Italian Venetian Louis XIV Style Lacquered Sideboard, 1695

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Important and rare lacquered and painted Venetian sideboard; the cabinet has a wavy and elegantly notched trapezoidal shape, and has two large doors that when opened reveal a large interior space divided by a vertical partition and two horizontal planes; this division was made in successive epochs as was the entire interior lining for which a yellow fabric was used; the upper exterior has a top executed in a single piece shaped with soft and refined lines; the entire cabinet and the solid base follow the undulating profile of the top giving the sideboard lightness and delicacy; the exquisite original lacquering has soft and delicate colors; the refined and graceful floral decorations of the doors are also repeated in the concave side panels producing a wavy and extremely refined effect. The cabinet, made of softwood, probably spruce, is in first patina with the original ironwork of the period. It was made between 1695 and 1710 in an artisan carpentry workshop in Venice. In fact, lacquered furniture in the Veneto region was mainly produced in the lagoon city, which was an important center of production of this type of furniture during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The workshops of Venetian craftsmen were famous for their mastery in creating high-quality lacquered furniture, such as cabinets, sideboards, desks, and tables. These pieces of furniture were often made on commission for nobles, aristocrats, and churches, and were used to embellish palaces and prestigious residences.
The late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century are characterized by the opposition between the cold, opulent severity of ‘late Mannerism and the more grandiose and stunning Baroque that was emerging. The furniture, though still firm in its tradition, feels the decline of the characters of sobriety and balance that had given Europe the measure of the Renaissance. The lines of furniture are sober and straight, but they tend gradually to soften. Characters of utility yield in the face of the increasingly important value of decoration. One of the most important features of Italian furniture in this period is the art of lacquering, known and practiced in the Far East by the Chinese and Japanese from the earliest ages; Europe began to take an interest in it only in the early 1600s. European lacquers imitated by imported ones are composed of various essences, mixed resins, and various oils. In fact, whether in France, Italy, or England, lacquers are never as hard as those from the East. This diversity consists mainly of the preparation with chalk and glue. In Italy, the wood preferred by lacquerers is cirrmolo, which has the characteristic of being light, and soft and lends itself meekly to all the stylistic adaptations of the period. The wood was left well seasoned and cut into solid curved strips that overlapped to create the stem of the piece of furniture, destined later to be sent to the lacquerer for decoration. Surfaces to be decorated where any openings and cracks had occurred, due to temperature changes or for other reasons, were covered with a strip of glued canvas. The stem of the piece of furniture was later re-plastered all over with a layer of glue so that the wood could absorb it, closing its pores; then several layers of plaster and glue were given until a homogeneous surface was achieved, which was smoothed with very fine glass paper. This is the preparation technique for Venetian furniture, which has a very thick covering of plaster and glue compared to a couple of layers of lacquered furniture from Genoa, Piedmont, and other Italian regions. Once the plaster preparation was finished, a layer of primer or color was given with tempera, after which the decoration itself was done. Once this and the gilding were finished, several layers of sandracco varnish, i.e., a rubbery complement to the varnish, were passed, which with its characteristic straw color chromatically modified the lacquering. Depending on the layers of this varnish, it was possible to obtain a warm, transparent tone: for example, a particular yellow was obtained by passing sandracca over a white background, and the classic greenish was the result of one or more layers, depending on the desired effect, over a light blue background. Lacquered furniture was a privilege of the wealthy classes, and in Venice, the great painters of the time (Guardi, Tiepolo, Zuccarelli, and Zais ) received commissions to decorate apartments and consequently create cartoons for lacquering furniture. These pieces of furniture were highly valued for their beauty and were used as valuable pieces of furniture in aristocratic residences of the time. Today, Italian Venetian lacquered sideboards from the 1700s are considered true works of art and can be found in private collections, museums, and art galleries. Measurements length cm.189, depth cm.60, height cm.100.The sideboard is in good original condition and has not undergone major restoration, only retouching or minor repairs inside for 333 years.