Platter (Salver)
maker
Unknown
Dateabout 1500
Place MadeVenice, Veneto, Italy, Europe
MediumEtched brass with inlaid silver
Dimensions5.2 x 45.7 cm (2 1/16 x 18 in.)
ClassificationsVessels
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberM27w79
eMuseum ID724526
EmbARK ObjectID12438
TMS Source ID1561
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryLike the illumination attributed to Gentile Bellini, this brass platter is a Venetian response to Islamic art. The object is decorated with silver wire that has been fused to the brass in a technique called damascening, named after the city of Damascus. During the Renaissance, damascene brass was imported from the eastern Mediterranean to Italy, and by 1500 this Islamic technique had been adopted by craftsmen in Italy. Brass objects inlaid with intricate Arabesque designs in silver became especially popular in Venice. Some objects were close copies of Islamic models, while others, like this plate, mingle Italian and Eastern patterns.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 100.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 100.
BibliographyNotesExhibition of the Society of Arts & Crafts: Together with a Loan Collection of Applied Art... Exh. cat. (Boston: Copley & Allston Halls, 1907), p. 102, no. 239. (entitled "Brass Persian dish, silver design")
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 233. (as Venetian, 16th century)
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 38 (19 May 1963), p. 2. (as Venetian, 16th century)
Sylvia Auld. "Veneto-Saracenic" metalwork: objects and history. Phd. Diss. (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 1989), p. 260, no. 166. (unattributed)
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 100, ill. (as Italian (Venice), 1500s)
Sylvia Auld. Renaissance Venice, Islam and Mahmud the Kurd: A Metalworking Enigma (London, 2004), pp. 7, 224, no. 5.8. (unattributed)
Sylvia Auld in Caroline Campbell and Alan Chong. Bellini and the East. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; London: National Gallery of Art, 2006), pp. 33-35, no. 4. (as Venetian, about 1500)
Marco Spallanzani. Metalli Islamici a Firenze nel Rinascimento (Florence, 2010), pp. 67-68, 161, no. 46. (as attributed to Venice or to Italy generally, 1st quarter of the 16th century)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 233. (as Venetian, 16th century)
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 38 (19 May 1963), p. 2. (as Venetian, 16th century)
Sylvia Auld. "Veneto-Saracenic" metalwork: objects and history. Phd. Diss. (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, 1989), p. 260, no. 166. (unattributed)
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 100, ill. (as Italian (Venice), 1500s)
Sylvia Auld. Renaissance Venice, Islam and Mahmud the Kurd: A Metalworking Enigma (London, 2004), pp. 7, 224, no. 5.8. (unattributed)
Sylvia Auld in Caroline Campbell and Alan Chong. Bellini and the East. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; London: National Gallery of Art, 2006), pp. 33-35, no. 4. (as Venetian, about 1500)
Marco Spallanzani. Metalli Islamici a Firenze nel Rinascimento (Florence, 2010), pp. 67-68, 161, no. 46. (as attributed to Venice or to Italy generally, 1st quarter of the 16th century)
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Galleria Sangiorgi, Rome on 20 October 1906, through the painter Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950).
