EXCEPTIONAL CABINET WITH NACRE DECORATION HISPANIC... Lot 23

EXCEPTIONAL CABINET WITH NACRE DECORATION HISPANIC WORK (SPAIN OR PORTUGAL) 17th Century Geometric motifs, pearls, stars on a red tortoiseshell background H.190 cm, W. 134 cm, D. 53 cm The architectural front of the cabinet opens with twelve drawers framing a portico decorated with engraved ivory plaques representing holy figures in ebony moldings. In the upper left corner, St. Anthony of Padua is carrying the Child Jesus. In the center, a classical representation of Saint Francis of Assisi. On the right, it is Saint John of the Cross. In the lower left, Saint Agnes could be represented with a lamb in her arms. In the center, Saint Jerome penitent with a vanity in his hand is surrounded by clouds and cherubs showing the Five Wounds of Christ in a cartouche. This iconography links him to Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata, sharing the sufferings of Christ. At the bottom right, Saint Claire of Assisi. The central door conceals three drawers with hunting scenes in ivory on a background of red tortoiseshell. Each side is underlined by two pairs of torsoed half-columns in appliqué. In the upper part, six ivory vases overhang an openwork balustrade. The richly carved base, underlined by large gadroons, presents in the belt motifs of crosses and foliage. It is composed of five twisted columns linked by an H-shaped brace and rests on small turned legs with rings. History : Between the 15th and 18th centuries, the development and enrichment of certain European countries or cities were closely linked to their policy of colonial expansion based on the government of provinces or trading posts, most often located in distant and exotic lands. At that time, Spain was one of the most powerful European nations, sharing with Flanders the quasi-supremacy of the main known maritime routes. This was obviously due to the discovery of the American continent in the last years of the 15th century, which allowed Europe, especially the Hispanic peninsula, to enter a period of extraordinary economic development. This new continent, which excited the European imagination for many centuries, was the scene of a European colonization supported by a conquering church anxious to Christianize these new pagan native populations. This conquest, relatively fast for the eastern and central parts of the continent, led to a geographical division of immense lands cut into provinces and placed under the authority of governors, as well as to the establishment of a new civilization modelled on the European model with, in particular, the settlement of numerous colonists, aristocrats, merchants or craftsmen, who came to make their fortune in this "New World". It followed logically from that of very numerous interactions between the local cultures and the Western culture which materialized in the field of the decorative arts by the creation of some rare pieces of furniture which testify nowadays of these various and multiple influences. This is the case of the exceptional cabinet that we propose, stylistically dated to the 17th century, which is distinguished by its particularly elaborate architectural composition and largely inspired by Hispanic, Italian or Flemish models of the time, as well as by the quality of the assemblies and the materials of veneer or decoration used, in this case ivory, ebony, tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl, and, finally, by the finesse and precision of the treatment of its realization. Nowadays, among the rare other known examples of the same period and realized in the same spirit, but most of the time much less accomplished, let us quote particularly : a first cabinet, lined with mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, whose drawers are centered by a door with a painted scene depicting Saint Anthony of Padua carrying the Child Jesus, which was made in Lima, Peru, in the last decades of the seventeenth century and belongs to the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; as well as a pair of Hispanic cabinets of architectural composition that were formerly in the collection of Mrs. James de Rothschild; and a final piece of furniture made in the same spirit, but of much less elaborate design, which is on display at the Museo de Historia Mexicana in Monterrey, Mexico.