Overview of Shell with Medici Coat of Arms
n.d.
Medium
Gouache, heightened with touches of gold paint, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
21.2 × 15.6 cm (8 3/8 × 6 3/16 in.)
Classification
gouache
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
115507
Art Historical Context
Giuseppe Grisoni’s delicate gouache captures an ornate shell embellished with the Medici coat of arms, rendered in luminous layers of opaque pigment and touches of gold paint on ivory laid paper. Measuring just over eight inches tall, the small work rewards close viewing, its fine details and metallic highlights evoking the precious objects once prized in Renaissance and Baroque cabinets of curiosities. The choice of gouache allowed Grisoni to achieve rich, velvety color and crisp definition, while the gold accents emphasize the shell’s sculptural form and the heraldic motif. Such hybrid natu...
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...