PANDOLFINI, Giuliano di Pietro

Italian gem carver, active in Prague. The Castrucci workshop in Prague was founded by Emperor Rudolf II, who was a fervent admirer of the new technique of commesso di pietre dure (Florentine mosaic). In Italy this technique of assembling pictures from cut gemstones was revived to perfection at the end of the 16th century. The first head of the Prague workshop was Cosimo Castrucci.

After Cosimo Castrucci’s death his son Giovanni Castrucci is thought to have taken over the Prague workshop, as he was appointed royal jeweller in 1610. Giovanni’s son-in-law, Giuliano di Pietro Pandolfini, was the supervising master of the last years of the workshop, although Ottavio Miseroni was in charge. The workshop was dissolved at the latest after his death in 1624, its most important patron Rudolf II long dead.