THE BACK PANEL, EARLY 17TH CENTURY; THE FRAME, BY ALFRED ANDRE, PARIS, 19TH CENTURY

The back panel is decorated with grotesques in the early Italian style with a whispy ornamental arrangements of arabesques, interlaced garlands with exotic birds and fantastic animal figures set out in a symmetrical pattern around an architectural framework. Such designs fashionable in ancient Rome, especially as fresco wall decoration and floor mosaics were revived in Italy at the beginning of the 16th century. The style was subsequently adopted across Europe through engravings passing into the European artistic repertory of the 16th century, from Spain to Poland gradually losing that initial lightness to be more densely filled than the airy well-spaced style used by the Romans and Raphael.
In this instance, the design borrows from Florentine designs, as promoted by engravers such as the Dutch Claes Janszoon Visscher (1586-1652) or by the German Mathais Beitler (ca. 1582–1616).
The frame was later added by Alfred Andre and the mold is illustrated in A. Kugel, R. Distelberger and M.Bimbenet‑Privat, Joyaux Renaissance. Une splendeur retrouvée, Florence, 2000, pl. XXIV.f.