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In 1588 Emperor Rudolf II (reg. 1576-1611) summoned the young Ottavio Miseroni from Milan to Prague and thereby established the position of his city of residence as the most significant centre outside of Italy for the art of stonecutting in his period. Ottavio came from the famous Miseroni family, which ran one of the most important workshops in Milan. Building upon the Milanese tradition, Ottavio developed an extremely personal formal language in Prague, as well as a concept of the denaturalisation of the stone. This is well demonstrated in the present bowl, in which a lion skin, lying on its back, appears to be draped over a laterally oblong bowl.
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