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Lot Essay
Of elegant proportions, this early baroque tabernacle looks like the façade of a miniature church dating from the reign of Pope Paul V (1550-1621). Composed of three storeys, it is embellished with semi-precious stones painted with scenes from the New Testament, and centred by an aedicule framed by large Corinthian columns with lapis lazuli veneers. The rarity of this precious tabernacle, which has passed down by inheritance through the line of an aristocratic Milanese family, is attested to by the absence from the literature of any comparable structure in this dynamic architectural form.
A BAROQUE FACADE
The design of this tabernacle derives from Roman architecture of the early 17th century (Millon, loc. cit.). The new architecture of this century began in Rome with the work of Carlo Maderno at Santa Susanna, St Peter’s and the Mattei and Barberini palaces. The expansive and grandiose features of the present tabernacle and its structural components that advance towards a kind of visual crescendo are highly indebted to Maderno’s designs, in particular the façade of Santa Susanna (1597-1603). It is interesting to note a similar curvilinear design between the double staircase of the lower storey of the present tabernacle and the staircase descending down to the crypt at Santa Susanna (Di Castro, loc. cit.). The interiors of churches at this period were laden with expensive marbles and semi-precious stones, and the overall effect of these interiors, such as the altar of the Gregorian chapel at St Peter’s designed by Giacomo della Porta in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, was to inspire luxurious cabinets and miniature altars, such as the present lot.
PIETRA DURA FOR THE BORGHESE FAMILY
In Rome the Borghese family reached the epoch of their power when Cardinal Camillo became pope in 1605, taking the name of Paul V. Paul V was obsessive about hard stones, which can be seen in near-contemporary descriptions of his collections, and it is certain that he owned several grand cabinets and architectural objects inlaid with coloured stones. One such cabinet from his collection, known as the Borghese-Windsor Cabinet, was recently on the market and acquired by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (inv. no. 2016.66). Another pair of cabinets made in Rome in this period were sold from Castle Howard in 2015 that bore the crowned eagles seen in the Borghese coat-of-arms.
One of Paul V's first acts as Pope was to elevate his sister's son to Cardinal status; Cardinal Scipione (1577-1633) subsequently became the greatest patron and collector of his time. Descriptions of his villa near the Porta Pinciana refer to numerous objects inlaid with coloured stones. Alvar González-Palacios has discovered that early in his reign, Paul V acquired some precious pieces of furniture in this style as gifts for his nephew the Cardinal. In 1609 he bought an ebony cabinet with colonnettes mounted with lapis lazuli and angels, silver mounts and panels of lapis lazuli painted with biblical scenes which clearly relates in type to the lot discussed here (González-Palacios, loc. cit.). Although the specific description differs slightly from the present tabernacle, it is an important document that helps us place the present work, with its numerous painted hardstone panels of biblical scenes, in the collecting circles of Pope Paul V.
PAINTINGS ON STONE
Vasari accredited the development of the technique of painting on stone to Sebastiano del Piombo, collaborator and friend of Michelangelo, who worked in Rome in the mid-16th century. By the early seventeenth century this art had advanced considerably and specialist artists were able to interpret the natural beauty of semi-precious stone to create scenes of remarkable ingenuity and depth. The numerous paintings on stone in the present tabernacle, which number at least 24, are exceptional for their quality, and remarkable for having remained within their original structure.
The stones used for the painted scenes, lapis lazuli and Sicilian jaspers, were silicates, therefore hard stones (pietra dura), which were rare and costly compared to the marbles that were more easily obtainable from around the Mediterranean. These true pietra dura panels required specialist skills and tools to work and this was often done by gem cutters. There are few other examples of table altars or tabernacles made in Rome, rather than Florence, using lavish painted stones such as in the present lot. A portable altar from the Pallavicini collection, Rome, from the same period has a central painting on amethyst (Koeppe and Giusti, loc. cit.), but this is a single painting compared with the more luxurious and complex grouping of multiple painted stones in the present tabernacle.
ALESSANDRO ALGARDI'S CHRIST
The central figure of Christ, with his head bowed and his hands tied behind his back, is cast in silver and finely chased with wire brushing and matt punching. The model for this figure was convincingly ascribed to Alessandro Algardi, the high-Baroque sculptor and Roman rival of Bernini, by Jennifer Montagu in 1985 (Montagu, loc. cit.). The broad chest and shoulders, and the fluid treatment of the anatomy are characteristic of Algardi’s sculpture of the later 1630s. This figure was produced in numerous versions in silver and bronze both as Christ at the Column and as part of a three-figure Flagellation group. The present figure is one of the finest known examples, comparable to an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 59.153). Algardi was legally debarred from working in silver and, although it is not impossible that he flouted those rules, it is likely that he sent his model of Christ to a professional silversmith to be cast. Regulations required silver to be marked by the maker and the official of the guild, and the absence of these marks suggests that it may have been commissioned by a cardinal, who were exempt from these rules. Probably cast a generation after the creation of the tabernacle, the Christ may have been commissioned to fill a gap and cleverly married to mirror the movement of the double-staircase and continue the magnificent impression given by the silver figures against the ebony and pietra-dura frame.
A BAROQUE FACADE
The design of this tabernacle derives from Roman architecture of the early 17th century (Millon, loc. cit.). The new architecture of this century began in Rome with the work of Carlo Maderno at Santa Susanna, St Peter’s and the Mattei and Barberini palaces. The expansive and grandiose features of the present tabernacle and its structural components that advance towards a kind of visual crescendo are highly indebted to Maderno’s designs, in particular the façade of Santa Susanna (1597-1603). It is interesting to note a similar curvilinear design between the double staircase of the lower storey of the present tabernacle and the staircase descending down to the crypt at Santa Susanna (Di Castro, loc. cit.). The interiors of churches at this period were laden with expensive marbles and semi-precious stones, and the overall effect of these interiors, such as the altar of the Gregorian chapel at St Peter’s designed by Giacomo della Porta in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, was to inspire luxurious cabinets and miniature altars, such as the present lot.
PIETRA DURA FOR THE BORGHESE FAMILY
In Rome the Borghese family reached the epoch of their power when Cardinal Camillo became pope in 1605, taking the name of Paul V. Paul V was obsessive about hard stones, which can be seen in near-contemporary descriptions of his collections, and it is certain that he owned several grand cabinets and architectural objects inlaid with coloured stones. One such cabinet from his collection, known as the Borghese-Windsor Cabinet, was recently on the market and acquired by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (inv. no. 2016.66). Another pair of cabinets made in Rome in this period were sold from Castle Howard in 2015 that bore the crowned eagles seen in the Borghese coat-of-arms.
One of Paul V's first acts as Pope was to elevate his sister's son to Cardinal status; Cardinal Scipione (1577-1633) subsequently became the greatest patron and collector of his time. Descriptions of his villa near the Porta Pinciana refer to numerous objects inlaid with coloured stones. Alvar González-Palacios has discovered that early in his reign, Paul V acquired some precious pieces of furniture in this style as gifts for his nephew the Cardinal. In 1609 he bought an ebony cabinet with colonnettes mounted with lapis lazuli and angels, silver mounts and panels of lapis lazuli painted with biblical scenes which clearly relates in type to the lot discussed here (González-Palacios, loc. cit.). Although the specific description differs slightly from the present tabernacle, it is an important document that helps us place the present work, with its numerous painted hardstone panels of biblical scenes, in the collecting circles of Pope Paul V.
PAINTINGS ON STONE
Vasari accredited the development of the technique of painting on stone to Sebastiano del Piombo, collaborator and friend of Michelangelo, who worked in Rome in the mid-16th century. By the early seventeenth century this art had advanced considerably and specialist artists were able to interpret the natural beauty of semi-precious stone to create scenes of remarkable ingenuity and depth. The numerous paintings on stone in the present tabernacle, which number at least 24, are exceptional for their quality, and remarkable for having remained within their original structure.
The stones used for the painted scenes, lapis lazuli and Sicilian jaspers, were silicates, therefore hard stones (pietra dura), which were rare and costly compared to the marbles that were more easily obtainable from around the Mediterranean. These true pietra dura panels required specialist skills and tools to work and this was often done by gem cutters. There are few other examples of table altars or tabernacles made in Rome, rather than Florence, using lavish painted stones such as in the present lot. A portable altar from the Pallavicini collection, Rome, from the same period has a central painting on amethyst (Koeppe and Giusti, loc. cit.), but this is a single painting compared with the more luxurious and complex grouping of multiple painted stones in the present tabernacle.
ALESSANDRO ALGARDI'S CHRIST
The central figure of Christ, with his head bowed and his hands tied behind his back, is cast in silver and finely chased with wire brushing and matt punching. The model for this figure was convincingly ascribed to Alessandro Algardi, the high-Baroque sculptor and Roman rival of Bernini, by Jennifer Montagu in 1985 (Montagu, loc. cit.). The broad chest and shoulders, and the fluid treatment of the anatomy are characteristic of Algardi’s sculpture of the later 1630s. This figure was produced in numerous versions in silver and bronze both as Christ at the Column and as part of a three-figure Flagellation group. The present figure is one of the finest known examples, comparable to an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 59.153). Algardi was legally debarred from working in silver and, although it is not impossible that he flouted those rules, it is likely that he sent his model of Christ to a professional silversmith to be cast. Regulations required silver to be marked by the maker and the official of the guild, and the absence of these marks suggests that it may have been commissioned by a cardinal, who were exempt from these rules. Probably cast a generation after the creation of the tabernacle, the Christ may have been commissioned to fill a gap and cleverly married to mirror the movement of the double-staircase and continue the magnificent impression given by the silver figures against the ebony and pietra-dura frame.