Embriachi workshop

The Embriachi workshop (Italian: Bottega degli Embriachi) was an important producer of objects in carved ivory and carved bone, set in a framework of inlaid wood. They operated in north Italy from around 1375 to perhaps as late as 1433, apparently moving from Florence to Venice about 1395.^[1] They are especially known for what are now called marriage caskets or wedding caskets, hexagonal or oblong caskets about a foot across,^[2] with lids that rise up in the centre. Their output of these was probably made for stock rather than individual commissions, and filled a market for gifts for betrothals and weddings.^[3] They sold mirrors framed in a similar style,^[4] though fewer of these have survived, and religious pieces both small and in a few cases very large.

The workshop takes its name from Baldassare Ubriachi or Baldassare Embriachi,^[5] variously described as a nobleman, merchant and diplomat, or an "international man of business and politics".^[6] He was presumably not a carver himself, but supplied the capital, and no doubt was involved with negotiating the larger sales to courts and nobles north of the Alps; some documentary records of this survive.^[7] His two sons eventually carried on the business, also probably never carving anything themselves.

The great majority of works are undocumented and unsigned, and there were almost certainly other workshops working in the style,^[8] so the modern tendency among museums and art historians is to attribute them using "Embriachi workshop", "Embriachi-type" or similar terms. They are also very hard to date with any precision on stylistic grounds. Generally, the quality of carving tends to decline in works dated after about 1410.^[9] One scholar, Michele Tomasi, argues that the style of painted, rather than carved, elements of altarpieces suggests that production ceased around 1416.^[10]

The workshop developed a form of mass-production, with the various components produced separately for later assembly.^[11] The pieces of bone in particular were mostly carved as narrow tall panels containing one or two figures, which were set in rows along a face. A typical size for an individual plaque is about 10.2cm high and 3.5cm wide.^[12] Caskets and other objects normally have a framework of wood, and the areas not fitted with bone or ivory carving are decorated with certosina work, small geometrical inlays of various materials in contrasting colours. They are often called "marriage caskets", though their actual original context is hardly ever known.^[13]