BIRDS PERCHED IN FRUIT TREES

In 1588 Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, established a court laboratory which specialised in semi-precious mosaics and inlays known as the Galleria dei Lavori. These works in hardstone and soft stone know as commessi di pietra dure, were often incorporated into cabinets and caskets and in these panels flowers and plants were frequently depicted alongside fruit and birds. The present plaque has an extraordinary abundance due to the extensive use of expensive semi-precious stones such as lapis-lazuli and amethyst, but there is also an easiness to the scene due to the altercations of light and shade resulting from the choice of stones. The central parakeet is habitually shown in comparable scenes with a body of green marble, which has been abandoned in the present plaque for warmer colours. Comparisons to plaques produced by the Galleria dei Lavori can be seen in a cabinet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, bearing the arms of a Barberini cardinal, and dated to 1606-1623, (W. Koeppe and A. Giusti, Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, New York, 2008, no. 41) and a plaque in the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, is illustrated in A.M. Guisti (Il Museo dell’Opificio delle pietre dure a Firenze, 1978, fig. 109).