Jewelled Bowl in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice
n.d.
Medium
Gouache over black chalk, on ivory laid paper, pieced together
Dimensions
23.6 × 32.5 cm (9 5/16 × 12 13/16 in.)
Classification
gouache
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
115484
Art Historical Context
Giuseppe Grisoni’s “Jewelled Bowl in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice” offers a luminous study of one of the city’s most treasured objects. Created in gouache over black chalk on ivory laid paper that has been carefully pieced together, the measures just under ten by thirteen inches yet captures the bowl’s ornate form with remarkable precision. The medium’s opaque, jewel-like colors allow the artist to suggest the sparkle of gold, enamel, and precious stones, giving viewers a sense of the object’s dazzling materiality. The Treasury of San Marco has long housed Byzantine and medieval relics b...
About the Artist
Giuseppe Grisoni · 1699–1769
Giuseppe Grisoni was born in Mons, in the Spanish Netherlands, in 1699, to an Italian family, and his career unfolded across multiple European courts and cultural centers, making him a quintessentially cosmopolitan figure of the early eighteenth century. He received his artistic training in Florence, where he absorbed the rich tradition of Florentine portraiture and absorbed the influence of the G...