A wood and hardstone ‘stipo’ cabinet - Lot 34

A wood and hardstone ‘stipo’ cabinet Cabinet composed of a lacquered wooden structure decorated with arabesques, cartouches and gilded and polychrome foliage. The architectural front opens to reveal seven drawers. It is composed of a large central triangular pediment and four main columns in jasper. Between these columns are three small pediments (two triangular and one segmental) overhanging foliage-decorated columns. The framing of the hard stones (jasper and lapis lazuli) and the painted mother-of-pearl are decorated with gilded foliage on a black background, including florets and foliage motifs. The lid opens to reveal a mirror and storage compartments painted red. Good condition. Venice, late 16th century Height: 43.5 cm. Width: 47.5 cm. Depth: 35.7 cm. Comparative bibliography : - H. Huth, Lacquer of the West. The History of a Craft and an Industry, 1550-1950, Chicago, 1971. - E. J. Grube, “Le “laque” vénitien et la reliure au XVIe siècle”, in Venise et l’Orient, 828-1797, Exhibition catalogue, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 2006, pp. 230-243. The motifs in gold on a black background that decorate our cabinet are characteristic of the Ottoman influence on Venetian art that developed largely due to the numerous objects that reached the Serenissima, either as spoils from the frequent wars that pitted it against the Turks, or from the important commercial exchanges with the Ottoman world. There are roughly fifteen cabinets of this type, combining hard stone veneer and oriental painted ornaments. We can mention one that is very similar to ours at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (inv. Mobili 99), or that of the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna (inv. H 848). For more details regarding this type of cabinet, see Huth, pl. 13-20, or the study by Ernst J. Grube, pp. 230-243.