A PAIR OF NORTH ITALIAN FRUITWOOD MARQUETRY PANELS

Love's triumph is symbolised by the panels, whose trompe l'oeil embrasures are dressed with a garden-basket of carnations, emblematic of maternal love, accompanying a palm-decked sacred urn set between heavenly cherries and a pear (forbidden fruit). These fine panels relate to an example in the Victoria & Albert Museum, attributed to Fra Raffaele da Brescia, a member of the Olivetan Order of monks, who practised the craft in the early decades of the 16th Century (M. J. Thornton, 'Three unrecorded panels by Fra Raffaele da Brescia,' Connoisseur, April 1978, pp. 238-248, fig. 8).