{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O157689"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O157689/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ8775/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ8775/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PJ8775","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ8779","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ8778","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ8777","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ8776","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PJ8780","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O157689/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O157689","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.1014:1-2008","objectType":"Panel","titles":[{"title":"The Catch","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"The Gilberts bought their first hardstone mosaic in 1963 from Arte del Mosaico in Florence. In 1964 they purchased The Catch by Fernando Chisio, well-known for his Tuscan landscapes. By 1966, the Gilberts had acquired so many mosaics that Arthur remarked, ‘I believe I now have as many of the marble mosaic paintings in my house as you do in your factory’.\r\n\r\nRosalinde and Arthur Gilbert formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. The Gilbert Collection has been in the care of the V&A since 2008.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Rectangular hardstone mosaic depicting two boys on a bridge in a hilly landscape.  The older boy is showing the younger boy a frog he has caught in a jar.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Chisio, Fernando","id":"A22347"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Società Civile Arte del Mosaico","id":"AUTH343548"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x37726"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"hardstones","id":"x38513"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"}],"techniques":[{"text":"pietre dure","id":"AAT53615"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"framing","id":"AAT240903"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Hardstone mosaic (<i>commesso di pietre dure</i>), marbles and limestones","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2025PJ8775","2025PJ8779","2025PJ8778","2025PJ8777","2025PJ8776","2025PJ8780"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"70B","id":"THES413996"},"free":"","case":"WE","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES343509"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"picture","id":""}],[{"text":"frame","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Florence","id":"x28848"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1935-1955","earliest":"1935-01-01","latest":"1955-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"71.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"47.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"90.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"55.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"5.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured 07/10/24 CV","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Fernando Chisio","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed lower left"},{"content":"'Made in Italy 1964', on the back of the panel","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Iacopo Lastrucci, Director, confirmed that '1964' relates to the purchase and shipping of the panel from Arte del Mosaico to Arthur Gilbert in Los Angeles. (February 2026)."}],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Arte del Mosaico, 1964. \r\n\r\nThe creation of pictures in hardstone, so called commessi di pietre dure (Italian for ‘hard stones’), work has been an art associated in particular with Florence from the 16th century onwards. There, artists specialising in stone mosaics were first commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (reigned 1569-74). His brother and successor Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici (reigned 1574-1609) elevated the art officially through the court workshops, established in 1588. The presence of this important centre also lead to the foundation of numerous private workshops, drawing upon the large number of craftsmen trained at the Ducal workshops. \r\n\r\nPietre Dure artists always aimed at a niche clientele, few could afford precious pictures in stone. The first half of the 20th century was therefore a particularly challenging period for Florentine pietre workshops: traditions of production and style held dear for centuries were challenged in a rapidly changing world. They responded with changes in technique, preferring less expensive Tuscan stones, as well as with a change of subject-matters and styles away from traditional motives. The most exciting works from this period share a realism and preference for rural subjects, celebrating the simple pleasures and harsh reality of a Tuscan farmers’ life at the time, amid the beauty of the natural landscape. It is hard to imagine a starker contrast to the romantic couples set against varying historic backdrops, which were the dominant subject of Florentine pietre dure makers only a generation earlier. The change in imagery is in part supported by a different palette of stones used for their creation: Tuscan limestone increasingly replaced marbles. The pictures therefore have softer colours and are more akin to watercolours than to oil paintings when seen from a distance. \r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Rectangular hardstone mosaic (<i>commesso di pietre dure</i>) depicting two boys on a bridge in a hilly landscape.  The older boy is showing the younger boy a frog he has caught in a jar., Florence, Fernando Chisio, 1935-1955","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gonzalez-Palacios, Alvar and Steffi Röttgen with essays by Steffi Röttgen, Claudia Przyborowski; essays and new catalogue material translated by Alla Theodora Hall. <u>The Art of Mosaics: Selections from the Gilbert Collection</u>. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1982. 224 p., ill. Cat. no.117. ISBN 0875871097"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Massinelli, Anna Maria with contributions by Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel. <u>Hardstones: The Gilbert Collection</u>. London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd. in association with The Gilbert Collection, 2000. 329 p., ill. Cat. no. 78, p. 178. ISBN 0856675105."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Massinelli, Anna Maria, with contributions by Iacopo Lastrucci. <u>Painting in Stone. Modern Florentine Pietre Dura Mosaic. </u>Florence: Inprogress, 2014, p. 179, fig. 142. ISBN978-88-7542-232-5."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"For further information about the making of pietre dure, see the video Making a Pietre Dure panel:\r\n\r\nhttp://web.archive.org/web/20230213102443/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/videos/m/video-making-a-pietre-dure-panel."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"boys","id":"AAT247598"},{"text":"Children","id":"x31526"},{"text":"frog","id":"x30181"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"Play","id":"x30250"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.1014:1-2008","LOAN:GILBERT.1014:2-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"1014","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"MM 37"},{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"MM 19"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","picture","frame"],"assets":["2019MF8768"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-14","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-26","availableToBook":false}}