Lapis Covered Dish on Stand

Giuseppe Grisoni · n.d.

Medium

Gouache, heightened with touches of gold paint, over black chalk, on ivory laid paper

Original size

19.6 × 17.2 cm (7 3/4 × 6 13/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

*Lapis Covered Dish on Stand* is a study in quiet opulence — a single decorative object rendered with the precision and sensitivity usually reserved for portraiture. Giuseppe Grisoni (1699–1769) was a Brussels-born painter who spent much of his career moving between England and Italy, absorbing influences from both court portraiture and continental decorative traditions. This work sits outside his usual output of formal likenesses, showing instead a draftsman's eye turned toward the material world. Working in gouache over black chalk on ivory laid paper, Grisoni built up the deep blue of the lapis lazuli with layered washes, then touched in gold to catch the gilded fittings — a technique that gives the piece a luminous, almost jewel-like quality. The work is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, which preserves a number of drawings that document eighteenth-century European decorative objects with this level of care and craftsmanship. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Grisoni's restrained elegance onto canvas, preserving the cool brilliance of the lapis blue, the warmth of the gold accents, and the composed stillness that makes this small work feel so considered — a faithful tribute to an artist who found beauty in the well-made object.