Pearwood, ebony, alabaster, pietre dure panels
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund; gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Trent McMath, Mrs. Allan Shelden, Mrs. William Clay Ford, Robert H. Tannahill, Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth, John Lord Booth, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb, Mr. and Mrs. James S. Whitcomb, K. T. Keller, Virginia Booth Vogel, and City of Detroit, by exchange
1994.77
European Sculpture and Dec Arts
This Table Cabinet was Produced in a Medici Workshop It’s decorated in pietre dure (pronounced pee-EH-trah DOO-rah), Italian for “hard stones.” The Medici grand dukes supported many artistic workshops, providing space, materials, and wages for the artists. Court workshops created luxury products. On this cabinet, precious and semiprecious stones form each animal. On the central door, Orpheus from ancient Roman mythology tames beasts with music. Notice how the natural veining and color variation of the stones represent distinctive physical qualities of the animals.
from 17th century (Frescobaldi family, Florence, Italy)
ca. 1920, passed through marriage to the Roman branch of the Frescobaldi family
by ca. 1950, private collection (Switzerland)
(Trinity Fine Arts, Ltd., London, England)
1994-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
An Exhibition of Old Master Drawings and Works of Art. Exh. cat., Newhouse Galleries. New York, May 5-17, 1994, no. 81. [by Trinity Fine Art Ltd., London] Darr, A., and T. Albainy "Acquisitions of European sculpture and decorative arts at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1988 - 1999." The Burlington Magazine 142 (June 2000): p. 408, no. IX (color ill.). The Exceptional Sale 2017. Sales cat., Christie's. London, July 6, 2017, p. 32.
Italian, Pietre dure Cabinet, ca. 1620, pearwood, ebony, alabaster, pietre dure panels. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund; gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Trent McMath, et al., 1994.77.
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