleum for the Medici rulers which was a dazzling display of hardstones and marbles and for which the foundation stone was laid in 1604.
A number of important painters and designers worked on the chapel, including Iacopo Ligozzi, Matteo Nigetti, Bernadino Poccetti and Ludovico Cigoli, whose nephew credited Ferdinand with inspiring the Florentine art of ‘pittura fatta non con colori e pennelli ma con composizione di varie pietre commesse’ [‘painting not done with colours and brushes but by fitting together various different stones’].
THE PIETRA DURA ORNAMENT
Much of the ornament in pietra dura on this cabinet find parallels with other documented works created in the Grand Ducal Workshops in the 17th century. The distinctive panels centering the groups of three panels either side of the jasper columns, with delicate relief landscapes framed by canted corners of diaspro rosso, are closely related to one on a celebrated jewel cabinet supplied circa 1669 to Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Ferdinand II de’ Medici, and now in the Bayerische Nationalmuseum, Munich, R2094 (see W. Koeppe and A.M. Giusti, Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, exh. cat., New York, 2008, pp. 186-7, cat. 47).
The lavish use of polished, illusionistic fruit pouring from the cornucopiae of the cresting recall the extraordinary prie-dieu designed by Giovanni Battista Foggini in 1706 and sent by Cosimo III de’ Medici to his daughter Anna Maria Luisa after her marriage to the Elector Palatine, now in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (see Koeppe and Giusti op. cit., pp. 200-1, cat. 55).
Perhaps most spectacular of all is the extraordinary panel at the center with a goldfinch perched on a fruit-filled tazza, with grapes modeled from amethyst and a fruit splitting open to reveal its glistening seeds. A similar goldfinch flanked by grapes and perched on fruit features on a spectacular casket attributed to the Grand Ducal Workshops and dated 1710-20 (sold Christie’s, London, 5 July 2012, lot 13, £657,250). However, even closer in design are the two panels centering the cabinets supplied by Domenico Cucci to Louis XIV, the last known survivals of this fabled group and now in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle.
The Sun King was so impressed by the work of the Grand Ducal workshops that he aimed to emulate them by creating the Gobelins workshops in 1667, and imported craftsmen from Florence such as Cucci. It is not known with certainty if the pietra dura panels on the Alnwick Cucci cabinets were created in the Gobelins workshops or were imported from Florence, but it is interesting to note other similar panels of fruit-filled vases, attributed to the Gobelins workshops and reused on later pieces of furniture, for instance on a Louis XVI commode by Martin Carlin in the British Royal Collection (with 2 plaques signed by Gian Ambrogio Gacchetti who is recorded as working at the Gobelins) and on a pair of cabinets supplied to William Beckford circa 1824 (see S. Swynfern Jervis, Roman Spendour British Arcadia, London, 2015, p. 32. fig. 36 and p. 34, fig. 39). It is fascinating to note therefore that the panel on the Rothschild cabinet shows signs of having been modified in the mid-18th century, which was just the time when Louis XV ordered many of the great Louis XIV cabinets to be dismantled or sold.
THE CABINET
This cabinet has long been traditionally attributed to Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725), Director of the Grand Ducal Workshops during the reign of Duke Cosimo III (1670-1723); however, although the lavish use of hardstone fruit is particularly associated with his oeuvre, this attribution must be treated with caution. Indeed, its distinctive architectural form, with its boldly scrolling pediment, recalls a distinctive group of reliquaries and portable altars produced in Rome in the early 17th century, for instance examples in the Palazzo Pallavicini and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, vol. II, pp. 364-5, figs. 709-710). The fact that both the upper register with the silvered shell and the central panel between the jasper columns show signs of modifications could indicate that these sections of this cabinet could originally have served a different function such as displaying a sculpture or altar.
It is also fascinating to compare a pietra dura cabinet with closely related pediment incorporating cornucopiae which was probably acquired by Baron Alphonse’s brother Salomon-James de Rothschild (and sold by his widow Baronne Salomon in 1923), more recently sold from the collection of Akram Ojjeh; Christie’s, Monaco, 11-12 December 1999, lot 13. At the time of the Ojjeh sale it was described as Florentine, but the lavish use of hardstone inlay in distinctive geometric patterns could also point to a Roman origin, as does the distinctly auricular nature of the gilt-bronze masks and the volute scrolls of the ebony frame of each of these two cabinets. An unsigned drawing for a cabinet in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam also features a similar architectural framework, shell cresting and winged grotesque masks, showing that the Rothschild cabinet offered here clearly reflects the prevailing taste of baroque designers in Rome and Florence.