{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O157847"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O157847/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EW5862/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EW5862/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011EW5862","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O157847/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O157847","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.915:1-2008","objectType":"Picture","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Renato Bittoni was an art student who submitted four designs for an open call exhibition at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence in 1953. This design called ‘Valchirie’, showing two figures on horseback, was accepted for the exhibition and realised in stone by the makers at the Opificio workshop in 1954. The mauve sky is formed of one piece of lilla viola with branching dendritic forms that evoke a brooding horizon against the paesina ground and gabbro rock formations. The natural markings of the stone were incorporated into Bittoni’s initial design, indicating that the artist had conceived the panel based on pre-selected stones. This marks a reversal of the traditional process where the stone selection was outsourced to the manufacture stage in the workshop. The starkly lit, abstracted figures of the scene respond to the taste of new American patrons for stone art works who favoured the styles of surrealist artists such as Giorgio de Chiricio (1888-1978).\r\n\r\nSir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Stone mosaic (commesso) depicting two figures on horses with a hilly landscape behind them. One figure is in the left foreground and the other is in the right background.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Opificio delle Pietre Dure after a design by Renato Bittoni "}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"hardstones","id":"x38513"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"chalcedony","id":"AAT11134"},{"text":"gabbro","id":"AAT11230"},{"text":"","id":""}],"techniques":[{"text":"pietre dure","id":"AAT53615"},{"text":"painting (coating)","id":"AAT161986"},{"text":"framing","id":"AAT240903"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Mosaic of hard and soft stones (pietre dure technique) such as chalcedony, gabbro, lilla viola, paesina; a painted and gilt wooden frame.","categories":[{"text":"Hardstone","id":"THES270137"},{"text":"Mosaic","id":"THES253095"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2011EW5862"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES402531"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES402531"},"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":"c. 1954","earliest":"1949-01-01","latest":"1958-12-31"},"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":"264","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"5/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-05","latest":"2022-09-05"},"part":"","note":"with frame"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"318","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"5/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-05","latest":"2022-09-05"},"part":"","note":"with frame"},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"45","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"5/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-05","latest":"2022-09-05"},"part":"","note":"with frame"},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"1000","unit":"g","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-20","latest":"2022-09-20"},"part":"","note":"With frame"},{"dimension":"Height","value":"159","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-20","latest":"2022-09-20"},"part":"","note":"Panel only (without frame)"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"318","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-20","latest":"2022-09-20"},"part":"","note":"Panel only (without frame)"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"70","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-20","latest":"2022-09-20"},"part":"","note":"Panel only (without frame)"},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"600","unit":"g","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"20/9/22","earliest":"2022-09-20","latest":"2022-09-20"},"part":"","note":"Panel only (without frame)"}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Provenance: Arte del Mosaico, Florence, 1966.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"‘Valchirie’, stone mosaic picture depicting two figures on horseback, Florence, c. 1954","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hillier, Bevis. 'The Gilbert Collection of Mosaics'.  <u>The Connoisseur</u>, April 1975, vol. 188, no. 758,  p. 271, fig. 8."},{"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. 98, p. 212 (Appendix A). ISBN 0856675105."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Rossi, Sandra (ed.). <i>Il Novecento per il Museo dell'Opificio delle pietre dure</i>, Livorno: Sillabe, 2018, pp. 9-31 and see p.34 for a comparative design and p. 57 for another commesso example."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Alice Minter, <i>The Art of Stone: Masterpieces from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection</i>, with contributions by Sophie Morris and Rosie Mills (London: V&amp;A Publishing, 2023), pp.124-5. ISBN 9781838510411"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.915:1-2008","LOAN:GILBERT.915:2-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"915","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"MM 55F"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","picture","frame"],"assets":["2019LT9711","2022NH3918","2022NH3919","2022NH3920"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-10","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-26","availableToBook":false}}