4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2017.

Chess Set

Artist Gianni Toso (Italian, b. 1942)

Date1985

MediumLampworked glass figures with cut and assembled glass board

DimensionsOverall: 24 1/2 in. (62.2 cm)

ClassificationsGlass

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

Terms

Collections

Glass Art

On View

On view

DescriptionThis 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.

Label TextGianni Toso Italian, b. 1942 Chess Set, 1985 Flameworked, cut, and assembled glass 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; The Chrysler Museum Glass Associates; and the Art Purchase Fund 97.1 This lampworked tour de force brilliantly and good-naturedly depicts figures and symbols in the Catholic and Jewish faiths. Artsit Gianni Toso was raised in Venice in a home combining both Catholic and Jewish values amidst the artistic tradition on Venetian glass workers. According to Toso, "Each people in the family of mankind plays a different instrument in the orchestra of civilization contributing with its system of cultural values its own characteristics of tone, timber, and color to the total ensemble." The Jewish pawn at the center of the board holds a feather and a lantern used in the formal search for and removal of hametz (food containing leavening), which is done in preparation for Passover.