The 17th century was the golden age of cabinet-making, which became more and more decorated, coloured and embellished by the use of exotic materials.
Among the most important centres of such production was the region of Flanders and in particular the city of Antwerp, from which this cabinet probably also originated.
Sumptuously decorated with tortoiseshell panelling, gilded bronze ornaments, semi-precious stone incrustations and inlays in precious woods and ivory, the cabinet has a kind of two-door tabernacle with a pediment and tympanum in the centre. Inside is a small, ornate and scenographic space with a precious ebony and ivory marquetry floor and mirrored walls.
Very accentuated, even in the structure of the furniture, is the taste for components of architectural origin, such as columns, caryatids and telamons supporting the different tiers of the complex structure.
Il gusto della teatralità e dell’illusione è un tratto tipico dell’epoca barocca che si traduceva nell’ideazione di scomparti e tiretti segreti, celati dietro pannelli laterali o dietro i cassetti, abilmente dissimulati da pilastri o da altri elementi decorativi.
