Miseroni Artifacts Collected in Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Bowl
ca. 1590-1600
carved jasper with gold handles and mounts
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Ambrogio Miseroni
Venus and Cupid
ca. 1600-1610
carved chalcedony
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Dionysio Miseroni
Vessel
1641
carved emerald from Colombia,
with faceted top and gold mounts
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Asymmetrical Bowl
ca. 1603-1607
carved nephrite with enameled-gold mounts
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Shell-shaped Cup
ca. 1600-1605
carved agate with enameled-gold mounts
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Bowl with Cover
ca. 1610-15
carved agate with enameled-gold mounts
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

from L'Art

Oui, l'œuvre sort plus belle
D'une forme au travail
    Rebelle,
Vers, marbre, onyx, émail.

           .     .     .

D'une main délicate
Poursuis dans un filon
    D'agate
Le profil d'Apollon.

            .     .     .

Sculpte, lime, cisèle;
Que ton rêve flottant
    Se scelle
Dans le bloc résistant!

– Théophile Gautier (1858)


          *     *     *


All finest art is seen
    In forms that foil the blade
Unkeen –
    Verse, marble, gem inlaid.

            .     .     .

With deftest hand go trace
    Over the agate rare
The face
    Apollo once did wear.

            .     .     .

Hew down and chisel fine.
    So that thy dream be sealed
For sign
    In stuff that will not yield!

– translation by Wilfred Charles Thorley (1920)

Dionysio Miseroni
Vase of Flowers
1647-48
carved citrine vase
with flowers of agate, jasper, chalcedony,
and rock crystal, stems of silver
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Miseroni Workshop
Hercules
ca. 1590-1600
jasper cameo with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Ceres
ca. 1600-1610
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Venus and Cupid
ca. 1602-1608
chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Woman with a Fan
ca. 1610
cameo in commesso relief
with agate, jasper, carnelian and chalcedony
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Minerva
ca. 1602-1605
agate and chalcedony cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Miseroni Workshop
Herm in Niche
ca. 1605-1610
agate, carnelian, jasper and mother-of-pearl
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Miseroni Workshop
Herm in Niche
ca. 1605-1610
agate, carnelian, jasper and mother-of-pearl
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Cut Flowers and other Domestic Objects from the Past

Antoine Chazal
Roses in a Vase
1845
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Rachel Ruysch
A Spray of Flowers
before 1750
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Henri Fantin-Latour
White Cup and Saucer
1864
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Henri Fantin-Latour
White Candlestick
1870
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Nick and the Candlestick

I am a miner. The light burns blue.
Waxy stalactites
Drip and thicken, tears

The earthen womb
Exudes from its dead boredom.
Black bat airs

Wrap me, raggy shawls,
Cold homicides.
They weld to me like plums.

Old cave of calcium
Icicles, old echoer.
Even the newts are white,

Those holy Joes.
And the fish, the fish –
Christ! they are panes of ice,

A vice of knives,
A piranha
Religion, drinking

Its first communion out of my live toes.
The candle
Gulps and recovers its small altitude,

Its yellows hearten.
O love, how did you get here?
O embryo

Remembering, even in sleep,
Your crossed position.
The blood blooms clean

In you, ruby.
The pain
You wake to is not yours.

Love, love,
I have hung our cave with roses,
With soft rugs –

The last of Victoriana.
Let the stars
Plummet to their dark address.

Let the mercuric
Atoms that cripple drip
Into the terrible well,

You are the one
Solid the spaces lean on, envious.
You are the baby in the barn.

– Sylvia Plath (1962)

Auguste Renoir
Apples and Teacup
before 1919
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Auguste Renoir
Apples and Walnuts
before 1919
oil on panel (cigar-box lid)
(formerly owned by Edith Wharton)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Antonio Salviati
Small Rose-colored Vase
ca. 1885-90
Venetian glass
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Persian artisan
Bottle with Dropper Spout
ca. 1700-1800
cobalt glass
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Albert Godde Bedin et cie (Lyon)
Endleaf from fashion magazine Art Goût Beauté
1932
design for printed crêpe de chine
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ethel Sands
Still-life with a view over a cemetery
before 1923
oil on panel
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Willem van Aelst
Group of Flowers
1675
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

C.W. Immink
Asters and Autumn Leaves in a Vase
before 1935
print from glass-plate negative
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Philip Reinagle
Lilium Superbum
before 1805
oil on canvas
(for engraved book illustration)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Jan Brueghel the Elder
Stoneware Vase of Flowers
ca. 1607-1608
oil on panel
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Renaissance Pendants from the Rijksmuseum

Pendant - Hands clasping Heart (Europe)
ca. 1580-1600
Diamonds, pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Dragon (Italy)
ca. 1550-1600
Pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Cock (Germany)
ca. 1600
Baroque pearl, rubies, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Pearl

That swimmers of the rock conspired to weave
down the green shaken depth a flight
of turning loins and shoulders, and yet leave
forever captured in a shell of night

the globe of shining in the sand, shall mean
as idols mean in sleep, the truth
we carry sealed and quiet down the green
descent into a memory of youth.

This is the grammar of a dream, to mark
how the brown swimmers came and are,
pass and recoil from where the forgotten dark
turns pale again upon a buried star.

– Richmond Lattimore (1950)

Pendant - Dolphin (Germany)
ca. 1600
Topazes, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Flying Cupid (Germany)
ca. 1600
Pearls, rubies, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Lute player mounted on deer (Germany)
ca. 1600
Pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Minerva (Italy)
ca. 1550-1600
Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Cupid in niche (Netherlands)
ca. 1550-60
Pearls, other jewels set in enameled-gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Lamb (Europe)
ca. 1580
Pearl (half) set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Man and woman in horse-drawn sleigh (Europe)
ca. 1600
Diamonds, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

from Jewel Thief Movie

I had dozens of uses, but I was mostly
flat beautiful. Visitors just gasped
in the matte-black room where I freely
fluoresced. They saw me laid on a dictionary
to demonstrate my transparency,
which was complete; they could read the word
everything through me.
My name meant blood, meant seawater,
meant lemon. The eye in my agate
never blinked. I was believed to be formed
of frozen moonlight. I was cut so that a star
shone back. The purest and wind-clearest
hunk of me they carved into a horse.

–  Patricia Lockwood (2017)

Pendant - Dragon (Spain)
ca. 1550-1600
Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Cannon (Germany)
ca. 1580-1600
Pearls, rubies, diamonds set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Death with Scythe (Europe)
ca. 1600
enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Pendant - Sphinx (Italy)
ca. 1600
Baroque pearls, other jewels set in enameled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)

Carved Jasper at the Hermitage

Intaglio - Empress Elizabeth Petrovna
Russia
ca. 1745
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

"Jasper is an opaque variety of chalcedony, and is usually associated with brown, yellow or reddish colors, but may be used to describe other opaque colors of chalcedony such as dark or mottled green, orange, or black."

"Name among the ancients for any bright-colored chalcedony (except carnelian), the most esteemed being of a green color."

Cameo - Emperor Hadrian
Russia
1825
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Cameo - Isis 
Italy
ca. 1750-1800
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Intaglio - Octavian with Galley and Dolphins
Western Europe
17th century
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Intaglio - Antinous
England
ca. 1775-1800
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Cameo - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
Russia
ca. 1829
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Intaglio - Silenus the Hunter
Ancient Greece
6th century BC
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Cameo - Sabina and Hadrian 
Western Europe
ca. 1675-1700
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Cameo - Catherine the Great as Minerva
Russia
1789
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Intaglio - Shrimp
Roman Empire
1st-2nd century AD
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Intaglio - Shrimp and Shell
Roman Empire
1st-2nd century AD
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Intaglio - Apollo and Marsyas 
Italy
16th century
jasper
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Cameo - Catherine the Great
Russia
before 1818
jasper (background)
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Miniature box for Beauty Spots
Russia
ca. 1750
jasper, gold
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg