RECTANGULAR PIETRA DURA TABLETOP. MARBLE AND HARDSTONES.

Rectangular tabletop made of marble and hard stones. Inspired by Italian models from the 16th and 17th centuries. In the center are two axes of flowers flanked by facing vegetal scrolls arranged geometrically. This motif is framed by a white line forming rhombuses on the shorter sides, along with another blue line. Towards the outside, another band creates square spaces in the corners with simplified flowers and simple scrolls. A wide blue band and a narrower white band are also located on the outer edge. The technique known as "hardstone carving" resembles marquetry, but uses marbles of different colors and stones with a hardness greater than 6 on the Mohs scale instead of wood. It originated in Florence, with Piero de' Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent attempting to revive an ancient Roman mosaic technique called "opus sectile." It was so successful that workshops sprang up throughout Europe, most notably the Gobelins Manufactory in France, the Royal Workshop of Naples (which took over from the Medici workshop), and the one established at the Royal Palace of El Buen Retiro in Madrid by Charles III. This last workshop, which benefited from the support of skilled local specialists, was closed by Napoleon in 1808 and destroyed in 1812. The objects produced (desks, tables, vases, plaques, etc.) initially displayed a wide variety of decorative styles, but from around 1600 onwards, a clear predominance of naturalistic elements over geometric ones became apparent: flowers, fruits, birds, pearls, butterflies, and so on. The present example is heir to this tradition, as can be seen by comparing it with works such as the table in the Prado Museum in Madrid, made by Francesco Ghinghi at the Royal Workshop of Pietre Dure in Naples (catalog number O00511), or the late 16th- or early 17th-century table created in Rome (inventory 62.259) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or those preserved in the Opificio delle Pietre Dure Museum in Florence, or the examples in the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid. However, it is important to highlight the adaptation to more contemporary tastes evident in the geometric interplay of the white and blue bands.