Cabinet Walnut Italy XVI-XVII Century

Notes historical bibliographic

The cabinet from Tuscany belongs to a less known and widespread type in this geographical area. In fact, the wooden cabinets inlaid with semi-precious stones are more well known, certainly derived from the famous production linked to the tradition of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Our cabinet is in fact entirely made of wood and even the decoration is entrusted to this material. The sides, the top, the front door (also on the inside) are entirely veneered in walnut briar; even the front of the small drawers and of the internal doors is in briar, worked in the solid wood in the case of the frames. This particular cut of the walnut, with a marked and lively vein, has, in fact, a great ornamental effect that enriches the surface of the cabinet. Also interesting are the uprights and small knobs placed in the band under the top, in carved walnut. The iconographic model to which they refer are the grotesques, an ornamental typology that spread from the end of the fifteenth century, but continued and reused also throughout the sixteenth century and the following century. In particular the masks, monstrous animals, caryatids and telamons with grotesque features had a long survival in the plastic type decoration. Very interesting, in our cabinet, is the physiognomy of the faces of the caryatid and the telamon, highly typed and completely characteristic. Even the warriors, the weapons and the coat of arms in the band below the floor are fully part of the iconographic panorama derived from the grotesques. Certainly these subjects are not found only in Tuscan production, but also in that of northern Italy: the Bergamo carvings are well known which, albeit in different ways, take up grotesque masks and caryatids. For our cabinet, as already mentioned at the beginning, it is more difficult to find precise feedback, even if some echoes can, in our opinion, be recognized in works even several years earlier. These include the lower part of the large lectern in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, built by Baccio d'Agnolo between 1491 and 1496.

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