Citrine quartz vase in the shape of an oil lamp
1600 - 1630.Room 079B
This vessel, described as a “velón” or oil lamp in the 1746 inventory of La Granja de San Ildefonso, is one of the few pieces in the Dauphin’s Treasure in their original state. It is made up of three pieces of citrine quartz and one, the finial, of smoky quartz, linked by five mounts and two gold handles in black enamel. On the egg-shaped body are four protrusions. Inserted on the smaller two are scrolls forming the handles, while the other two larger ones end in enamelled gold spouts. The cover, with a slightly flared profile, is decorated with gadroons, as is the foot. On the finial, a gold ring supports a rounded baluster. The body is decorated with deeply cut waves and volutes. Together with the tone of the quartz and the form of the vessel, this is suggestive of smoke curling inside an oil lamp.
On this piece, the usual decorative scenes have disappeared. All that remains is form and matter in order to create the visual illusion of an oil lamp whose flame has just gone out. The strong lines of this piece contrast with the delicacy of the inlaid enamel of its principal mounts, applied on finely scratched surfaces. The motifs arranged vertically are based on the Renaissance candelieri, through here reinterpreted after the fashion for so-called silhouettes, at its height from 1610 to 1620, consisting of designs for extremely fine scroll patterns ending in pointed forms, and published for execution in monochrome enamel, as seen in the repertories of Drüsse, Saur, Hurtu and others, printed in the first third of the 17th century. In 2001, Arbeteta attributed the vessel to Dionysio Miseroni, the last great stonecutter of the Milanese tradition, possibly in collaboration with his father Ottavio, the head of the workshop that supplied numerous pieces to Rudolf II. In 2016, the same scholar re-examined the possibility that the piece might be an early but assured work by the son. Although the design of the mount argues against a later date for the vessel, it greatly resembles works by Dionysio in his period of artistic maturity between 1640 and 1650, when this type of work in gold had already gone out of fashion. Ottavio had meanwhile explored the possibilities of different materials and colours. The transition from the figurative to the abstract, and from the purity of rock crystal to a less frequently used material like quartz in its various tonalities, was the swan song of this Milanese family business. Its constant and abundant use was accentuated in Dionysio’s work in keeping with the stylistic evolution of the Prague School, as studied by Distelberger. This is appreciable in numerous vessels in Vienna that are attributed to him, many of them decorated with undulating lines and parallel volutes. Ottavio’s development towards organic and abstract forms thus continued with his son, who made pure geometry out of traditional motifs, such as the tulip petals cut on a vessel in the Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. 1661.
Original state: Juan Laurent y Minier, “Vase, en cristal de roche taillé et gravé, montures d’or et émail, XVIIe siècle, règne de Henri IV”, c. 1879. Museo del Prado, HF0835/40.
