This extraordinary pietre dure and marble top is set with rare stones depicting symbols and images significant to the secret cult of Freemasonry, “an Anglo-Saxon creation first transplanted to Florence in 1733… The Masonic principles of nonsectarianism and abstract belief in a “Great Architect of the Universe” were viewed as an intolerable threat by Pope Clement XII, who issued the first papal edict that ordered excommunication of any Catholics who became Masons.” At the time at which this piece was made, Italian Freemasons were particularly concerned with the ideals of Liberty, and played an active role in progressing the country’s struggle for unification and for freedom from both foreign and papal domination.

This chair, one of a set of four neoclassical chairs in our collection, is derived from the klismos chair, a Greek invention that evolved from a simple throne. Splayed, sabre-form legs and uprights connected by a concave backrest are characteristics of these chairs, which became popular in the late-18th and 19th centuries for their gracefulness and lightness of form, as well as their reference to antiquity. The present chairs are illustrative of the variations on the klismos form that occurred at the end of 18th century during the Neoclassical period in Italy, when furniture was relieved of ornament in favor of simple lines more closely modeled on its classical forbears.

While the art of crafting furniture and decorative objects from hardstones was already highly developed in Western Europe during the Renaissance, it was not until the mid-18th century, when St. Petersburg was being built, that the Russian lapidary arts began to flourish. In 1721, Peter the Great (1672-1725) founded the first imperial Russian lapidary at Peterhof, near St. Petersburg. “Under the monarchs who ruled Russia from the 1730s to the 1750s, the factory established itself as one of the leading creators of luxury goods in Eastern Europe,”1 with marbles and semiprecious stones brought to St. Petersburg from all corners of the Empire and beyond.

From the 16th century onward, grottoes were constructed as fanciful retreats from reality. They appeared throughout Europe, from the Buontalenti Grotto at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, to the Grotto of Thetis at Versailles (torn down in 1684), to the Kuskovo Grotto near Moscow. These fantasy structures were “adorned with interesting rock formations, fountains, seashells, and often, matching furniture.”1

Snakes, more commonly referred to as serpents in mythology and religion, have held important positions in the dogmas of many cultures throughout history. They feature in the art and lore of Egyptian, Native American, African, Christian, Aboriginal, Indian, Judaic, and Ancient Greek (Fig. 1) and Roman civilization.