A decorative intarsia roundel in the Renaissance style, attributed to Giovanni Battista Gatti (1816 – 1889)

A decorative intarsia roundel in the Renaissance style, attributed to Giovanni Battista Gatti (1816 – 1889), inlaid on purple-heart in boxwood, mother-of-pearl and ivory, with concentric bands of a beribboned oak and laurel wreath and foliate arabesques, centred on a portrait of the Renaissance artist Raphael after his self-portrait. Italian, c1870.

Footnote: Giovanni Battista Gatti (1816-1889) studied in Rome and Florence before setting up his own establishment in Faenza in the 1870s. He specialised in the Renaissance revival style, often inlaying ivory into an ebony ground. He enjoyed the support of imperial, aristocratic and ecclesiastical patrons including and won many awards at Europe’s international expositions. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts all own examples of his work.

The Raphael Self-Portrait

The central portrait on our plaque is taken from the famous self portrait of Raphael as a young man in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery and currently on view at the Pitti Palace in Florence. The portrait was painted in 1506 and clearly our plaque was designed as a tribute to one of the great geniuses of the Italian Renaissance, perhaps intended to show that Italian art was still as distinctive and inspired in the 19th century as it had been in the 16th.

Ivory License Ref Number: PUHDSJMG