Renaissance-style mortar

Vincenzo Grandi|Gian Gerolamo Grandi

19th century · Bronze, with dark brown lacquer patina · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Mortars were produced in fair abundance throughout northern Italy. In the central zone of the Linsky mortar, classical swags of meandering ribbons and firmly modeled cornucopias enframe alternating griffins and stags. The ornamentation closely resembles that of mortars (such as one in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin) also attributable to the workshop of Vicenzo and Gian Gerolamo Grandi by analogy with the highly worked bronze utensils, including buckets and bells, which they produced in Trent for Bishop Bernardo da Cles between 1532 and 1539. The relatively spacious design of the mortar may indicate that it was made at a slightly later date, when the Grande were relocated to Padua—between 1542 and the death of Vicenzo in 1577/78.

Artist

Vincenzo Grandi|Gian Gerolamo Grandi

Date

19th century

Medium

Bronze, with dark brown lacquer patina

Culture

Italian, Padua or Trent

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982