Attribué à ATELIERS D'AVIGNON CABINET DIT «AUX... Lot n° 50

representing the emperors Otto and Tiberius Bas-Languedoc, Nîmes, last quarter of the 16th century Walnut Total height : 222 cm Upper body : H.121 cm, W. 120.5 cm, D. 45.5 cm Lower carcase: 101 cm, W. 142 cm, D. 55.5 cm Inscription on the lower leaves: Tiberius Provenance Former Jean Thuile collection Our cabinet with two recessed carcases is richly decorated with four horsemen in a landscape carved in a flat pattern on the four leaves. It is crowned by an architectural pediment whose central aedicule, placed between two leaning chimeras, houses the figure of a male deity. The ramps are adorned with two winged sea horses, their chests raised, resting on quadrangular pedestals. The fantastic and aquatic environment suggests that the deity wearing a headdress of wild grass and draped in an S-shape could be Neptune, probably adapted from a contemporary engraving. The marine theme continues in the ornamentation of the upper body, at the level of the lintel, where the facing sea dragons are framed by winged cherub heads. It is repeated on the belt where the sea horses that decorate the front of the drawers confront each other on either side of the howling mask shaped socket. The drawers are inserted between acanthus leaf modillions, underlined by dentils. They crown the lower carcase whose side jambs and frame are enriched with fruit and flower drops held in place by a conch. The whole rests on a molded plinth. On the upper panels, the same horseman appears in symmetry on either side of the frame. He carries a commanding staff and his horse rears up as if it were an equestrian statue. On the lower panels, the riders, also depicted in mirror image, are in a more dynamic posture. They are carrying a standard blown by the wind. The inscription in the upper outer corner of the panels identifies them with Tiberius, one of the Twelve Caesars whose life was recounted by Suetonius. Our cabinet differs in this respect from the traditional type of cabinet with riders depicting the four great conquerors of Roman history, Cyrus, Alexander, Ninus and Julius Caesar (fig. 1). This pattern has often been considered of Languedoc origin. However, several variations of this theme are known, the most famous of which is undoubtedly that of Ecouen, with the kings of France, where Henri IV and Louis XIII, portrayed as Roman emperors on the upper panels, dialogue with the allegories of War, Victory and Bellona, below (fig. 2). For the composition, however, it is close to the Pèzenas model where on the pediment's ramps our horses are replaced by sphinxes and where the figures of Julius Caesar (above) and Alexander (below) are repeated in mirror image on either side of the doorframe (fig. 3). The horsemen, wearing their standards, are derived from the Four Empires by the Antwerp artist Martin de Vos, engraved by his compatriot Adriaen Collaert (fig. 4). Our Tiberius, with a laurel wreath on his forehead, could be derived from Caesar, who is also depicted with Ninus on the two panels of the former Peyre collection in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (fig. 5). As here, a fall of fruit animates the frame separating the panels. The rider at the top, with a commanding staff, should be compared with the portraits of the Twelve Caesars, engraved by Adriaen Collaert, but above all by the Florentine Antonio Tempesta and his successor Matthaüs Merian. The equestrian statue of Emperor Otto can be seen here, twisting and grasping his horse's bridle with his opposite hand (fig. 6b-c). Our cabinet aux cavaliers, which belonged to the eminent collector and historian of Languedoc silverware Jean Thuile (1887-1970), differs from other Languedoc cabinets of this type in that it draws its iconography from Suetonius and modern engravers inspired by the same Lives of the Twelve Caesars. According to Jacques Thirion, this craze for Roman-style equestrian figures can be explained by the prestige enjoyed at the time by the Cabinet des Empereurs in the Château de Fontainebleau. This cabinet, commissioned by Charles IX and destroyed under Louis XIV, had, like ours, a decoration of the Twelve Caesars on horseback.