Tondo mirror frame

Possibly workshop of Benedetto da Maiano Italian
ca. 1480
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 954
Round, or tondo, frames housing mirrors or devotional images were a popular type of domestic furnishing in Tuscany in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The convex glass of this mirror is original and is characteristic of fifteenth-century mirrors throughout Europe. The shallow relief frame was made by pressing stucco into a mold, a technique commonly encountered in sculpture and architectural decoration from the late Middle Ages onward. Neither the shield held by the two putti at the bottom of the frame nor the monogram on the reverse, presumably the maker's mark traced into the wet stucco, has been identified. The style of the ornament, especially the putti, has been associated with the workshop of Benedetto da Maiano (1442–1497), a prominent Florentine sculptor who was also active in Siena, where this frame may have been made. Although they entered the Museum with the gift of his collection in 1975, the remarkable antique frames assembled by Robert Lehman were not accessioned as works of art until 1990 in preparation for the landmark exhibition "The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tondo mirror frame
  • Artist: Possibly workshop of Benedetto da Maiano (Italian, Maiano 1442–1497 Florence)
  • Date: ca. 1480
  • Medium: Stucco squeeze, blown convex mirror, gilt, orange-brown bole.
  • Dimensions: Overall: 21 7/16 × 14 3/4 in. (54.5 × 37.5 cm)
    Sight: 5 × 5 1/8 in. (12.7 × 13 cm)
  • Classification: Frames
  • Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
  • Object Number: 1975.1.2158
  • Curatorial Department: The Robert Lehman Collection

Audio

Cover Image for 4750. Tondo mirror frame

4750. Tondo mirror frame

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KANTER: Two of the most easily overlooked objects in this room are the two round mirrors exhibited to the side of either of the doorways. These are fifteenth-century mirror frames, and, as you can see, the glass in each of them is convex, a peculiarity of fifteenth-century mirrors that we still have no idea how to explain.

AMORY: The mirror to the left of the Venetian glass display still contains its original glass. The reflective surface in the other mirror is a modern replacement, imitating the original convex glass. Laurence Kanter.

KANTER: Both mirrors were designed by architects and made by prominent sculptors. They both include coats of arms. In one case, we were able to identify that as the Cinuzzi family of Siena. And we know the architect who redid their palace and therefore we can attribute the mirror frame with some certainty to a particular maker. It is very unusual to be able to identify frames of any kind from the fifteenth-century by who made them. They're very rare objects to survive, and even rarer is documentation that might go along with them. The Lehman Collection overall has perhaps the world's most distinguished collection of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century frames. These two examples are particularly fine and interesting ones in the context of a domestic interior.

AMORY: Other frames from this period are on view elsewhere in the Lehman Wing.

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