An Italian Pietre Dure, Pietre Tenere and Mother-of-Pearl Table Top, Naples, Circa 1700, Attributed to Cosimo Fanzago

Bernard B. and Simone Steinitz, Paris;

Sotheby's Paris, 30 June 2016, lot 22;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

By the late sixeteenth century, the fashion for inlaid hardstone and marble decoration had spread from Florence and Rome to Naples. This table top belongs to a group of ‘commessi’ and altar fronts that were created in Naples by the prominent and highly skilled marble workers dubbed ‘marmorari’. One of their number was Cosimo Fanzago (1591-1678), one of the greatest architects and sculptors of the Baroque era in Naples. His masterpiece is undoubtedly the complex of buildings for the Certosa di San Martino, in which the floors are covered with glorious marquetry panels in a variety of stones, dotted throughout with mother-of-pearl as can be observed on the present lot. The design of this table top is directly inspired by Roman and Florentine models, but the choice of stones and their arrangements are typical of Neapolitan work.

Recently a richly-inlaid table top from the circle of Fanzago sold at Sotheby’s London, October 31 2018, lot 384 and a highly significant pair also sold at Sotheby’s London, July 6, 2011, lot 11 for £217,250.