RELATED LITERATURE

Graziano Manni, I Maestri della Scagliola in Emilia Romagna e Marche, Modena, 1997

Anna Maria Massinelli, Scagliola l'arte della pietra di luna, Rome, 1997

The present table is particularly eye-catching for its trompe l’oeil top with a map of Asia charmingly penned and annotated with details requiring the viewer to contemplate and further explore every inch of this map. Not only a precious historical and cartographical tool, this table is also an important example of the scagliola technique, here mastered at the end of the 17^th century by Carlo Gibertoni originating from Emilia-Romagna in Italy.

Scagliola: the art of trompe l’oeil

From the first examples of documented scagliola at the end of the 17^th century, the quality of this medium appeared to be limitless as the beginning of this art in Italy took place in the area of Carpi in Emilia-Romagna. The scagliola masters reached their height of perfection in the 18^th century but already by 1695 when the present table top was executed, many makers such as Carlo Gibertoni were clearly pioneers that elevated the technique of scagliola to its own form of art, at the same rank of pietra dura.

The precious pietre dure table tops from the Grand Ducal Workshops in Florence which were coveted by the European court in the 17^th century undoubtedly influenced scagliola production. The figurative and ornamental repertory of scagliola table tops was vast too, and they always tried to recreate the illusion of pietra dura, of ebony and ivory inlays and engravings. For this matter, the technique of scagliola was complex and laborious depending on the image to be reproduced: it is produced by reducing a mineral stone, selenite, to a powder and mixing it with natural coloured pigments and aninal glue. The original drawing is transferred with a pounce on a marble or scagliola slab, and it is engraved with a mallet and chisel. The coloured mixtures fill the engraved drawing and are levelled with water and pumice stone. Then the work is engraved again with a burin to obtain other different colours and shades.

The map of Asia

The taste for such tops with detailed trompe l’oeil maps was driven by the systematic mapping of distant parts of the globe in the 17th century and resulted in their dissemination throughout Italy, France and England. Just like maps on other of his tops, it seems Carlo Gibertoni drew his inspiration from Gerard Mercator’s maps. Here of interest in particular is Mercator’s map dated from 1631 depicting Asia (fig.1). Just like the top, the map shows the territories of Asia: Moscow, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Cypress, Syria, Palestine and Egypt; this also includes modern day Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. It moves east into the Arabian Desert, Mesopotamia, Assyria and Babylonia; modern day Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. The map then shows the Persian Gulf (modern day Iran), Tartary, India, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

It would appear that Carlo Gibertoni was the first artist in scagliola to create scagliola tops featuring cartographical compositions. A few similar examples by Gibertoni have been recorded in public and private collects ions:

- a pair of tables with tops both signed and dated 1695, depicting America and Asia (ill. Manni, op. cit., p. 81, figs. 63-64), originally from the Strozzi Sacrati collects ion (and subsequently sold at Replica Shoes 's, Milan, 15 December 1992, lot 326). The tops are dedicated to Princess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, who in 1688 married Ferdinando dei Medici (1672-1731).

-a table top depicting a map of America from the collects ion of Bianco Bianchi in Firenze (ill. Manni, op. cit., pp. 78-79, fig. 60)

-a related monochrome scagliola table top depicting a map of the Americas signed by Gibertoni and dated 1699, sold at Replica Shoes ’s, London, 4 December 2007, lot 14 (£36,500).

-a table top at the Palazzo Piccolimini depicting the region of Siena (ill. Manni, op. cit., pp. 78-79, cat. 59)

-one table top depicting maps of the Middle East, offered at Replica Shoes ’s, London, Arts of Europe, 10 July 2013, lot 11.

Carlo Gibertoni (1635-1696)

There is little information on this maker although it is known that he was born in Carpi in 1635. He is not to be confused with the contemporaneous maker Carlo Francesco Gibertoni. The maker of this top was probably influenced by the scagliola school from Emilia-Romagna, especially by Annibale Griffoni, who had an important role in disseminating the art of scagliola making in Tuscany where Carlo Gibertoni worked. Indeed, a document in the Archivio di Stato di Modena reveals that in 1686 and 1687 Gibertoni presented a petition to the Duke of Modena to re-enter into the state, as for 20 years he suffered banishment, after been accused of homicide (around 1666). Apart from his trompe l’oeil table tops, Gibertoni is known to have executed altars much in the style of Griffoni; one in the Church of San Michele in Vallico di Sopra (Lucca) and one in the Oratorio di San Tommaso d'Aquino in Florence (Manni, op. cit., pp.73-77).