Lapis lazuli goblet with enamelled dragons and boy
XVI century. Enamel, Lapis lazuli, Opal, Gold. Room 079BGoblet comprising three pieces of lapis lazuli and enamelled gold chasing. The oval body has a wide concave moulding in the upper border while the lower part is decorated with a bas-relief of egg-and-dart motifs. The thick knot forming the stem rests on an oval base, with incised ovolos. It is surrounded by an adornment of enamelled gold in various colours. At the front, a white enamelled boy seems to hold the goblet aloft, between two open-jawed half-dragons with opal eyes, mobile red tongues and short, feathered wings. The knot is covered with bunches of fruit, ribbons and garlands, the whole apparently supported by two pairs of dolphins between scallop shells. Features now missing include the two large dragons that once formed the handles of the goblet, one of the boys and the foot with fretted ovolos and small mascarons, all in enamelled gold, which were stolen in 1918.
The lapis lazuli of the goblet´s body and base is of high quality, and is possibly Afghan in origin; the pyrite veins stand out like golden clouds against the intense blue. The veining is similar to the elaborate nef, MR 262, in the Louvre, which may have been made at same workshop. With regard to the carving, Arbeteta links the profile and the decoration with a set of high-based goblets with high bases -some single solid pieces- also featuring egg-and-dart motifs and a bell-shaped profile. These pieces resemble the glass goblets and cups made in the first half of the 16th century, held by the Museo degli Argenti in Florence, Inventario Gemme 1921, No. 531 and No. 724. All this points to Milan, or at least to Milanese craftsmen such as Gasparo Miseroni, who specialised in carving lapis lazuli. The Louvre has a similar goblet with a low base, MR 264, carved in lapis lazuli of poorer quality. The decoration is similar, with double egg-and-dart motifs in the skirt and concave ovolos in the moulding of the rim. It comes from the old collection of Louis XIV and it is similar in size, albeit somewhat larger.
In terms of the significant adornment decorating the goblet, the stolen dragons -which can be seen in the photographs taken by Clifford and Laurent- enable an attribution to be made: they are similar to the dragons on the Prado´s O3 goblet and the Louvre´s two vases, MR 120 and MR 130, while the half-bodies of the stem resemble those of the "Minerva ewer", MR 445, also in the Louvre; all of these came from the collections of Louis XIV and his son, the Grand Dauphin. Its lavish adornments were attributed to a hypothetical "master of dragons", whose signature on the base of the MR 445 vase in the Louvre was identified by Alcouffe as that of Pierre Delabarre, a silversmith active in around 1630, who must have died before 1713. According to Arbeteta, his distinctive style echoes the aesthetics of the Fontainebleau School, popular in the latter half of the 16th century.
The state of the work in the 19th century can be seen through the photography of Juan Laurent Minier, "Coupe ovale, lapis oriental, montures d’or émaillé et mat avec reliefs et sculptures, XVIe siècle, règne de Henri III", circa 1879, Museo del Prado, HF0835/1 (L. Arbeteta, in press).