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Item 3307 | Italian Renaissance Revival Buffet Cabinet or Credenza |
Dimensions | Width 58, Height 39 , Depth 22 (in inches) |
Wood | Walnut |
Country | Italy |
Date | Circa 1920 |
Price | $2,675 |
Description |
This richly sculpted Italian cabinet, along with the table it accompanies (Item 3308) fit perfectly with the recent trend for executives to opt for a table and "credenza" in their office rather than a desk with drawers, in the traditional sense. But even if purchased separately, the cabinet is a beauty in its own right and would work well in any setting. Its origins are in the Renaissance cabinet called a credenza because people locked
away precious food in it with confidence (credere meaning "to
believe" or "trust"). It
is typically a low cabinet (waist high) with a drawer (or two) in the frieze
and one or two doors below. The
credenza should not be mistaken for the French adaptation called a crédence,
involving a design derived from a cupboard atop a table and
eventually unified as one piece (also called a dressoir) with a pot board as an open shelf at the bottom. This cabinet offers a cornucopia of Renaissance design motifs such as the acanthus leaf, palmette, scroll, rosette, and fruit garland. What initially attracted us to this cabinet was the intricately carved cascade of fruits. Popularized by Northern Italian Renaissance artists such as Carlo Crivelli with his enormous decorative vocabulary and used as a visual effect to separate the viewer from the picture plane, the cascade is particularly pleasing because it draws the eye from top to bottom, to focus on the virtuosity of the carving. It is also a reminder of the agricultural bounty of the countryside from which the design of this credenza sprang. Although a bit more elaborate in its decoration, this cabinet reminded us of the magnificent 16th century credenza we saw in the Sitting Room during our visit in 2005 to Bernard Berenson's Villa I Tatti outside Florence, just as he was photographed with it in 1903 (as shown on the cover of Ernest Samuels' Bernard Berenson -- The Making of a Connoisseur). As its Renaissance forebears did, this cabinet locks with a key (of which we have two) in order to give the modern owner a credenza that whatever is inside is safely tucked away.
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Reference |
Antiquités et Objets D'Art 10, Le Mobilier Italien (Editions Fabri, Paris, 1990); Costantino Fioratti, Helen, Il Mobile Italiano (Giunti Editore, Firenze-Milano, 2004); Rousseau, Francis, Le Grand Livre des Meubles (Copyright Studio, Paris, 1999).
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Uses |
This cabinet is versatile and would do well in just about any room of a home or in an office. |
Please note that it is difficult to photograph a piece such as this and capture the details without some distortion caused by flash, leading to the color being inconsistent among the photos. Ultimately, the cabinet is a rich, medium walnut color.
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Copyright ©2019 M. Markley Antiques. All Rights reserved.