Portrait of the Gem-Cutter Dionysius Miseroni and His Family

The Miseroni were Milanese gem-cutters who had come to Prague two generations earlier to work for the emperor Rudolf II, carving vessels from rock crystal for the imperial collections. Dionysius Miseroni ran the family workshop, and around 1653 the Bohemian painter Karel Skreta gathered him with his wife and children into this large group portrait. It was an unusual idea for its time. Instead of stiff rows of faces, everyone is caught turning, gesturing, and glancing at one another as if the room were alive. The tall stepped vessel of rock crystal at the center is a real object, finished that same year. It still exists today, kept now in a museum in Vienna.