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Title:Table
Date:16th century, second quarter
Culture:Italian, Umbria (Tuscany)
Medium:Walnut, poplar, carved and turned.
Dimensions:H. 82.5 cm, W. 94 cm, D. 71 cm
Classification:Woodwork-Furniture
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Object Number:1975.1.1966
The deep apron frieze contains two drawers and is decorated with a frieze of bold rosette-like forms and floral ornaments. The plain top consists of one board with an added molded edge above stylized dentiling through delicate vertical lines and a protruding base molding. Two elegant vase-shaped elements on canted bases ending in carved lion’s claws comprise the lateral supports. The structure is held in place by a shaped stretcher passing through the supports at its ends and is secured on the exterior with pins. Applied rosettes decorate the sides. It is rare that a piece from the sixteenth century, especially a table of an easily movable size that was exposed to traveling and frequent handling, survives nearly intact. The actual use of this object, which does not have the delicate detailing of a pure display item, is attested by relatively small repairs and replacements, such as the new dovetails and pieces on the claw feet. The apron is reinforced with later moldings and the two turned drawer handles may date from the eighteenth century. A visible split in the top, recognizable in the photograph in the Davanzati sale catalogue of 1916, has been closed.(1) Similar tables exist, but in a lesser state of preservation.(2)
Catalogue entry from: Wolfram Koeppe. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 258-59.
NOTES: 1. Sale, Elia Volpi collection, Palazzo Davanzati, Florence, American Art Association, New York, 21 – 28 November 1916, lot 534. 2. For a close comparison from about 1540, see Schottmüller, Frida. Furniture and Interior Decoration of the Italian Renaissance. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1928, p. 135, fig. 304. See also the sixteenth-century table with a comparable design illustrated in Mobilio antico. Il mobilio antico fiorentino. Preface by Antonio Mattioni. Florence, 1921, pl. 34.
[Elia Volpi, Palazzo Davanzati, Florence]; Volpi sale, American Art Association, New York, 21-28 November 1916, lot 534, ill. (to [Duveen Brothers, New York]). Acquired by Philip Lehman through Duveen from the Volpi sale.
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The Robert Lehman Collection is one of the most distinguished privately assembled art collections in the United States. Robert Lehman's bequest to The Met is a remarkable example of twentieth-century American collecting.