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 number97.1.23
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 119, Case 75
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), 146, fig. 185. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1
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