130 - Velluto rinascimentale mediceo, 16 secolo, misure cm 57,5 x 135 (Italia)

Velluto rinascimentale mediceo, tecnica velluto a più livelli, in pura seta, fondamenta in seta.

Provenienza: Firene

Epoca: 16 secolo

L'Opera tessile, completa delle sue cimose e a modulo completo, fu realizzata in occasione del matrimonio di Cosimo II de' Medici con Magdalena d'Austria.

L'opera attualmente è parte della collezione privata Sharon Baghai.

Si hanno notizie di piccoli frammenti dello stesso tessuto. Esemplari simili, ma assai più piccoli, e frammenti dello stesso tessuto sono conservati:

1. Detroit Institute of Art, No.38.83, misura 47cm x 26cm1/2 - Dono di E. e A. Silberman;
   
2. Alan S'Cole, Ornament in European Silks, p. 118 ,fig. 100, esposto al Museo South Kensington (no. 477), al Museo di Munich (no.128) e al Bargello di Firenze.
3. Isabelle Ierrera, Catalogue D' Étoffes (Anciennes et Modernes),1927 pag. 234, no. 260.

Notes in english: 
Cut voided velvet, sea-green on golden yellow satin.
A shield containing a conventional ''M'' and crown is suspended from the neck of a double-headed crowned animal (lion?), with lions rampant as supporters. The group is surmounted by a canopy with an elaborated finial, flanked by large birds (eagles?).
These canopies emerge from a foliated mask that is surmounted by a complicated device of baskets,grapes, and cupids.
If the bunch of twenty five pellets is not merely a grape but a reference to the Palle Medici, the rather incongrous pattern becomes device of a grand duke of Tuskany.
The kneeling cupids, proffering a crown and a jewel depending from a chain, indicate an alliance by matrimony with a member of the arch-house of Austria, represented by the double eagles with the lions.
Such a marriage took place in June, 1608, between Cosimo II and Maria Magdalena, a sister of Ferdinand II.