Arquimesa. Italy, 17th century.
Walnut wood, ebonised wood, bronze, tortoise shell and metal.
With keys.
With antique xylophages. In need of restoration. It presents some faults in the interior handles.
Measurements: 120 x 135 x 50 cm (chest); 84 x 157 x 56 cm (table).
Baroque chest with architectural structure and inlaid tortoiseshell decoration combined with bronze applications. This model was widespread in 17th-century Europe, especially in Italy, but originated in the Netherlands. The decoration is concentrated on the front, and on the sides it is reduced to geometric inlays made by means of inlaid fillets. The handles are made of bronze. The sample is divided into three lanes, the central one slightly forward, with a Baroque façade structure. The side sections contain four identical drawers, the fronts of which are decorated with rectangular cut-outs. The bronze handles are decorated with plant shoots. The central street is the main feature, as is usual in Baroque bargueño architecture, and its structure shows the influence of contemporary architecture, with the columns standing out on the ground plan. However, it is enriched by the imagination and know-how of the cabinetmaker, in the base, columns veneered in tortoiseshell and raised on corbels, the niche with a round representation in bronze, flanked by figurative reliefs. This façade conceals a door that is skilfully concealed by the decoration, with an interior compartmentalised into drawers, the fronts of which are decorated with inlaid wooden fillets forming geometric grooves that match the general design of the cabinet. The cabinet is topped by a highly ornamented openwork runner with rich interlacing, and the wooden top is crowned with an imperial eagle above a tympanum.
The bargueño stands on a matching table made of the same materials, in the Baroque style. Both legs are joined to the tabletop by wrought-iron fastenings.