Decorative arts

Maiolica in the pure Louis XIV style

The decorative arts, including the elegant maiolica produced at the end of the 17th century in the workshop of Carlo Antonio Grue, responded sensitively to the dynamics of contemporary events and fine art.

The precious bottles of precious perfumes In the 1700s, when Meissen porcelain was at its height of refinement and fame, ceramic perfume bottles became part of the private wardrobe, just like pocket watches, walking stick knobs and snuff boxes: collectable objects for the educated and discriminating.

The cameo portraits of Imperial Rome

It could perhaps be said that the most elegant and precious sculptural art is that of miniature stone carvings.

Renaissance majolica: a priceless collectionItalian maiolica is a uniquely vivid and intimate reflection of the world of the Renaissance. This book is the catalogue of the world's most substantial private collection of Renaissance maiolica. Starting with some fine pieces from the fifteenth century,...

The golden age of the Majolica of the Duchy of Urbino

Urbino's fame in connection to majolica begins in the 16th century and is particularly linked to the storied production that in Urbino acquired extraordinary importance and space, perhaps also due to the fact that the definitive return of Francesco Maria della Rovere in 1521 was followed by the establishment of a refined court with important affinities.

Italian majolica. A mirror to the world of the Renaissance

Italian Renaissance majolica is perhaps the one form of art that most completely and with the brightest colours reflects the world in which the women and men of the Renaissance lived.

The private collection of one of the most important gallery owners of the century

Gonzalez Palacios calls him “the example and prototype of the European who was able, unlike the majority of New Yorkers of the time, to keep an eye on both sides of the Atlantic”: Gian Enzo Sperone has been a leading player in international art from the second half of the 20th century until today.

Imperial porphyry, the greatest symbol of religious power

This volume presents the largest number of artefacts ever assembled and traces, by the stages which two symbols in widely different materials became intimately linked: purple dye, which is transfigured from the living body of rock snails into a colour and porphyry, whose inanimate objectivity as a rare stone is converted into the immortal essence of the figure it is called to embody

From secret collections and from Royal residences, a high point of Italian art

This catalogue of a major exhibition at the palace of Venaria Reale includes more than 130 works from Piedmontese and international museum and private collections, created by the great cabinet-makers of the Court of Savoy: Prinotto, Piffetti, Bonzanigo and Capello (known as Moncalvo).