FRANCO-FLAMANDE CABINET with heart-shaped napkin... Lot 23

FRANCO-FLAMANDE CABINET with heart-shaped napkin folds Flanders or Northern France, late 15th-early 16th century Oak, iron H. 119.5 cm, W. 141 cm, D. 59 cm. Provenance Former Lehmann collection Former L.-P. Bresset collection Exhibition Musée Cantini 1952, L'Art du Moyen Âge dans les collections marseillaises, n° 142 This cupboard, assembled with tenons and mortises, opens with two leaves in the front. The leaves, attached to the side jambs by two beautiful hinges pierced with lanceolate motifs, meet in the center under a baluster column turned in the same spirit as the Franco-Flemish ceremonial cabinet of the period Louis XII, whose sides are decorated as here with embrevé panels, carved with heart-shaped napkin folds (fig. 1). On our piece of furniture, the napkin motif present on the sides is repeated on the front where each leaf is decorated with four carved panels embrevé in the frame. The profile of the pleat cut out in its center of a cordial yoke is typically of Flemish inspiration as we also see it on an oak chest of the 1490s (fig. 2). This piece of furniture is a very good example of the work of the Franco-Flemish huchiers of the late Middle Ages, combining a solid frame with refined decoration. The quality of execution of the assembly methods of our cupboard, served by beautiful proportions and the great finesse of the layout of the napkin folds stretched out in height, had thus held the attention of the Cantini Museum for its exhibition on the art of the Middle Ages in 1952.