Lot n° 98
Estimation :
60000 - 80000
EUR
Rock crystal gantière consisting of an oval plate surrounded - Lot 98
Rock crystal gantière consisting of an oval plate surrounded by eight beveled plates, serrated on their outer edges, engraved with small insects and foliate scrolls. The frame is in gilded bronze, with a lion's paw base encircling a flattened ball.
Milan, circa 1620-1630, frame attributed to the workshop of
Giovanni Battista Metellino, circa 1680.
L.: 23.5 cm - Wg.: 21.3 cm
(a small chip)
This exceptional rock crystal gantière is an object of infinite preciousness. There are two objects that can be compared with this one: a basin preserved in the Louvre Museum (inv OA62B) (fig. a) and a basket dated 1620-1630, from the collections of the Grand Dauphin (1661 - 1711), which arrived in Spain as an inheritance for Philip V (1683 - 1746) and is preserved in the Prado Museum (inv.
Prado Museum (inv O000106) (fig b).
The engraving on the rock-crystal plates is particularly noteworthy. The edges of the Prado basket and those of the gantière presented here are almost identically festooned: a frieze of oves, vertical for the Prado and horizontal for the gantière, is alternated by stylized fleurs-de-lis. (fig c)
All three pieces also feature small insects etched into the rock crystal inclusions, helping to conceal the material's flaws. Letizia Arbeteta Mira, Head of Conservation at the Prado Museum's Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Letizia Arbeteta Mira, Head of Conservation at the Prado Museum's Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, points out that these insects may be the signature of a workshop.
Another basket in the Prado Museum (inv O000107 ) (fig d), also from Philip V's collection, is similarly mounted with the three artifacts already mentioned. These mounts used to join his rock-crystal plates reveal the presence of a bee to mask the joints or placed at the ends of the branches bordering the plates. The latter basket is attributed to Giovanni Battista Metellino, which suggests that this type of mount was used in the workshop, but that the plates may have been engraved earlier. The style of the Metellino workshop demonstrates the technical difficulties involved in engraving rock crystal. The plates used here, like those in the Louvre or the Prado basket, are of such high quality that they could only have been engraved by a workshop that was a perfect master of this technique of decoration on hard stone.
Book consulted: Arbeteta Mira, Letizia, El tesoro del Delfin.
Catalogo razonado, Madrid, Museo nacional del Prado, 2001, p.175
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