Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 44
This splendid object was one of the protagonists of the very recent show at the Accademia Carrara
in Bergamo dedicated to paintings on stone. At the centre is Jacques Stella’s Annunciation, painted
on lapis lazuli, with a section of jasper integrated into the surface and painted green to suggest a
hanging drapery and part of the architectural backdrop of the scene. The composition is encircled
by a broad amethyst border set within two wooden mouldings and inserted into an elaborate
architectural frontispiece which recalls the facade of a Roman early Baroque church. This is framed
by paired jasper columns with silver composite capitals, flanked by voluted wooden scrolls
veneered in lapis lazuli. Above, a cornice of yellow and green jasper supports a scrolling ebony
pediment, its central attic section enriched with varied jaspers laid against lapis grounds and
surmounted by a cross. At the base, plaques and fields of jasper and lapis frame a small shellshaped holy water basin, flanked by two cherubs in embossed and chased silver.
Conceived for private devotion, the work epitomises the ebony-and-hardstone production
developed in Rome from the early seventeenth century. Characteristically Roman is the inlay of
contrasting stones arranged in restrained geometric compartments or bands, frequently divided,
as here, by fine metal stringing. The disciplined chromatic interplay is heightened by the sober
architectural framework in ebony. Such objects, known as altaroli or domestic tabernacles, often
contained compartments for relics within the base, though in certain cases they served an
exclusively ornamental function.
The present structure corresponds closely to an altarolo in the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 1;
60 × 31 cm).¹ Despite variations in the selection and distribution of the stones, the structural
parallels strongly suggest a common workshop.
Fig. 1. Roman Workshop, 17th century, House altar and The
Flight into Egypt. pietre dure, tortoiseshell, ebony, 60 x 31
cm. Victoria & Albert museum, London. © Victoria and
Albert Museum, London
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