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AN ANTIQUARIAN FRAMED IVORY RELIEF OF THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN THE IVORY SPANISH OR SPANISH COLONIAL, LATE 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY, THE SILVER SCROLLING BORDERS 17TH CENTURY A polychrome ajourée ivory relief of the Virgin and Child sitting on a crescent moon surrounded by angels; set into a rectangular gilt-bronze and gilt-copper frame; the inner frame decorated with gilt-copper cartouches set with silver and gilt-copper pierced scrollwork and garnets and eight enamelled silver panels; the gilt-copper outer frame decorated with pierced silver repoussé scrollwork, with four silver putto heads and with garnets set into pierced gilt-copper scrollwork; surmounted by three cartouches each centred by a gilt-bronze bee 29 ? x 20 ? in. (75 x 52 cm.)
Collection Lisa and Heinrich Arnhold (1885-1935), Dresden, and by descent, from whom acquired by the present owner.
The present framed ivory relief of the Coronation of the Virgin provides a fascinating example of the rise of antiquarianism in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It combines a baroque ivory relief which shows the influence of the Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652-1706) combined with translucent enamel silver panels which reflect the influence of the Augsburg goldsmith and enameller David Altenstetter (1547-1617), as well as repoussé silver scrollwork of the 17th century.
The framed ivory offered here is closely related to two other framed ivories, one depicting the Pieta in the collegiate church of Pastrana, in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the other depicting the Entombment in the Convent of Santa Teresa, Valladolid, Spain (Estella Marcos, 1984, op. cit., nos.129 and 131, figs. 123 and 128). All three have a rectangular recessed opening which contains an ajourée ivory relief, surrounded by a frame decorated with pierced silver mounts set with large garnets. The Pastrana relief also has enamelled silver panels closely comparable to those found on the present lot. All three are further embellished with scrolling silver decoration, on four sides in the present case and as a surmount for the Pastrana and Valladolid examples. A fourth related object is an elaborate silver and gilt-bronze mirror in the Milwaukee Art Museum which is dated by the museum to circa 1600 and described as 'in the manner of David Altenstetter'. It has a closely comparable form, virtually identical silver scrolls down the sides and translucent enamel panels set into the frame.
Both the present lot and the Pastrana relief incorporate three small bees and the Pastrana relief has traditionally been considered a gift from the Barberini pope Urban VIII - whose family used bees as one of their heraldic devices - to the 3rd Duke of Pastrana. Rui Gomez da Silva, 3rd Duke (1585-1626), was Spanish ambassador to the Vatican from 1623 to 1626 and is known to have received gifts from the pope during his time in Rome, including a painting on stone by the French artist Jacques Stella (Carvajal, op. cit., p. 165). The 3rd Duke in particular was a great collector and philanthropist, and along with other members of the ducal family made artistic donations to religious institutions where they had estates in the Spanish colonies in what is today Mexico.
It is interesting to note that all three of the framed ivories have Spanish or Spanish colonial associations, and it seems likely that a workshop based in Spain produced the frames for the ivories in the late 18th or first half 19th century using elements from existing works of art. It is possible that the bees were included in the frames of the present lot and the Pastrana example on the basis of oral tradition that the ivories were gifts from the Barberini pope Urban VIII, although the fact that the ivory relief offered here seems to be by a Spanish sculptor would contradict this possibility. The idea that the frames of these ivories are antiquarian cre