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Lot Essay
The 17th century bas-relief carved table top, its central tablet embellished in celebration of Love's triumph, was originally conceived as the right-hand door of a cabinet. Highly prized again by early 19th century antiquarians, such precious carvings were often re-used, as demonstrated by four magnificent ebony and pietra dura side cabinets constructed using mid-17th century panels, supplied (possibly by Robert Hume) circa 1830 to Elizabeth, 5th Duchess of Rutland, for the embellishment of the French Drawing Room at Belvoir Castle, Rutland.
The relief's torch-lit vignette of this panel may depict the scene of 'Lèpante and Syllenie recognising one another', as described in Jean Desmartes de Saint-Sorlin's romance, Ariane published in 1639 by Matthieu Guillemot, and is related to the oeuvre of the royal ébéniste Jean Macé, from Blois. Trained in the Low Countries he has been credited with some of the most elaborately worked ebony cabinets of the 17th century, including the Endymion Cabinet in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Related cabinets are discussed in D. Alcoufe, 'Les Macé: ébénistes et peintres', Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, 1971, Paris, pp.61-82 and D. Alcouffe, Un temps d'exuberance: Les arts décoratifs sous Louis XIII et Anne d'Autriche, Paris, 2002.
The relief's torch-lit vignette of this panel may depict the scene of 'Lèpante and Syllenie recognising one another', as described in Jean Desmartes de Saint-Sorlin's romance, Ariane published in 1639 by Matthieu Guillemot, and is related to the oeuvre of the royal ébéniste Jean Macé, from Blois. Trained in the Low Countries he has been credited with some of the most elaborately worked ebony cabinets of the 17th century, including the Endymion Cabinet in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Related cabinets are discussed in D. Alcoufe, 'Les Macé: ébénistes et peintres', Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, 1971, Paris, pp.61-82 and D. Alcouffe, Un temps d'exuberance: Les arts décoratifs sous Louis XIII et Anne d'Autriche, Paris, 2002.