Among the European nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries, works of art made of precious and semi-precious stones were extremely highly valued. Of course, these treasures, a sign of wealth and status, have been created before, but it was during this period that the hobby took the form of collecting. Masters began to order the creation of virtuoso works of art from exotic and precious materials for collections of cabinets of curiosities and geeks.
The most famous collections of that time – the collection of Archduke Ferdinand, Emperor Rudolf II and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, now form the core of the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg especially appreciated the beauty of precious stones and believed in their special healing properties. In his cabinet of curiosities, he kept about 200 vessels made of minerals such as rock crystal, jasper, agate or jade. He established his own stone-cutting workshop in Prague, but continued to acquire works from workshops in Milan.
Italian stone-cutters from Milan and Florence received orders not only from the Medici family and other noble Italian customers, but also supplied their products to the imperial and royal courts of all Europe. Famous masters and entire dynasties of hereditary stone cutters and jewelers worked in Milan in the middle of the 16th century, the most famous of which were such masters as Annibale Fontana (1540–1587), Alessandro Masnago (1560–1620), workshops of the Sarachi and Miseroni families.
The Miseroni are known to have resided in Milan since the fifteenth century. The Miseroni stone-cutting dynasty has six generations (1460-1684). Giovanni Francesco, son of Gasparo Miseroni, first mentioned as a member of the Guild of Goldsmiths in 1460, was appointed its consul in 1468 and 1475.
The most famous stone cutters from this family were Gasparo Miseroni (circa 1518–1573) and his brother Girolamo (circa 1522–1600), silversmiths and hardstone carvers. The Girolamo family had nine sons. The eldest of them – Giovanni Ambrogio (circa 1551-1616) – the greatest of the engravers on hard stone of the Renaissance, who carved “divine figures” from minerals, headed his father’s business in Milan. Giulio Miseroni (circa 1559-1594) worked in Spain at the court of Philip II. Ottavio Miseroni (circa 1569-1624), together with the brothers Aurelio and Alessandro, founded a school of hard stone cutting in Prague under the patronage of Emperor Rudolf II.
Ottavio Miseroni, who settled in Prague at the invitation of Rudolf II in 1588 with his family, received the title of official cutter of the imperial court, which later passed to his son Dionisio (1607–1661), and then to his grandson, Ferdinando Eusebio (d. 1684 Dionisio Miseroni created many wonderful stone-cutting works from rock crystal, citrine, smoky quartz, chalcedony, but his most outstanding creation was the emerald ungventarium, which took two years to make.
