Design for the cover of a box (?), with Saints and Vuirtues

Copy, on the same verso, from a niello by Peregrino da Cesena, formerly belonging to the Durazzo collection, now in Berlin.

The original impression is divided horizontally into two equal halves. The intended use of the plaque from which the impression was pulled is not certain, maybe was the cover or lid of a small box. Givet its subject matter, the box must have served some liturgical function.

The nielli of the Durazzo collection were reproduced in prints by owner’s will, between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, in Venice - as also specified by Malaspina in his catalog of 1824 - constituting a series that was circulated and collected by the amateurs.

Bartsch describes these niello prints in his volume published in 1811, a date that therefore constitutes the terminus ante quem for the execution.