A PAIR OF ITALIAN BAROQUE POLYCHROME-PAINTED CABINETS VENICE, 17TH CENTURY

Sotheby's New York, October 3, 2006, lot 293

The painted pinwheel decoration on these cabinets is almost certainly inspired by Gothic design, see for example, the backrests of pews in the Cathedral at Piacenza, see Longeri & Pighi, Il Mobile Piacentino, Piacenza, 2003, p.19. These pews, dating from c. 1466-1471, incorporate intarsia and paint to form gothic tracery panels forming rosettes centered by a stylized pinwheel. Longeri & Pighi, op.cit. also illustrate other  Renaissance cabinet work incorporating similarly molded, panelled doors enclosing a variety of decorative motifs in intarsia, or paint. A cassone manufactured in Verona in the middle of the 17th century, decorated in walnut intarsia also incorporates a group of slightly more restrained wheel-form medallions, illustrated, C. Santini, Mille Mobili Veneti, Modena, 1989, p.25.
Painted furniture is a long and felicitous tradition in Italy. Examples of early pieces of painted furniture appear in Santini, op. cit. pp. 33 - 34, but relatively few pieces of the scale of these cabinets appear on the international art market. One large painted and parcel-gilt cabinet of comparable overall design and fitted with similarly panelled doors (partially painted to simulate marble), was sold, Sotheby's, London, October 29, 2003, lot 39. Another cabinet with panelled doors enclosing the coat-of-arms of the Florentine Aldobrandini di Ghingo family within a circular wreath of twisted ribbon was sold, Sotheby's, London, October 29, 2003, lot 112.