Casket

Designer: Giovanni Battista Foggini

c. 1720

Ebony and oak, slate inlaid with pietre dure (lapis lazuli, agate, jasper, chalcedony, marble and other harstones) and gilded bronze mounts with semiprecious stones

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A rectangular casket with ornate gilded bronze mounts and inlaid pietra dura panels depicting floral motifs. The casket rests on four decorative legs. Pietre dure (hard stones) describes inlay made from such brightly colored stones as lapis lazuli, agate, and jasper. The stones are carefully cut and polished, then fitted together to form intricate designs. Although practiced since antiquity, the art of pietre dure was revived during the late 1500s at the Medici workshop in Florence, which continues in operation today. In 1695, the sculptor and architect Giovanni Battista Foggini became director of the workshop and designed many pietre dure objects for Cosimo III de’ Medici to give as gifts to other members of the European nobility. Foggini’s drawings for the floral panels on this