Description
This ceremonial Chest of German origin, perfectly designed like a piece of architecture, is crafted from oak wood. It is carved and polychromed, with inlaid marquetry using pieces of wood that are partly stained and blackened.
The Front
The entablature alternates between blackened wood cartouches and frames featuring intarsia with crisscross patterns rendered in perspective.
The chest’s front is arranged in a ternary rhythm. It is punctuated by four uprights adorned with male and female terms in alternating order, resting on columns decorated in varying styles.
Humorously, the keyhole is concealed behind the sliding male head of the third upright.
Between each upright, a rounded arch rests on pilasters adorned with marquetry designs of checkerboard or crisscross patterns, capped with a molded capital. Three-petaled flowers made of inlaid wood embellish the spandrels, topped by a frieze with checkerboard motifs.
The three arched panels, crowned by a scrolled console and a dentil frieze, feature heraldic decorations on backgrounds of cut leather.
– On the left: Silver three roses gules.
– In the center: Silver, a sword.
– On the right: “Azure, a scallop silver shell.
The coats of arms are framed within carved, polychrome floral arabesques, each uniquely painted and topped by a fully sculpted, plumed helm treated in high relief, standing out from the frame like a medallion.
Beneath each coat of arms is a cartouche adorned with scrolls and volutes, bearing names in relief. The first is legible as “Frantze,” while the other two are partially decipherable, beginning with “Re…” and “…Pra…” respectively.
The lower cornice, with its projecting elements, rests on four flattened ball feet.
The Sides
Between two deeply fluted pilasters, an arched vault reveals an architectural scene with a beautifully accentuated perspective, emphasized by a checkerboard-patterned floor. In the spandrels, two celestial motifs play with contrasts of light and shadow, as well as the relief provided by the intarsia.
At the center of this design is a finely crafted, substantial wrought iron handle, designed to facilitate transport. This reflects the mobility of social life in the era, when the court would frequently relocate from castle to castle.
The Historical Context
Theories of space and principles of perspective, born in Florence in the 15th century, were applied to the art of marquetry through the work of Strasbourg’s cabinetmakers.
However, additional inspirations contributed to this evolution. The Rhineland regions demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate external influences and adapt them to their own aesthetic, religious, and moral concerns.
It was Italy during the Quattrocento that rediscovered the forgotten techniques of intarsia. These techniques served to convey a new vision of space, rooted in the study of perspective, and spread an ornamental repertoire inspired by Imperial Rome.
The study of marquetry decorative themes from the 16th to 17th centuries in Eastern Europe is inseparable from the exploration of the aesthetic sensibilities developed in the Rhineland.
Bibliography
LEVY – COLBENTZ Françoise, Le meuble en Alsace, Centre de Recherches Régionales et Rhénanes, Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg