Square marble table top inlaid with coloured marble and hardstones (pietre dure), in a geometric design comprising cartouches, vases, birds and other naturalistic motifs,made in Italy (Florence), ca.1620

Table top, mosaic composed of lapis, cornelian and other decorative stones in a pattern of vases of flowers and strap work.

Little is known about this particular table top prior to its acquisition by the museum in 1869, when it was bought for £300 from a Signor Gagliardi. However, a comparison with other pietra dura objects, including surviving table-tops, suggests that it was probably made around 1620 in Florence at the Galleria dei Lavori (Grand Ducal workshops).

Although an ancient technique, decorative stone inlay was revived in Rome in the 1550s, inspired by archaeological excavations made from the beginning of the 16th century and the resulting availability of ancient marbles in the city. From this date on, coloured marble veneers were incorporated into pieces of furniture: one of the earliest documented examples is the Farnese Table of c.1569, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (accession number 58.57a-d). Like other early pietra dura tables made in Rome, the composition of the Farnese table is strictly geometric, the main focus being the two large rectangular panels of Egyptian alabaster in the centre.

The success of pietra dura work was rapidly established, with objects made in Rome bought, among others, by the Medici Grand Dukes of Florence, whose enthusiasm extended to the desire to establish a Florentine centre of stone-working, as is documented by a 1553 inventory of the Palazzo Vecchio, which lists stores of alabaster, jasper, serpentine and marbles. In order to set this up the Medici Grand Dukes brought craftsmen to Florence from Rome, but also from Milan, where there was a strong tradition of carving rock crystal and other hardstones into vessels. In 1588 the disparate hardstone workshops that had sprung up in Florence were consolidated by Grand Duke Ferdinando I into the Galleria dei Lavori. Located in the Uffizi, the Grand-Ducal workshops were the first court manufacture in Europe to specialise in hardstones.

It is often difficult to distinguish between pietra dura work produced in Rome and Florence in the latter part of the 16th century, but from the beginning of the 17th century onwards there are clear differences in development. Roman works generally made greater use of antique marbles rather than semi-precious stones, and retain strongly geometric designs. From the 1580s onwards, Florentine pietra dura designs increasingly incorporated naturalistic elements such as flower vases and friezes with flowers, foliage and birds. This was in keeping with the interests of the Grand Dukes: Cosimo I was well known for his interest in the natural sciences, including the collection and classification of plants. His successor Francesco I employed the artist Jacopo Ligozzi as a scientific draughtsman. Ligozzi, who continued to work for the court under Ferdindando I, not only produced paintings, designs for festival apparatus and contributed to the design of the Uffizi Tribuna, but also produced over a hundred scientific illustrations - of birds, animals, plants - which may well have influenced the design of pietra dura work in Florence.

From the rule of Ferdinando I onwards, greater emphasis was placed in Florentine works on the imitation of painting through pietra dura work. Stones were carefully chosen to exploit their natural striations, in order to give these 'stone paintings' a subtlety that evoked marvel in the viewer. In their combination of expensive raw materials, pictorial design, technological development and a high degree of skill, pietra dura works represented the ideal fusion of art, science and nature. As such, the popularity of pietra dura works is hardly surprising: the establishment of the Galleria dei Lavori was followed by that of court manufactures in Prague, Paris, Naples and Russia, among others.

The dating of this table is suggested by a number of elements in its design. Although still compartmentalised, it represents a clear move forward from the rigid geometry of late 16th-century designs. The cartouches of the border break out of the border framing, while naturalistic elements dominate the main part of the composition. The flower vases share similarities with two panels also in the V&A: 810&A-1869, produced in the first quarter of the 17th century for an oratory in the Medici villa at Poggio Imperiale.

Like other Florentine works from the beginning of the 17th century onwards, the ground of the table top is of black Belgian marble (pietra di paragone), which when polished gave a brilliant black finish to throw into relief the vivid colours of the different marbles and hardstones used in the design. Also in keeping with other Florentine works is a greater use of semi-precious stones than antique marbles,with a particularly lavish use of lapis lazuli. Other comparable examples of a similar date are in the collections of Hatfield House and the Museo della Sinagoga in Rome.

This table top is made of decorative stone inlay, known in Italy as pietra dura (hard stone). The technique of creating inlays from coloured stones was practised by the ancient Romans and revived in the 1550s in Rome, where recent archaeological excavations meant that there were abundant supplies of antique marbles to be found. The Grand Dukes of Tuscany were among the earliest enthusiasts for pietra dura work, and in Florence in 1588 Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici established the Galleria dei Lavori, the first court manufacture in Europe to specialise in hardstone work. Based in the Uffizi, the Galleria dei Lavori produced pietra dura object such as cabinets, caskets and table-tops to furnish Medici residences, to adorn important public locations in Florence and to serve as diplomatic gifts. The expense and exoticism of its raw materials, combined with the artistic and technical skill needed to create these ‘stone paintings’, ensured the desirability of pietra dura work to collectors of the highest status. In the Uffizi itself, the octagonal room known as the Tribuna was decorated in the 1580s with an inlaid polychrome marble floor and furnished with a monumental pietra dura cabinet (destroyed and replaced in the mid-17th century with an octagonal pietra dura table). The richness of the coloured pietra dura decoration contributed in large part to the magnificence of this room, which housed some of the most precious objects in the Medici collections.

449-1869