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Lot Essay
These spectacular Spanish cabinets are of a type known as 'papeleira', which developed from the more functional 16th century drop-front secretaire-on-stand, or 'vargueno', and must rank among the most lavishly inlaid examples of this form recorded.
The sumptuous inlay, with elaborately scrolling arabesque foliage and figures in armour battling mythical beasts, often emerging directly out of the foliage, is a striking example of the 'grotesque' style which had been developed by Italian Renaissance artists such as Mantegna and Raphael (whose 'grotesques' in the Stanze of the Vatican are among the most celebrated examples), who themselves were directly inspired by similar fantastical imagery from ancient Rome. Giorgio Vasari, in the section on painting of his famous work Vite described how "...grotesques were a free and whimsical form of painting invented in Antiquity for decorating wall-surfaces... The artists depicted fantastical forms created from the caprice of nature or from the extravagant fantasy of the artists: they invented these forms without any rules..."
The 'grotesque' style, with its emphasis on rich surface decoration, naturally leant itself it to all facets of the decorative arts, and it was disseminated through print sources by designers such as Wendel Dietterlin and Christoph Jamnitzer in Germany, and Androuet Ducerceau in France (for a full discussion of the 'grotesque' style see A. Gruber ed., L'Art Décoratif en France: Renaissance et Maniérisme, Paris, 1993, pp. 191 - 275).
Other Spanish cabinets of simpler form and often with similar cresting of pierced metalwork, dated to the mid-17th century, include examples illustrated in M. Alonso, El Mueble en Espana Siglos XVI-XVII, Madrid, 1993, figs. 237, 239 and 241 - 2. The distinctive landscape marquetry panels of the internal drawers of the central compartment are of a rather more naive hand than the 'grotesque' panels, and relate closely to other cabinets sold at auction, including one sold by a Spanish Noble family, Christie's, London, 11 May 2000, lot 286, and another, with the arms of Don Francisco Fernandez of Cordoba, Duke of Sessa (1626 - 1688), sold Christie's, New York, 27 May 1999, lot 278.
The date of MDCII, or 1602, below the coat-of-arms of the Andalusian Vilchez family, is puzzling (and on the contre partie example seems to have been added later), as most cabinets of this type tend to be dated from the mid-17th century onwards, although the 'grotesque' designs are undoubtedly of earlier influence. It is possible that it refers to a significant date in the history of the Vilchez family which predates the creation of these remarkable cabinets.
The sumptuous inlay, with elaborately scrolling arabesque foliage and figures in armour battling mythical beasts, often emerging directly out of the foliage, is a striking example of the 'grotesque' style which had been developed by Italian Renaissance artists such as Mantegna and Raphael (whose 'grotesques' in the Stanze of the Vatican are among the most celebrated examples), who themselves were directly inspired by similar fantastical imagery from ancient Rome. Giorgio Vasari, in the section on painting of his famous work Vite described how "...grotesques were a free and whimsical form of painting invented in Antiquity for decorating wall-surfaces... The artists depicted fantastical forms created from the caprice of nature or from the extravagant fantasy of the artists: they invented these forms without any rules..."
The 'grotesque' style, with its emphasis on rich surface decoration, naturally leant itself it to all facets of the decorative arts, and it was disseminated through print sources by designers such as Wendel Dietterlin and Christoph Jamnitzer in Germany, and Androuet Ducerceau in France (for a full discussion of the 'grotesque' style see A. Gruber ed., L'Art Décoratif en France: Renaissance et Maniérisme, Paris, 1993, pp. 191 - 275).
Other Spanish cabinets of simpler form and often with similar cresting of pierced metalwork, dated to the mid-17th century, include examples illustrated in M. Alonso, El Mueble en Espana Siglos XVI-XVII, Madrid, 1993, figs. 237, 239 and 241 - 2. The distinctive landscape marquetry panels of the internal drawers of the central compartment are of a rather more naive hand than the 'grotesque' panels, and relate closely to other cabinets sold at auction, including one sold by a Spanish Noble family, Christie's, London, 11 May 2000, lot 286, and another, with the arms of Don Francisco Fernandez of Cordoba, Duke of Sessa (1626 - 1688), sold Christie's, New York, 27 May 1999, lot 278.
The date of MDCII, or 1602, below the coat-of-arms of the Andalusian Vilchez family, is puzzling (and on the contre partie example seems to have been added later), as most cabinets of this type tend to be dated from the mid-17th century onwards, although the 'grotesque' designs are undoubtedly of earlier influence. It is possible that it refers to a significant date in the history of the Vilchez family which predates the creation of these remarkable cabinets.