SPAIN, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

This cabinet (escritorio) illustrates the art of cabinet-making in Spain in the 16th century. Its finely inlaid decoration displays floral vases and elements of architecture that are inspired by contemporaneous Renaissance motifs. However the fan-shaped carnations rising from the bulbous vases are strongly Ottoman in style, such as examples found on Turkish ceramics and textiles. This combination of styles is a common feature of Spanish Mudejar art. Whilst the Ottoman influence is clearly felt - these motifs would have circulated along Mediterranean trade routes – the technique of ivory and hardwood inlay is a mediaeval local Spanish technique known as taracea which flourished under the Nasrids of Andalusia.

An impressive fall-front cabinet with similar decoration is in the Hispanic Society, New York dated to the mid-16th century (Maria Paz Aguilo Alonso, El Mueble en Espana, siglos XVI-XVII, Madrid, 1993, cat.193, p.276) and another, dated circa 1560-1600 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (294-1870).