Goblet

The structural design of the goblet aligns with a type prevalent in sixteenth-century Northern Europe (Hernmarck 1977, I, 82), as indicated by its close conformity to a printed model credited to the Nuremberg engraver Virgil Solis, which was designed for producing a truncated cone-shaped cup adorned in the “Moorish” style (O’Dell-Franke 1977, 163, n. i 6).
The sober overall design is enhanced by dense silver filigree decoration on the base, flared sides, and outer bottom of the cup, creating a color contrast with the gilding of the plate below. The unique decoration of the goblet from the Wurts Collection, featuring curled volutes in a refined symmetrical composition, supports its attribution to a goldsmith’s workshop in Venice during the first half of the sixteenth century (Valente 1936, 509–513, fig. 3). The work exemplifies Venetian Renaissance luxury production, combining traditional Venetian silver filigree craftsmanship, dating back to the thirteenth century, with contemporary ornamental solutions from the “libri per trine” (Valente 1936, 510). These “libri” were printed handbooks for embroiderers, artists, painters, and goldsmiths, such as the Opera Nova Universal intitulata corona di racammi (c. 1530) by Giovanni Andrea Vavassore (Lotz 1933, 119–123, n. 66; Plebani 2015, 212–213).
The attribution proposed by Valente was adopted by Hermanin (1948, 341), Rossi (1956, 44, plate 44), Hernmarck (1977, I, 84, fig. 37), Brunello (1981, fig. 13), and Liscia Bemporad (1992, 16). Hernmarck (1977, I, 368) references the Wurts glass as a prime example of filigree goldsmithing from the early sixteenth century, describing it as a “tazza senza piede da bere […] lavorata di filo con molti bellissimi fogliametti” (“footless drinking cup […] worked with wire and many beautiful filaments”) and “ripiena di bellissimi smalti di più vari colori” (“filled with beautiful enamels of various colours”), which was shown to Benvenuto Cellini by Francis I, King of France (Scarpellini 1967, 425–427), although it differs in its use of the plique-à-jour decorative technique. 
Lipinsky (1965, 330, plate 10) connects the Wurts goblet to the “delicacy” of “Burano lace” and observes a “stylistic imprint […] of oriental taste.” This is attributed to the prevalent circulation of valuable artifacts from Islamic countries in Venice, which were replicated by local workshops, influencing techniques and ornamentation (Auld 2007, 227–235). The recurring “spiral” decorative motif on the Wurts goblet is likened to oriental metals adorned with “damascene” work, well-documented in Venice during the sixteenth century. 
Because of its uniqueness, the goblet from the Museo di Palazzo Venezia was selected as a representative piece of Italian Renaissance goldsmithery for secular use at the VI Triennale in Milano in 1936 (Morassi 1936, 52, n. 296, fig. 86) and in an exhibition on decorative arts in Italy from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Grigaut 1958, 157, n. 435).

Daria Gastone

Entry published on 12 June 2025

Good.

Oxidation.

Rome, George Washington Wurts and Henrietta Tower collection;
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, 1933, donated by Henrietta Tower Wurts.

Milan, Palazzo dell’Arte, Mostra dell’antica oreficeria italiana, VI Triennale, May 30–October 31, 1936, no. 296;
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance 1400-1600, November 18, 1958–January 4, 1959.

Handwritten inventory card, n. 90, P.V. 7502, unsigned, no date, Archivio del Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia.

Lotz Arthur, Bibliographie der modelbücher. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Stick-und Spitzenmusterbücher des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1933;
Valente Antonietta, Gli argenti italiani, russi e svedesi della Collezione Wurts nel Museo di Palazzo Venezia, in «Bollettino d’arte», 29, 1936, pp. 509-519; 
Morassi Antonio, Antica oreficeria italiana. Quaderni della Triennale, Milano 1936, p. 52.
Hermanin Federico, Il Palazzo di Venezia, Roma 1948, p. 341;
Rossi Filippo, Capolavori di oreficeria italiana dall’XI al XVIII secolo, Milano 1956, p. 44;
Grigaut Paul L. (a cura di), Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance 1400-1600, catalogo della mostra (Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, 18 novembre 1958-4 gennaio 1959), Detroit 1958, p. 157, n. 435;
Lipinsky Angelo, Oreficeria e argenteria in Europa dal XVI al XIX secolo, Novara 1965, p. 330;
Scarpellini Pietro (a cura di), Benvenuto Cellini. La vita, i trattati, i discorsi, Roma 1967, pp. 425-427;
Hernmarck Carl, The Art of the European Silversmith 1430-1830, London 1977, I, pp. 82, 84, 368;
O’Dell-Franke Ilse, Kupferstiche und radierungen aus der werkstatt des Virgil Solis, Wiesbaden 1977, p. 163;
Brunello Franco, Arti e mestieri a Venezia nel Medioevo e nel Rinascimento, Vicenza 1981;
Liscia Bemporad Dora, Rinascimento e Barocco, in Liscia Bemporad Dora, Cerutti Carla, Fortunat Marina et. al., Argenti, peltri e rami dal Rinascimento al Novecento, Novara 1992, pp. 3-23;
Auld Sylvia, Il Maestro Mahmud e i metalli ageminati nel XV secolo, in Carboni Stefano (a cura di), Venezia e l’Islam 828-1797, catalogo della mostra (Venezia, Palazzo Ducale, 28 luglio-25 novembre 2007), Venezia 2007, pp. 227-241;
Plebani Tiziana, I segreti e gli inganni dei libri di ricamo. Uomini con l’ago e donne virtuose, in «Quaderni storici», 1, 2015, pp. 201-230.