Artistic objects created in pietre dure—literally, "hard stones" in Italian—were preeminent among the luxury items produced for the courts of early modern Europe. The Medici of Florence were at the forefront of this development. Their passion for importing precious stones from across the globe led to Ferdinando I de' Medici’s founding the legendary Galleria dei Lavori, the grand-ducal workshops, in 1588 (renamed the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, it is active in Florence to this day). The objects fabulously embellished with hard stone inlays produced in these workshops came to embody the princely magnificence of the Medici dynasty, reflecting their power and achievements. Captivated by the extraordinary objects they acquired or received as diplomatic gifts, princely patrons farther north established their own lapidary manufactories, thus supporting the diffusion of the techniques developed in Florence across the continent.

From the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth, the Medici workshops produced a number of sets of panels depicting animals, whose designs were adapted from engravings, particularly those of Antonio Tempesta and Stradanus. The dromedary and the boar in the present panels are drawn from prints by Tempesta (figs. 1, 2). Such panels were made to decorate cabinets, and were inspired by the legend of Orpheus; indeed, one of the most famous scenes in the series represents Orpheus charming the animals, which is often found in a central position on cabinets embellished with these panels.

A complete set of twelve of these panels on a white background can be found on a cabinet now in the collections of the Saxe-Coburg family at Callenberg Castle; a smaller suite of eleven panels are found in a private collection, and a few panels from the series seem to have been recycled into a table in the Château de Versailles (fig. 3) and onto a chest of drawers in the Getty Museum.

Fig. 1. Tempesta, Dromedary, engraving

Fig. 2. Tempesta, Boar, engraving

Fig. 3. Table, Château de Versailles.