UNKNOWN GOLDSMITH, Flemish
(active 1590s)

Nautilus Ewer

1590s
Pearls, rubies, and turquoise, mounted with gilt silver, height 30 cm
Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

An S-shaped winged dragon with a snake coiled around its neck, about to strike against a horse's head just below the vessel's rim, forms the finely chiseled spout of the ewer. The unknown artist was clearly a highly gifted craftsman.