The Basilisk, a legendary creature whose origins lie in the naturalistic traditions of Antiquity, particularly in the writings of Plinio il Vecchio and Greek-Roman naturalists, was typically depicted as a small snake capable of killing with its gaze or breath. The Basilisk represented the extreme personification of the danger inherent in the wild nature and …
The first chandeliers (lat. candelabrum, literally “candle holder”), as hanging lighting devices, made up of a central body from which a variable number of fixed or movable candle holder arms branch off, date back to the ancient world and their presence is well documented in the Etruscan, Roman and Byzantine cultures. These artefacts, originally conceived …
Holy Water basins began to appear at the entrances of Christian churches between the 8th and 9th centuries. They were small and shallow containers, designed to hold blessed water with which believers, dipping the fingers of one hand into it, made the sign of the cross as a gesture of purification and a reminder of …
Ivory sculpture, from mid-16th century and over the next two centuries, was considered one of the finest artistic disciplines inside the European courts to such an extent that princes, nobles and major ecclesiastical figures were contending Flemish, German and Austrian artists, among the most skilled in working with that noble material. Such is the case …
Known and widespread since Ancient times, padlocks are portable locks used for locking boxes, chests, furniture and other domestic containers as well as for closing doors and gates of houses, cities and sacred places. Over the centuries, especially in the vast geographical area from Turkey to India, many padlocks of different shapes, sizes and types …
The tobacco plant was introduced to Europe, and more precisely to Spain, by Christopher Columbus who, having seen the Native Americans pulverise and inhale its dried leaves, brought it to the Old Continent on his return from the second voyage to the New World in 1496. Tobacco thus spread through Europe in the 16th century, …
Along with locks and keys, doorknockers are the most intricately executed iron objects in which the highest aesthetic levels are reached, so that they can be considered true works of art. They usually originate from the inspiration of anonymous iron craftsmen who mould a hard and elusive material into small sculptures. From the Middle Ages …
Attilio Torresini (1884 – 1961), Venetian artist by birth and artistic training, learned sculptural techniques from his father, a skilled marble worker. After graduating from his city’s Academy of Fine Arts, he settled in Rome in 1914, managing to rent a studio in Villa Strohl-Fern – a famous residence of several artists and men of …
This unpublished bronze statuette is a small-scale reproduction of one of the best-known masterpieces of late 16th-century Lombard sculpture: the marble Madonna Assunta by Annibale Fontana (1540-1587), made for the façade of the Milanese church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli presso San Celso. Achieved in 1583-1584 and installed in 1590, just thirty years later the statue was …
These rare and unpublished metal sculptures were made by riveting together several foils of embossed iron, polychromed with red on the inner side and then fully gilded. The birds rest their talons on what looks like a rock or a drift of burning ashes, with little grassy tufts or small tongues of fire, placed over …