Cabinet

Designed by Jean Brandely French
 Woodwork by Charles-Guillaume Diehl French
 Mounts and large central plaque by Emmanuel Frémiet French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 556

When the prototype for this compelling cabinet, now in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in 1867, it received mixed criticism. The cabinetmaker must have been pleased with the controversial piece because he commissioned this second, nearly identical one for himself. The central plaque by the sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet commemorates the military triumph of Merovech (d. 458), leader of the Salian Franks, over Attila and his marauding Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Field in 451. In a vivid and unsettling representation, Merovech stands before his troops at the front of the chariot as it passes over the dead body of an opponent.

Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris

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Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris
Cabinet, Designed by Jean Brandely (French, active 1855–67), Oak veneered with cedar, walnut, ebony and ivory; silvered-bronze mounts, French, Paris

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