Center Table Top

This impressively long tabletop displays a rich, colorful inlaid pattern organized around a large oval plaque made of a rare type of stone called alabastro a rosa or alabastro fiorito (flowered alabaster). The plaque is set within a rectangular section filled with elaborate scrolling foliage, each corner of which is subtly animated by a snail pointing its antennae and a yellow-beaked bird cleaning its feathers. The outer frieze is composed of complex geometric motifs, surrounded by a petal-shaped border. Workshops in Rome and Florence specialized in the production of hardstone furniture for villas or palaces of wealthy patrons. They greatly admired this difficult and costly technique of stone and marble mosaic that was inspired by antiquity.