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Lot Essay
The court of the Habsburg Emperor Rudolph II (d. 1612) in Prague was one of the most lively and cosmopolitan artistic centres of Europe. The Emporer, was also the first to establish a pietra dura workshop outside Italy and was thus responsible for influencing the courts of France, Naples and Spain. His vast art collection contained many works of art in precious stones by the Italian workshops from the mid-16th Century.
The art of the pietra dura mosaics evolved in Rome and was almost immediately transferred to Florence, from where Francesco I de'Medici gave Rudolph II one of the first works produced in his new workshop in 1589. It was so much liked by the Emperor that he commissioned a second from the workshop which took six and a half years to complete and incorporated stones from Bohemia which he had had sent to Florence. The design also seems to have been strongly influenced by his court as it is stylistically atypical for a work Florentine panel. By 1592 Rudolph II had already secured the transfer of Cosimo Castrucci, from Florence to Prague. Castrucci, described in a 'pass letter' as a semi-precious stone carver to his Majesty, was from a long line of Florentine goldsmiths and his workshop, which he left behind in Florence continued for another thirty years. His son Giovanni (d. 1615) appears to have been working with Cosimo in Prague, from circa 1598 and was made Kammer-Edelsteinschneider in 1610, which might be the date of his father's death although there is no mention of Cosimo after 1600. The high regard in which their works were held, is confirmed by an invitation to Giovanni from the Medicis to take over the workshop of the Caroni brothers who died in 1611. One of the Castrucci oeuvres, depicting the Banquet of Abraham, was even commissioned by the Medicis to designs supplied by them. Giovanni's son, Cosimo di Giovanni, who combined the skillful three-dimensional renderings of space which his grandfather, Cosimo was reknowed for, and the layered picture planes and architectural elements developed in Giovanni's work, is mentioned until 1619, when Giovanni's son-in-law Giuliano di Piero Pandolfini seems to have taken over the workshop. (E. Fucikova, et. al., Rudolf II and Prague, London, 1997, pp. 192-194, and A.M. Giusti, Pietre Dure, London, 1992, pp. 135-142).
The masterful handling of spacial recession in the present panel, employing successively lighter stones to evoque the distance, and further enhanced by an appropriate choice of architectural stones, is a strong indication that this plaque was made by Cosimo Castrucci. The works by Giovanni lack this three dimensinal technique and appear as layered landscapes, while his son and son-in-law, although having overcome the rigid structure inherent in Giovanni's work, never succeeded in accomplishing Cosimo's superior imagery.
The inspiration for the landscapes created in stone by the Castrucci brothers is taken from engravings and paintings made at the court, such as those by Johannes Sadeler (d. circa 1600) and his nephew Egidio Sadeler (d. 1629).
This particular scene depicts the story of Jupiter and one of his many loves Io. Juno frustrated their love by turning Io into a white heifer and entrusting her to the 'hundred-eyed' giant Argos. Jupiter in revenge sent Mercury to slay the giant, which he did after lulling him to sleep with music.
Two pietra dura panels, mounted as table tops on stands, previously from the collection of Baron Robert de Rothschild, were sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 3-4 March 1990, lots 255 and 256.
The art of the pietra dura mosaics evolved in Rome and was almost immediately transferred to Florence, from where Francesco I de'Medici gave Rudolph II one of the first works produced in his new workshop in 1589. It was so much liked by the Emperor that he commissioned a second from the workshop which took six and a half years to complete and incorporated stones from Bohemia which he had had sent to Florence. The design also seems to have been strongly influenced by his court as it is stylistically atypical for a work Florentine panel. By 1592 Rudolph II had already secured the transfer of Cosimo Castrucci, from Florence to Prague. Castrucci, described in a 'pass letter' as a semi-precious stone carver to his Majesty, was from a long line of Florentine goldsmiths and his workshop, which he left behind in Florence continued for another thirty years. His son Giovanni (d. 1615) appears to have been working with Cosimo in Prague, from circa 1598 and was made Kammer-Edelsteinschneider in 1610, which might be the date of his father's death although there is no mention of Cosimo after 1600. The high regard in which their works were held, is confirmed by an invitation to Giovanni from the Medicis to take over the workshop of the Caroni brothers who died in 1611. One of the Castrucci oeuvres, depicting the Banquet of Abraham, was even commissioned by the Medicis to designs supplied by them. Giovanni's son, Cosimo di Giovanni, who combined the skillful three-dimensional renderings of space which his grandfather, Cosimo was reknowed for, and the layered picture planes and architectural elements developed in Giovanni's work, is mentioned until 1619, when Giovanni's son-in-law Giuliano di Piero Pandolfini seems to have taken over the workshop. (E. Fucikova, et. al., Rudolf II and Prague, London, 1997, pp. 192-194, and A.M. Giusti, Pietre Dure, London, 1992, pp. 135-142).
The masterful handling of spacial recession in the present panel, employing successively lighter stones to evoque the distance, and further enhanced by an appropriate choice of architectural stones, is a strong indication that this plaque was made by Cosimo Castrucci. The works by Giovanni lack this three dimensinal technique and appear as layered landscapes, while his son and son-in-law, although having overcome the rigid structure inherent in Giovanni's work, never succeeded in accomplishing Cosimo's superior imagery.
The inspiration for the landscapes created in stone by the Castrucci brothers is taken from engravings and paintings made at the court, such as those by Johannes Sadeler (d. circa 1600) and his nephew Egidio Sadeler (d. 1629).
This particular scene depicts the story of Jupiter and one of his many loves Io. Juno frustrated their love by turning Io into a white heifer and entrusting her to the 'hundred-eyed' giant Argos. Jupiter in revenge sent Mercury to slay the giant, which he did after lulling him to sleep with music.
Two pietra dura panels, mounted as table tops on stands, previously from the collection of Baron Robert de Rothschild, were sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 3-4 March 1990, lots 255 and 256.