ÎLE DE FRANCE - VAL DE LOIRE - VERS 1570 BELLIFONTAIN FURNITURE-CABINET... Lot 16

ÎLE DE FRANCE - VAL DE LOIRE - VERS 1570 BELLIFONTAIN FURNITURE-CABINET Walnut wood, green marble H. 183.5 cm, W. 111.5 cm, D. 54 cm Restoration of use and maintenance From the reign of Henri II (1547-1559), the furniture evolves and its structure is transformed. Henceforth, craftsmen were inspired by the architectural system inherited from Antiquity through the Italian Quattrocento, to elaborate the structure of the furniture. This new ornamental grammar combines palmettes, heart stripes, putti, sphinxes and grotesques. The decorative effect takes precedence. From then on, many illustrated books and collections of ornaments and emblems accompanied the work of the huchiers and tailors, who reinterpreted them in order to adapt them to the furniture they made. This cabinet belongs directly to these creations inspired by Italy and Bellifontain art of the second half of the 16th century. Its structure is conceived as an imitation of architecture, with its beautiful fluted columns and cornice, all of great refinement. All the uprights, drawers, the entablature as well as the doors of the lower body have inlays of green marble with white veins. The lower body opening with two leaves and two drawers in the belt rests on a molded plinth supported by flattened ball feet. The uprights of the lower body are adorned with swans with slender necks, beautifully drawn feathers and sphinxes, placed on either side of a marble cartouche. In moulded frames, the leaves are carved with two female figures, with modesty barely veiled by a drapery floating in the wind. They are placed in the middle of a rural landscape. One of them carries flowers. It is Flora, allegory of Spring. The other holds a sickle and ears of wheat. It is Ceres, goddess of agriculture, harvests and fertility, who symbolizes Summer and prosperity. This theme of the Seasons was one of the favourite themes of the Bellifontaine School. Inspired by the traditional code defined by Cesare Ripa in 1603 in the Iconologia, th