A LATE RENAISSANCE CHESS SET - UN GIUOCO DI SCACCHI TARDO RINASCIMENTALE

Hello.

This picture below shows detail of a painting quite unsurprisingly called: "The Chess Game", by Sofonisba Anguissola, an Italian painter from Cremona. 

The painting is dated from 1555 and the full painting can be seen HERE (or even better: here!)

What I am curious about is the style of the chess pieces.

As you can see, Rooks appear to be shaped as 'acorns', pawns look like 'dwarfs' or 'elves' with pointed hats, etcetera...

Now, I'm quite sure I've already seen this chessset somewhere else before...

However, I've forgotten WHERE! 

So, ,y question to this very prestigious Forum is:

Does this chess-set style have a name? Is there any chance that real chess-sets like this one still exist? That they are still being created? How do you like the style?

Does anybody have a clue of who could be the craftsman who first made them?

Here is a close-up view of the pieces in the picture:

Has anybody ever spotted other peculiar looking chess sets in old paintings?

Qualcuno saprebbe dirmi se questo stile di pezzi ha un nome? O se esistono comunque giochi di scacchi conservati che assomigliano a quelli raffigurati?

Il quadro è del 1555 ed è piuttosto famoso per cui non abbisogna di presentazioni particolari, si chiama: 'la partita di scacchi', l'autrice è Sofonisba Anguissola di Cremona.

Da quello che vedo le Torri sono 'ghiande' e i pedoni una specie di 'elfi'.

Il ritratto potrebbe essere ambientato nella campagna vicino a Cremona, ma anche altrove (o in una  collocazione del tutto 'astratta').

I am sorry, unfortunatelly I dont know anything about this chess set

Well, thank you...  

...this is much like looking for a needle in a haystack  

At the moment the painting is supposed to be in the Narodowe Museum in Poznan (Poland)

That is a possibility, you are right. In chess a lot is about imagining things.

However, I do think I have seen a similar chess set somewhere else... 

By the way, what surprised me the most, was to find a 'theme chess set' in a real-life scene from the XVIth century. 

Devi chiedere a "le due torri"... se non ce l'hanno loro non ce li ha nessuno! comunque, so' brutti ehhh! ^____^ 

It looks a bit like a Dieppe style set with a slightly unusual rook.  Figural sets were common in the past, there was no concept of a "theme" set.  

Thank you greghunt  

You are right there may be some resemblances, especially in the 'human' figures. However, I think the Dieppe style started being developed only in the XVIIth century, because of the ivory trade and ivory cutting techniques; that would be a whole century too late:

What about the material, by the way? The pieces look like wood to me, but I am not sure.

Also, greg, you are definitely right in saying the chess set could not be a themed chess set in a modern sense: 'figural' sounds  more accurate, as opposed I guess to abstract or stylized. 

What I meant was the presence of elves and acorns made me think of a 'nature theme' being used.

As testone suggested this may also be a personal elaboration of the painter or else the chess set may have been a unique set, made especially for the Anguissola family, if not by members of this numerous family themselves...

Yet...

While the Dieppe ivory sets date from the 17th century onwards, the form of the set had to come from somewhere.  There is nothing to say that the general form was not being used elsewhere in bone, ivory or wood, and this suggests that that was the case.  I don't know enough about the history of chess pieces to say definitely. 

The idea of a "unique" set made for a wealthy family in the 16th century is a bit anachronistic, the purchaser would probably have commissioned something to be made specifically for themselves, the standardised and mass-produced pieces that we have now were a long way in the future in 1550.  What they would have got was a set that was to some degree characteristic of its maker's and location's style, but not identical to others made at the time which they could have customised or left to the discretion of the maker (in which case they would have got something very like other sets made by that maker).  

In 1550 elves were not regarded in the way that we regard them now, our view is of small people in mediaeval or rennassiance dress, in 1550 they would probably have just looked to people of the time like famers (who were the infantry of the day).  Painters tended to be fairly careful with their representation, if you look at the board position, there is nothing glaringly implausible about it, so there is no strong reason to think that there was no set that looked like that. 

thank you greg, many interesting points in your last post.

In the meantime, I found out somebody had a reproduction of the set made.

This is how the reproduction turned out looking like: 

http://www.wittitscheks-schachfiguren.de/special/special01.php 

ah pero'... la torre a forma di pigna! mmmhhh... sono scacchi massonici questi ^___^ il pedone con la faccia del re ed il cappello da somaro e' "interessante"... somiglia ad un "pinocchio" ante litteram... 

hehehe interessante l'analisi del pedone, la torre però è una ghianda non transigo..