Fourteen pietre dure (hardstone) and pietre tenere (soft stone) commessi panels of figures; Florence (Grand Ducal Workshops), 1640-80. Set in a rectangular green marble tabletop with a Greek key border; probably Rome, 1775-85. Later gilded wood base in the baroque style, about 1850.

Rectangular green marble tabletop with a Greek key border and fourteen pietre dure and pietre tenere mosaic panels.

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

This table incorporates pietre dure panels which were probably designed for a cabinet, but then set as a table top. The rare representation of caramogi (people with dwarfism who performed in court entertainments wearing grotesque costumes) refers to the culture of spectacle at the Grand Ducal courts in Florence, from the 16th Century. The panels show that pietre dure workshops adapted new subject matter through the use of existing visual sources. In this case, these figures derive from two sources; after drawings by Baccio del Bianco (1604-54) and etchings by Jacques Callot (1592/3-1635). Del Bianco worked closely with the Medicis both in the creation of objects and in organising spectacles. Callot, on the other hand, published a book in 1616 which recorded a travelling troupe of performing dwarves present at the Grand Ducal court of Cosimo II (r. 1609-21).

Although quite a rare subject matter, other examples of pietre dure panels depicting caramogi exist from the 17th century. Most were subsequently set into eighteenth and nineteenth century furniture. The so-called Hume-Beckford cabinet at Charlecote Park, Warwickshire (National Trust, NT 533017, dated 1640) incorporates similar panels. Other known examples are a table top at the Château de Versailles and a cabinet at Marlborough House, London (Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 11179).

Provenance
Edmond de Rothschild.
Alfred de Rothschild.
Christie's sale, lot 63, 03/07/1975.
Frank Partridge, London, 1975.

Spotlight on Conservation
Florentine lapidaries (stone workshops) showed considerable ingenuity to produce panels with such vibrant colours. Here, they have used smaragdite di Corsica, recognisable with its green spots on a grey background, as a natural pattern for shirts and trousers; and mother-of-pearl to imitate silver swords and handles. To imitate gold medals and gold-woven sash, they have used aventurine glass. Natural aventurine stone is prized for its sparkles when turned in the light. Aventurine glass is a manmade glass with tiny flecks of copper. In the 17th Century, the Miotto family of Venice claimed to have invented it, naming it after the Italian word ‘avventura’ (adventure or chance), as it was the result of a lucky accident when copper filings fell into molten glass.

To create an array of shades, they heated cuts of coral, which changes colour from bright orange to white when held to a flame. They also heated pietra paesina, to render different shades. This can be seen, for example, on the figure's back in the left corner panel of the lowest register. Some German jasper from South Baden, recognisable by its light red and cream banding, has been used, confirming the extensive trade routes from which Florentine stone workshops imported materials.

This table and its pair (LOAN:GILBERT 85-2008) stood in the glass-domed saloon of Halton House, Buckinghamshire. Alfred de Rothschild noted in the preface to the catalogue of his collection published in 1884 by Charles Davis 'The principal objects, and those which, needless to say, I most prize, I inherited from my dearly beloved father, and, in addition to the great pleasure which they afford me, they contstantly remind me of his most perfect judgements and good taste'.

These figures derive from a 17th-century print source that records a travelling troupe of caramogi at the Grand Ducal court. People with dwarfism played a significant role in the comic repertoire of Renaissance public festivities. Caramogi, as they were called in early Italian, dressed in exaggerated grotesque costumes and acted in masquerades, races, jousts or other spectacular entertainment.
In these panels, a variety of hard and soft stones have been used for the most minute, individual details, some of a quality now impossible to find. To add charming detail to these highly regarded images, additions were worked using rock crystal backed with foil, aventurine glass and mother of pearl. The panels were probably meant to be fitted in a cabinet but instead were set as a table top. Later mounted on an imposing stand, it forms a pair with a micromosaic counterpart, recorded at Halton House, Buckinghamshire, the home of Alfred de Rothschild (1842–1918).

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. He 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.86:1, 2-2008