Embriachi workshop

<h2 id="marriage-caskets-and-other-smaller-pieces">Marriage caskets, and other smaller pieces</h2>
Though the workshop was patronized by the richest and most style-conscious princes, much of its output of smaller objects was aimed at a much wider group of clients in the merchant and tradesman classes.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a> These were generally decorated with secular subjects, often designed with female tastes in mind, as most were probably given as presents to women, especially as part of the donora of gifts to a bride-to-be.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a>
The presentation of a marriage casket came after the conclusion of the legal and financial negotiations for a wedding between affluent families, but before the marriage itself. It was made the occasion of a certain amount of ceremony, as part of a symbolic courtship, carried to the bride's house and presented on the groom's behalf by a small child, and at that point containing symbolic gifts such as a girdle (elaborately decorated belt) representing virginity.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a>
Scenes from <a href="/facts/Medieval_romance_literature/NjG0kEat">medieval romance literature</a> and, less often, classical mythology are seen, and also generalized and rather decorous pairs of couples or lovers, "couples in conversation, in codified stances full of restraint".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a> The lids of secular caskets may feature <a href="/facts/Personification/p5dM3JUc">personifications</a> of the Virtues.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18">18</a> There are also religious subjects, some following the formulae of the <a href="/facts/Paris/DrNHpwnA">Parisian</a> ivory workshops that dominated ivory carving, with triptychs for private devotion. These follow the conventional religious <a href="/facts/Iconography/YUcIQLN7">iconography</a> of the period.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19">19</a>

The main images are made up of vertical panels, most with one or two standing figures each, arranged in a row. There is often a secondary zone of panels arranged horizontally with distinctive figures, usually naked males with wings, set on a background of large leaves, usually rose leaves. These often run round the lid of caskets, or the frames of mirrors. In some religious works they wear long gowns and can be understood as angels,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20">20</a> but in most works they are rather grown-up <a href="/facts/Putti/5ww4L6cD">putti</a>, or <a href="/facts/Victoria_(mythology)/RSPRgJL0">winged "victories"</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21">21</a>
Pieces where the painted colours have not been cleaned away by later dealers suggest that relatively sparing <a href="/facts/Gilding/Q109QPJs">gilding</a> and painting of highlights was typical, but some pieces may never have received additional decoration in colour. Shields commonly feature, but are not carved with <a href="/facts/Heraldry/cmkn0H85">heraldry</a>; this may have been intended to be painted after purchase.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22">22</a> The lids often have hinges (perhaps not all original) and are decorated on the underside, and there is often a lock.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23">23</a> Many caskets, especially the rectangular ones, have or had metal carrying handles at the top.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24">24</a>

<h2 id="production">Production</h2>
The name of the workshop's leading carver, Giovanni di Jacopo, is known; he was apparently in charge of day to day management.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25">25</a> He also moved to Venice, where he made a will in 1404.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26">26</a> The "workshop" probably operated at several locations, with the essentially separate skills of carving the bone plaques, making the wooden framework and certosina elements, and assembling the final casket very likely done at different places.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27">27</a>

Most carved panels, even in the largest prestige commissions, are of bone, apparently mostly from horses and cows, with horns and hoofs also used,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28">28</a> but some are "ivory", which is mostly from the teeth of the <a href="/facts/Hippopotamus/hFGDPWRI">hippopotamus</a>. African elephant ivory had become even more rare and expensive than previously in Europe at this time.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29">29</a> Inventories record the possession of bone mirrors by both <a href="/facts/Giovanni_di_Bicci_de%2527_Medici/koLVhxT9">Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici</a> (d. 1429) and his great-grandson <a href="/facts/Lorenzo_de%2527_Medici/0wIhcfkl">Lorenzo de' Medici</a> (d. 1490), though both could easily have afforded ivory.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:30" href="#fn:30">30</a>
Scholarly attempts to identify workshops or artists working in the style have led to proposed groups such as the "Nailed Coffer" and "Story of Susanna" workshops.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:31" href="#fn:31">31</a>
The fairly standard size of the bone pieces with figures has allowed many surviving works to be reassembled and improved by later dealers, combining panels from different pieces to fill missing spaces, at the price of making the original <a href="/facts/Iconography/YUcIQLN7">iconography</a> often unclear.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:32" href="#fn:32">32</a>

<h2 id="large-works">Large works</h2>

A small surviving group of relatively large <a href="/facts/Reredos/fg7pRn0H">reredos</a> <a href="/facts/Altarpiece/EX4tc6cF">altarpieces</a> and other large pieces are relatively well-documented. The <a href="/facts/Visconti_of_Milan/awxAdGaQ">Visconti family</a>, rulers of <a href="/facts/Milan/0xrtbPdt">Milan</a>, commissioned an altarpiece that remains in the <a href="/facts/Certosa_di_Pavia/FS42hSdK">Certosa di Pavia</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:33" href="#fn:33">33</a> an extravagant monastery the Visconti built to use as their family burial place. Other similar large religious pieces for the courts of France and Burgundy are confidently attributed to the same workshop on stylistic grounds.
Another important work was commissioned by the Certosa as chests for their Visconti benefactors to use for clothes and belongings in their room at the monastery. It no longer has this form; after extensive rearrangements in the 18th and 19th centuries there are now two groups of carved bone panels set in a framework for display, which are now in the <a href="/facts/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art/mLfcKgHF">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a> in New York, donated by <a href="/facts/John_Pierpont_Morgan/1m3PwzW8">John Pierpont Morgan</a>, whose collections also included several Embriachi caskets.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:34" href="#fn:34">34</a>
Some parts from other pieces seem to have been used for the current configuration, which may contain parts from as many as five original works. The subjects are secular, stories from various romances, including <a href="/facts/Il_Pecorone/ILtKGtRM">Il Pecorone</a> (The Golden Eagle) and classical mythology. The current presentation does not seem to respect their original sequence, leading to much modern scholarly debate, and it is estimated that additional parts were added to give a total of five original objects used as sources for the current array. The price for the chests, paid by the monastery to Baldassare Ubriachi, was 1,000 gold <a href="/facts/Florin/xsNMQUca">florins</a>, an "astronomical sum".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:35" href="#fn:35">35</a> Payments for this are documented between 1400 and 1409.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:36" href="#fn:36">36</a>
A third large work was commissioned by the French prince <a href="/facts/Jean%2c_Duke_of_Berry/qF5Dk3jR">Jean, Duke of Berry</a> for the priory at <a href="/facts/Poissy/z8RDqNoF">Poissy</a> around 1400; it is now in the <a href="/facts/Louvre/wtUVdNUF">Louvre</a>. It is broadly similar to the Pavia altarpiece, with scenes in bone from the lives of Christ, <a href="/facts/John_the_Baptist/l7K55gq7">John the Baptist</a> and <a href="/facts/John_the_Evangelist/kqBBEGyk">John the Evangelist</a>, as well as saints and <a href="/facts/Donor_portrait/czHbFoUE">donor portraits</a> of the duke and his <a href="/facts/Joan_II%2c_Countess_of_Auvergne/yezYFUz0">second duchess</a>. It measures 276 cm by 236 cm.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:37" href="#fn:37">37</a>

<h2 id="baldassare-ubriachi">Baldassare Ubriachi</h2>

Baldassare Ubriachi was originally a Florentine, though he traced his descent to the <a href="/facts/Embriaco_family/71eKrDvb">Embriaco family</a> of <a href="/facts/Genoa/PE9sekQU">Genoa</a>, who were distinguished military and political leaders in the <a href="/facts/Crusader_Kingdoms/xCooE9pA">Crusader Kingdoms</a> from around 1100 to the late 13th century.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:38" href="#fn:38">38</a> He was involved in a number of areas of business, including trading jewels, money management and diplomacy for the <a href="/facts/Visconti_of_Milan/awxAdGaQ">Visconti of Milan</a>, dukes of <a href="/facts/Milan/0xrtbPdt">Milan</a>, as well as the bone and ivory carving workshop.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:39" href="#fn:39">39</a>
<a href="/facts/Charles_IV%2c_Holy_Roman_Emperor/9FwIYvPc">Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor</a> made him a <a href="/facts/Count_palatine/T6GFPzQj">count palatine</a> in 1369 for his work buying jewels for the emperor.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:40" href="#fn:40">40</a> In 1379 Charles' successor <a href="/facts/Wenceslaus_IV_of_Bohemia/frTyDf53">Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia</a> had an Embriachi-type marriage casket containing relics walled-up in the <a href="/facts/Sigismund_Chapel/8NK8x2uW">Sigismund Chapel</a> of <a href="/facts/St._Vitus_Cathedral/fTUhXKLM">St. Vitus Cathedral</a> in Prague, where it was recovered in 1918. The themes of the carvings were secular, indeed mildly erotic, but this did not prevent its use as a reliquary, though one not on public view. <a href="/facts/Martin_I_of_Aragon/yhUkGtlA">Martin I of Aragon</a> similarly gave a secular casket to <a href="/facts/Barcelona_Cathedral/94yN9EXY">Barcelona Cathedral</a> in 1405 for use as a reliquary.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:41" href="#fn:41">41</a>
Baldassare Ubriachi moved to Venice "soon after 1390",<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:42" href="#fn:42">42</a> where another branch of the family was already settled, having been exiled from Florence in the political upheavals of the late 13th century.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:43" href="#fn:43">43</a> The move may have been forced by financial difficulties in Florence; his sons-in-law took legal action to get their <a href="/facts/Dowry/YGfNV0Xy">dowries</a> paid as promised.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:44" href="#fn:44">44</a> He apparently took the workshop with him.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:45" href="#fn:45">45</a> He died there in 1406. The family are recorded there until 1431.

<h2 id="gallery">Gallery</h2>

<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Embriachi workshop.

<ul><li>"Barnes": <a href="/facts/Barnes_Foundation/WfYRJkWD">Barnes Foundation</a>, <a href="https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/objects/6165/barnes-collection-object/">"Baldassare Embriachi; Unidentified Scene, c. 1390. Bone"</a></li>
<li>Becherucci, Luisa, "EMBRIACI o Embriachi", <a href="/facts/Enciclopedia_Italiana/321y9EBg">Enciclopedia Italiana</a>, 1932, <a href="https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/embriaci-o-embriachi_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/">online at Treccani</a></li>
<li>Boehm, Barbara Drake; Fajt, Jiri (eds.), Prague; The Crown of Bohemia, 1347–1437, 2005, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9781588391612, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=AbZ-rhlSlxsC&dq=Embriachi&pg=PA189">online</a></li>
<li>Carns, P. M., Review of Tomasi, M., Monumenti d’avorio: I dossali degli Embriachi e i loro committenti, (Studi 16.), 2013, Speculum, 88(2), 590–592. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23488916">JSTOR</a></li>
<li>"Chicago": <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/107681/casket">Casket, date: c. 1390-c. 1410, Embriachi Workshop</a>, <a href="/facts/Art_Institute_of_Chicago/wR8T2yev">Art Institute of Chicago</a></li>
<li>Clarke, Paula, "Identity of the Expatriate", in Connell, William J. (ed.), Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence, 2002, University of California Press, ISBN 9780520232549, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=pxe96uVQtoEC&pg=PA406">google books</a></li>
<li>Fravalo, Fabienne, <a href="https://www.fg-art.org/en/artwork-of-the-month-archives/marriage-casket">"Marriage casket"</a>, 2022, Fondation Gandur pour l'Art</li>
<li><a href="https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010109994">Louvre page</a> on the Poissy Retable (in French)</li>
<li>Miller, Scott, online catalogue entry for <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464455">"Cabinet frontal with panels from two Embriachi caskets, ca. 1400–1409"</a>, <a href="/facts/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art/mLfcKgHF">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></li>
<li>Revell, Keith D, Culture and Change: Attending to Early Modern Women, 2003, University of Delaware Press, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780874138252, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=MoV2jFKK0xQC">Google Books</a></li>
<li>"Victoria and Albert": <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O313946/panel-workshop-of-embriachi/">"Panel, ca. 1390–1410 (made)"</a></li>
<li>"Visconti": <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464455">"Cabinet frontal with panels from two Embriachi caskets, ca. 1400–1409"</a>, <a href="/facts/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art/mLfcKgHF">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></li></ul>
<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul><li>Bayer Andrea (ed.), Art and Love in Renaissance Italy. Exhibition catalogue (New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, in 2008/09), Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2008.</li>
<li>Tomasi, Michele, La Bottega degli Embriachi, <a href="/facts/Museo_Nazionale_del_Bargello/BUedU0IP">Museo Nazionale del Bargello</a>, Florence, 2001.</li>
<li>Trexler, Richard, "The Magi Enter Florence; The Ubriachi of Florence and Venice", Studies of Medieval and Renaissance History, The University of British Columbia, I, 1978, p. 127-218, p. 182.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Paul_Williamson/YtIo0g3a">Paul Williamson</a> and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550, Vol. 2, London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2014, pp. 750–861.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Victoria and Albert "The suggested time range of activity for the workshop differs, from the tightest being 1390–1405, to a wider span of 1370s until at least 1416, but certainly no later than 1433"; Barnes say "1385–1409"; Chicago <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Fravolo; Chicago; Barnes; for example a hexagonal casket in the Louvre measures 31,5 cm high, and 29.5 cm wide, the sides 14.6 cm across and the plaques 8 cm high. <a href="https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010114035" target="_blank">https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010114035</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Chicago <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Revell, 192–193 <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">or Baldassare degli Embriachi, Baldassare di Simone Ubriachi, Baldassare di Simone d'Aliotto degli Embriachi <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Carns, 591 quoted; Victoria and Albert; Chicago: "a noble Florentine entrepreneur and diplomat" <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Carns, 590–591; Becherucci; Victoria and Albert <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Miller; Becherucci <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Becherucci <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Carns, 591 <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Revell, 192; Fravolo; Barnes <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Victoria and Albert <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Chicago <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">Revell, 192–193; Chicago <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">Revell, 191–196; Chicago <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">Fravolo; Revell, 194–195 on girdles <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:17">Fravolo <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:18">Miller; Chicago <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:19">Chicago; Fravolo <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:20">Louvre <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:21">They are "putti" to Miller <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:22">Revell, 192; Chicago <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:23">Fravolo <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:24">Fravolo <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:25">Fravolo <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:26">Clarke, 407 (note) <a href="#fnref:26" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:27">Fravolo <a href="#fnref:27" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:28">Chicago <a href="#fnref:28" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:29">Guérin, Sarah M. “Ivory Carving in the Gothic Era, Thirteenth–Fifteenth Centuries”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010 <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goiv/hd_goiv.htm" target="_blank">https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/goiv/hd_goiv.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:29" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:30">Revell, 193 <a href="#fnref:30" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:31">Miller <a href="#fnref:31" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:32">Miller; Chicago <a href="#fnref:32" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:33">Tamanti, G.; Mancinelli, E.; Tancini, V., "Il Trittico degli Embriachi nella Certosa di Pavia. Tecnologia costruttiva e intervento di restauro", Bolletino dell'Istituto centrale di Restauro, 3, 2001, p. 90-100 <a href="#fnref:33" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:34">Miller <a href="#fnref:34" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:35">Miller, quoted <a href="#fnref:35" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:36">Miller; Becherucci <a href="#fnref:36" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:37">Louvre <a href="#fnref:37" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:38">"EMBRIACI in "Enciclopedia Italiana"". treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 28 March 2023. <a href="https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/embriaci_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)" target="_blank">https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/embriaci_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)</a> <a href="#fnref:38" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:39">Becherucci; Clarke, 405 <a href="#fnref:39" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:40">Boehm, Fajt, 190 <a href="#fnref:40" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:41">Boehm, Fajt, 189–190 <a href="#fnref:41" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:42">Clarke, 405 <a href="#fnref:42" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:43">Clarke, 388, 404 <a href="#fnref:43" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:44">Clarke, 405 (and notes) <a href="#fnref:44" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:45">Becherucci <a href="#fnref:45" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Embriachi workshop open-in-new

Embriachi workshop