The paper discusses a seascape made from hard stones that serves as the top of a table. The estonishing piece was commissed by Ferdinando I de’ Medici in 1601 and was made by the stonecutter Cristofano Gaffuri (d. 1626) after a drawing of Jacopo Ligozzi (1547-1627).
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It shows the harbor of Livorno from a sea-to-shore vantage point and is made from colored stones of various types and forms, among them agate, chalcedony and lapislazuli. The paper investigates the intrinsic political and territorial claims of Medici power and its dominion of the Tyrrhenian Sea. These claims are emphasized by the representation of lighthouses, cannon and the display of naval power; at the same time, the blue seascape opens up a fluid space that transcends territorial control, by envoking the vastness and dynamism of the sea. It is an uncontrollable space where natural forces are embodied by the large, creamy, blue and golden waves of lapis lazuli. The article investigates the appreciation of stone as part of an early enviromental thinking and at the same time of early globalization, it interprets the object as a kind of cartography of the earth, not only Livorno, but also of a representation of those regions the harbor of Livorno connects to.
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LIABA@LIVORNO - Biblioteca dell'Associazione Livornese Storia Lettere Arti
