This rectangular table top, created in Rome during the first half of the 19th century, features ninety specimens of antique colored marbles, carefully inlaid into a white marble ground and arranged around a central medallion. In the landscape represented inside, the craftsman has skillfully exploited the natural appearances of different marbles to create a lake scene: a yellow marble with dendritic patterns constitutes the background, and varying shades of pink form the walls of buildings overlooking the blue lake, which is populated by three white ducks.

While specimen table tops of the nineteenth century became increasingly lavish in their arrangement of colored marbles and micro mosaics, this one reflects the elegant simplicity of earlier works with designs composed entirely of inlays.

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Table top inlaid with marble

Rome, first half 19th c.

43 x 84 x 3 cm