CIRCULAR PIETRA DURA TABLETOP. MARBLE AND HARDSTONES.

Circular table top in marbles and hard stones. Inspired by Italian models from the 16th-17th centuries. In the center of the board, surrounded by a garland of flowers, there is a pearl necklace with a bow. Around this element, there are four vases with birds perched on interspersed branches and, further outwards, a band with vegetable scrolls. This area is framed by another with simplified scrollwork and one with other more worked and interspersed with venerated shapes and heraldic shields, and perched birds. The fleur de lis on the edge clearly shows the influence of the Gobelin works on this board. The French workshop was created with the aim of making this type of inlay for the court of this country, and is heir to the native center of "hard stone work": the Florence of Piero de Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent, who wanted to revive a Roman technique called “opus sectile” mosaic. It is also worth mentioning the Royal Workshop in Naples and the one created by Carlos III in the Royal Site of El Buen Retiro in Madrid, which closed at the beginning of the 19th century. After 1600 the primacy of the decoration that appeared in the 15th century is clear, and elements such as birds, butterflies and pearl necklaces were added over time. The present example inherits all this tradition: compare with the table made by Francesco Ghinghi in the Real Laboratorio Delle Piedre Dure in Naples (catalogue number O00511) and the board (O00466) from around the middle of the 18th century, both in the Museo del Prado from Madrid, those preserved in the Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence (especially works such as the board made as a model for a table by Jacopo LIgozzi around 1610). Traditionally, a technique very similar to inlay was used, but using, instead of wood, marbles of different colors and veins and hard stones (greater than 6 on the Mohs scale) such as lapis lazuli, agates... In the present example, They have included many of those used in the works from between the 16th and 18th centuries, which makes it an outstanding work.

· Size: Diam. 150 cms.