Circular Box In Burl With Decor Of Italian Ruins, Early 19th Century

Very fine circular box, in burl, datable to the first third of the 19th century, depicting characters wandering among the ruins of an ancient triumphal arch. Architectural fragments, Ionic pilasters, gadrooned basin, reticulated motifs of the stuccoes, everything contributes to evoking what the small caption of the lower register describes: a "Italian ruin", and this up to the sculpture on its pedestal depicted on the left, Daphne transforming herself into a laurel tree to escape the advances of Apollo, a discreet evocation intended for a literate public, connoisseur of Ovidian stories. This small work of extreme meticulousness does not disappoint either from the point of view of its workmanship and the skill of its maker; also the atmospheric perspective is rendered with meticulousness in the progressive blending of the volumes, which vary from the quasi high relief, to the low relief, to the flatness used for the most distant plane. A testimony to be linked to the true Italophilia that characterized the European elites from the early 19th century, and with the practice of the "Grand Tour". This object is in impeccable condition, of rare freshness, and of very high quality of execution. Diameter 81 mm Weight 57 gr