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EMBRIACHI, Baldassare degli - b. 0 ?, d. ~1430 Venezia - WGA

EMBRIACHI, Baldassare degli

(b. 0 ?, d. ~1430 Venezia)

Italian carver, part of a family of entrepreneurs and carvers. The precise location and the organization of the workshop is unknown, although c. 1431 there was evidently a workshop in Venice, in the area of S Luca, where various members of the family are recorded. The family had links with Florence until the end of the 15th century, particularly with the church of S Maria Novella, where Baldassare Embriachi was recorded as a benefactor, and where his descendant Lorenzo d’Antonio di Messer Manfredi degli Embriachi was buried in 1483.

Altarpiece
Altarpiece by

Altarpiece

This altarpiece was commissioned by Giangaleazzo Visconti. It was to stand on the high altar in close proximity to his tomb in the Certosa of Pavia. It follows a Burgundian precedent, Jean de Berry having ordered similar triptychs from the same artist for Champmol and Poissy in 1393. Ivory was a favourite medium among noble patrons, who appreciated its expense and luxury.

The Pavia triptych is extraordinarily large for a work in ivory, constructed of thousands of pieces of carved elephant tusk. The architectural frame contains fifty-four niches for saints. The panel at the left contains eighteen reliefs depicting stories from the life of the Virgin; the one on the right, an equal number from the life of Christ. In the large central panel appear scenes from the lives and legends of the Three Kings, a subject chosen by Giangaleazzo to recall the Milanese cult of the Magi and, by association, to emphasize his own princely patronage.

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