19th Century Italian Pietra Dura Commedia Dell’Arte Figure Plaque

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19th Century Italian Pietra Dura Commedia Dell’Arte Figure Plaque

A fine Italian Grand Tour pietra dura plaque depicting a brightly … Read more 19th Century Italian Pietra Dura Commedia Dell’Arte Figure Plaque

A fine Italian Grand Tour pietra dura plaque depicting a brightly dressed theatrical figure, likely a Commedia dell’arte character and possibly Stenterello, the Florentine comic type. The figure is shown in profile against a deep black ground, holding a cane and wearing a pale hat or cap, powdered hair, a colored waistcoat, blue sash, short breeches, and contrasting stockings. The crisp silhouette, jewel-like color, and use of varied stones for costume, drapery, flesh, and ground are characteristic of Florentine hardstone picture-making, in which carefully cut stones are fitted together to create a pictorial surface with the polish and permanence of marble.

The likely identification with Stenterello is suggested by the Florentine context of pietra dura production and by the figure’s late 18th-century theatrical costume. Stenterello was the comic character associated with Florence, generally described with a distinctive hat, pigtail or wig, short breeches, varied stockings, and an eccentric, colorful costume. The subject also fits the wider 19th-century market for Italian hardstone panels depicting musicians, cavaliers, jesters, peasants, and Commedia dell’arte types, made for display by collectors and Grand Tour travelers.

Pietra dura, literally “hard stone,” developed in Florence as one of Italy’s most refined decorative arts, using precisely cut marble, jasper, agate, lapis, malachite, and other colored stones inlaid into a darker ground. By the 19th century, Florentine workshops produced smaller plaques for the domestic and export market, often with human figures inspired by Commedia dell’arte and Italian regional costume. Comparable Grand Tour examples include hardstone figures of cavaliers or musketeers inlaid on black marble grounds and set into giltwood frames, generally dated to the late 19th century.

Measurements: 9" w x 11.75" h. See less