Bergkristall-Pyramide

This "pyramid" is Dionysio Miseroni's supreme masterpiece. The massive base block rises on a hexagonal foot - an approximate hexafoil. A row of scales beneath the herm heads frame two visible sides decorated alternately with vine leaves and grapes. Four reducing cylindrical stemmed goblets stand on top of the base section, with a double-eagle lid on top. The maker cut all the top sections out of the large vase, with the broader cylinder in each case coming after the narrower one above in the work process. The technical bravura that made the "pyramid" one of the top mirabilia in the Viennese Schatzkammer (Treasury) thus owes its unusual design to its maker's technical virtuosity in the service of art. Not surprisingly, this is the only work he signed and dated.