D'APRÈS LA MANUFACTURE DES GOBELINS Lot n° 19

HARD STONE MOSAIC PLATE Modern work Lapis lazuli, jasper, chalcedony, agate... H. 120 cm, W. 90 cm Bibliography - Alcouffe D., Dion-Tenenbaum A., Lefébure A., Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1993, tome 1, p. 334-339 This tray is inspired by one of the masterpieces of the Louvre Museum kept in the Galerie d'Apollon. As for the original, it comes from the hard stone workshop of the Manufacture des Gobelins that Louis XIV had opened in order to compete with the Florentine workshops. In fact, from the end of the 16th century, the hard pietre mosaics made in Florence fascinated the whole of Europe. So the Sun King brought artists from the famous Tuscan city to France. The workshop was in operation from 1668 and was successively run by Ferdinando Migliorini (died in 1683) and Filippo Branchi (died in 1699) before disappearing. This workshop produced table tops like the one in the Louvre as well as mosaics to decorate cabinets. A very wide variety of marbles and hard stones were used to make this tray. The decoration has a pictorial aspect that is peculiar to the Gobelins' workshop and that differentiates it from the Florentine productions. The centre of the tray, on a black marble background, displays the royal arms in agate and lapis lazuli surmounted by the royal crown and laurel branches. At the corners of the board, the King's number (two interlaced Ls) is summoned by the same crown. Between these emblematic motifs of royalty are six square panels, each decorated with a bird within a landscape of white clouds. The original tray in the Louvre museum could be the one delivered for the King by the manufactory in 1671, described in the inventory of its furniture, as well as the one that appears on the tapestry The Visit of Louis XIV to the Gobelins woven for the first time from 1673 to 1679. All are adorned with the royal crown.