CASTRUCCI WORKSHOPS, PROBABLY GIULIANO DI PIERO PANDOLFINI (ACTIVE 1615-1637), BOHEMIAN, PRAGUE, CIRCA 1615-1625

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PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN (LOTS 152-155)

CASTRUCCI WORKSHOPS, PROBABLY GIULIANO DI PIERO PANDOLFINI (ACTIVE 1615-1637), BOHEMIAN, PRAGUE, CIRCA 1615-1625

ARCHITECTURAL CAPRICCIO

Details

CASTRUCCI WORKSHOPS, PROBABLY GIULIANO DI PIERO PANDOLFINI (ACTIVE 1615-1637), BOHEMIAN, PRAGUE, CIRCA 1615-1625
ARCHITECTURAL CAPRICCIO
Plaque with mixed marbles, agates and jaspers; in a later gilt-bronze frame
10 ¼ x 8 1/8 in. (25.9 x 20.5 cm.), overall

Provenance

G. Sarti, Paris, 2006, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

G. Sarti, Fastueux objets en marbre et pierres dures, Paris, 2006, p. 86.

Special Notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

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Lot Essay

The Castrucci workshop in Prague was founded by Emperor Rudolf II, who was a fervent admirer of the new technique of commesso di pietre dure. Rudolf’s attempts to attract a master to Prague were initially unsuccessful, but he was able to win over the Florentine artist Cosimo Castrucci as part of a costly commission to the Medici workshops for the production of a resplendent table (now lost), which was praised by Boetius de Boodt as the eighth wonder of the world. After his death his son Giovanni Castrucci, is thought to have taken over the Prague workshop, and Giovanni’s son-in-law, Giuliano di Piero Pandolfini, was the supervising master of the last years of the workshop. The workshop was dissolved at the latest after his death in 1624.
The spatial organisation in the present plaque in similar to those in Pandolfini's cabinet made for Prince Karl I von Liechtenstein in 1623. The prominent use of Sicilian jasper is also evidence that Pandolfini might be the creator of the present plaque, as this was a stone more typically in use in Florence in the early 17th century (see W. Koeppe and A. Giusti, Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, New York, 2008, pp. 219-229).

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