Lectern
1500-1600 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
ITALIAN (Florentine); 16th century
Reading desk of walnut, inlaid with wood and enriched with gilding and carving. Inscribed, ASPERAMONTIS MIRANDVLE: FECIT. On the base are the arms of the Bartolini (?) family. The head consists of two sloping sides surmounted by scrolled pediment and a book-rest below with shaped and grooved edges; one side is inlaid with the inscription surrounded by a geometrical border. The head rotates on a baluster-shaped column decorated with acanthus leafage, rosettes and imbricated and other ornament. The whole rests on a triangular base consisting of enriched volute scrolls supported by three paw feet. Between each pair of volutes there is a cartouche, bearing the arms, two of which have been defaced.
Reading desk of walnut, inlaid with wood and enriched with gilding and carving. Inscribed, ASPERAMONTIS MIRANDVLE: FECIT. On the base are the arms of the Bartolini (?) family. The head consists of two sloping sides surmounted by scrolled pediment and a book-rest below with shaped and grooved edges; one side is inlaid with the inscription surrounded by a geometrical border. The head rotates on a baluster-shaped column decorated with acanthus leafage, rosettes and imbricated and other ornament. The whole rests on a triangular base consisting of enriched volute scrolls supported by three paw feet. Between each pair of volutes there is a cartouche, bearing the arms, two of which have been defaced.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | walnut, gilding, carving |
| Brief description | Walnut inscribed lecturn; Italy; 1500-1600 |
| Physical description | ITALIAN (Florentine); 16th century Reading desk of walnut, inlaid with wood and enriched with gilding and carving. Inscribed, ASPERAMONTIS MIRANDVLE: FECIT. On the base are the arms of the Bartolini (?) family. The head consists of two sloping sides surmounted by scrolled pediment and a book-rest below with shaped and grooved edges; one side is inlaid with the inscription surrounded by a geometrical border. The head rotates on a baluster-shaped column decorated with acanthus leafage, rosettes and imbricated and other ornament. The whole rests on a triangular base consisting of enriched volute scrolls supported by three paw feet. Between each pair of volutes there is a cartouche, bearing the arms, two of which have been defaced. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Marks and inscriptions | Inscribed, ASPERAMONTIS MIRANDVLE: FECIT |
| Object history | Purchased for £131 5s. RP 86564/1902 - see Vol. 181, p.269 (Bardini Sale, lot 251) Condition: "Wormeaten, worn and portions missing" Heraldry has been identified as possibly Bartolini and also as Gianfigliazzi di parte Guelfa. |
| Historical context | See Berenson, The Study and criticism of Italian Art pl.opp. p. 34 for use of a somewhat similar reading desk. |
| Bibliographic reference | Frieda Schottmüller, Furniture and Interior Decoration of the Italian Renaissance (Stuttgart, 1928), no. 460
"Tuscany 16th century...
Formerly Bardini Collection, Florence
Walnut, height 1,90, partly gilded below arms of the Gianfigliazzi di parte Guelfa (Florence); on the desk in laid in capitals: Asperamontis mirandule fecit (Bardini, 1902, No. 586) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 633-1902 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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