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New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Chess Set
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.

Chess Set

Artist Gianni Toso (Italian, b. 1942)
CultureItalian
Date1985
MediumLampworked glass figure
DimensionsOverall: 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)
Inscribedhot-stamped with"Toso" and signed "G. Toso 85" in diamond-point
Credit LineMuseum purchase and partial gift of Dylan, Max, Jessica, and Leyla Sandler; Fran and Lenox Baker; Allan Hugh McKinley and Jean Ritter Winslow; Albert and Robbie Selkin; Dr. and Mrs. Edward C. Oldfield III; and the Chrysler Museum Glass Associates
Object number97.1.18
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 119, Case 75
DescriptionBlack, Orthodox Jewish figure, the rabbi's wife holds Sabbath candles.
This sculpture is in the form of a 32-figure chess set with Catholic and Orthodox Jewish imagery. White is represented by Catholic clergy, a nun and monks: the king is an archbishop with one hand holding a shepherd's crook and the other raised in a gesture of blessing; the queen is a nun; the bishops carry red and yellow crosses over their shoulders as though marching in a religious procession; the knights carry censers; the rooks each hold a staff surmounted by a votive candle, and the pawns each carry hand-held candles. Black is represented by Orthodox Jewish figures: the king is a rabbi reading from a book of the law; the queen, the rabbi's wife holds Sabbath candles; the bishops dance with Torah scrolls; the knights sound the shofar (a ram's horn); the rooks each hold a lulav (a bundle of palm, willow, and myrtle branches) and a citron; the pawns are each different, one holds a kiddish cup, another has performed a circumcision, and the rest represent festivals. Hebrew inscriptions are cold-enameled on the scrolls, etc.

Published ReferencesJeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 46, fig. 185. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985
New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.
Gianni Toso
1985