Stone mosaic (Commesso) tabletop and gilt wood base,Florence, pietre dure, ca.1870

Rectangular tabletop of black marble inlaid with a commesso panel (Stone mosaic) depicting a still life of vases of flowers and neoclassical vases. The gilt wood table base is carved in the Renaissance-revival style and has four legs with scroll feet and a stretcher. The top section is on a hinge so that it could be inclined, thereby becoming a work of art to be appreciated like a painting on an easel.

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This hardstone table top demonstrates the interest in neoclassical themes associated with the designs of Antonio Cioci (died 1792) in late nineteenth-century Florentine private mosaic workshops; showing a synthesis of the most popular motifs used by the court workshops: flowers, the trompe l'oeil pearl necklace, the shell, the 'Roman' bronze lamp. The eye is tricked into believing that the objects are three-dimensional.

To find out more about the making of pietre dure, watch the video Making a Pietre Dure panel: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/m/video-making-a-pietre-dure-panel.

This table is typical of the revival in neoclassical themes in late nineteenth-century Florentine pietre dure. Neoclassical compositions, with vases all’antica after archaeological founds, were introduced to the Opificio by the painter Antonio Cioci (d. 1792), the first being a table top in porphyry, dated 1784, now in the Galleria Palatina, Florence. He then added coral, pearls and shells to soften their disarming realism. These compositions were taken on by his successor, Carlo Carlieri, (active 1781-1822), whose designs were exclusively on paper instead of on canvas, and became much cherished under the Napoleonic Era – such as a table for Maria-Luisa of Bourbon, dated 1807, now in the Instituto Valencia de don Juan, Madrid. They were then revived under the direction of Nicolo Betti (active 1851-1876). In the meantime, private workshops flourished in Florence and created products of proven success, evocative of the Opificio’s masterpices: Still lifes with bouquets of flowers, accompanied with coral, shells, pearls and ribbons. They are usually on common and less costly black marble, but are sometimes found on porphyry ground.

This table can be compared with a table designed by Pasquale Orlandini and dated 1873, sold Sothebys’s London, 4 November 1988, lot 180. And another one from the Collection of Gianni Versace, sold Sotheby's, New York, May 21, 2005, lot 74.

The stand of the Gilbert table, in the Renaissance-revival style, remained fashionable until the early 20th century as demonstrated in photographs of the Ugolini workshop stand at the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1900 (Massinelli, 2000, p.14, fig.1).

Provenance
Gwynby Antiques, Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Acquired from the above by Sir Arthur Gilbert, 1975.

Similar to tabletop in Sale of Collection of Gianni Versace, Sotheby's, New York, May 21, 2005.

Pietre dure means ‘hard stones’ in Italian. While stone mosaics existed since ancient times, the technique known as commessi di pietre dure, or shortened as pietre dure, was perfected, under the impulse of Ferdinando I de’ Medici (r.1587-1609), Grand Duke of Tuscany who united the city’s workshops and channelled their creativity into one organisation, the Galleria dei Lavori.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996. Arthur Gilbert was also fascinated by the evolution of pietre dure and purposefully acquired 16th-century masterpieces as well as 20th-century creations.

LOAN:GILBERT.887:1, 2-2008