A Veneto-Saracenic Salver

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A ‘Veneto-Saracenic’ Salver, Italy, Venice, c. 1500-1525

This impressive ‘Veneto-Saracenic’ brass tray was hammered, engraved, and inlaid with silver in an Italian workshop in the early years of the sixteenth century.

It is one of a group of wares that was made by craftsmen in Italy in response to the appearance of engraved and inlaid Mamluk metalwork on the European market. Elaborately engraved and inlaid salvers of this type form part of a group of finely worked metalworking forms that have been categorized under the label ‘Veneto-Saracenic.’

Provenance
Private Viennese Collection, for at least 70-80 years, in succession;

certainly already in possession before 1950

The term 'Veneto-Saracenic' refers to the elaborate engraved and inlaid metal objects that were once thought to have been produced in Venice by Muslim craftsmen. Recent scholarship has revised this notion, suggesting instead that many of these intricate wares were made in Mamluk Syria and Egypt and reached the European market through the markets of Venice. A secondary group of ‘Veneto-Saracenic’ metal wares, such as this example, were made by Italian artisans influenced by Mamluk designs and technology.

(Left: Giovanni Antonio Tagliente (Italian, Venice ca. 1465–1528 Venice), Essempio di recammi, page 16 (verso), Italy, 1530, 19.8 x 15.7 cm; woodcut, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 35.75.3(32)).

The influence of Mamluk objects on Venetian metalwork production was so strong that it is often difficult to distinguish between Mamluk originals and their European derivations. However, some details, such as the complete and finite quality of the inlaid decoration, indicate that our salver it is the work of a European artist. In contrast, Mamluk designs tend to feature a repeating ‘infinite’ pattern, in which half- or quarter-motifs at the borders invite the viewer to imagine the design ad infinitum.

(Right: Mahmud al-Kurdi, Veneto-Saracenic-style salver, Kurdistan (Iran)?, 15th-16th century, 45 cm x 6 cm; engraved brass, London, The British Museum, inv. 1878,1230.711).

Ambiguities continue to surround the attribution and dating of so-called ‘Veneto-Saracenic’ wares – most are unsigned, and none are dated, except for a salver now in Vienna which was made by the Western master Nicolò Rugina (active c. 1550).

Nevertheless, the European-style cartouches, volutes and shield-like shapes, along with the finite nature of the design, point to a European provenance for our salver. The rendering of the cartouches and emphasis on contrast created by alternating silver inlay with engraved brass on a candlestick in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York closely recalls our dish.

(Left: Candlestick, Italy, probably Venice, 16th century, 19.1 x 17.8 cm; brass. inlaid with silver, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 17.190.637).