68 - Two-body walnut and oak armoire aux Vertus cardinales opening with four doors and two drawers in the waistband; two drawers in the base. Richly decorated with large sheathed terms on the outer jambs and for the frames. The leaves of the upper section are adorned with broken triangular pediments supported by twin columns with smooth shafts, resting on leafy consoles; a curly cabbage emerges from the pediment.

Two-body walnut and oak armoire aux Vertus cardinales opening with four doors and two drawers in the waistband; two drawers in the base. Richly decorated with large sheathed terms on the outer jambs and for the frames. The leaves of the upper section are adorned with broken triangular pediments supported by twin columns with smooth shafts, resting on leafy consoles; a curly cabbage emerges from the pediment. In the lower section, the drawers are adorned with laurel leaves; the leaves are carved with masks and fruit garlands. The central panels of the leaves are painted in gold monochrome on a black background with the effigy of the Cardinal Virtues, identified by inscriptions. Strength (FORTITVDO) leans on a broken column; Justice (IVSTITIA) holds a balance; Prudence (PRVDENTIA) sports a mirror and a snake; Temperance (TEMPERENTIA) pours water into a wine cup. Burgundy, attributed to Hugues Sambin (Gray, c. 1520 - Dijon, 1601) and his workshop, and Évrard Bredin (c. 1550 - 1599), last quarter of the 16th century H: 204.5 cm - W: 153.5 cm - D: 57 cm (Restorations, minor accidents) Provenance: Franco Codognato Collection, Florence Italian private collection, Crema Biennial antiquities exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1981 This spectacular cabinet displays all the hallmarks of late 16th-century Burgundy-Lyon production. Its decoration of sheathed terms and caryatids bears a remarkable resemblance to the engravings published by Hugues Sambin in Lyon in 1572 in his work de la diversité des termes dont on usage en architecture. Could this be a piece of furniture carved by the great Dijon cabinetmaker of the late Renaissance? The comparative study that follows attempts to show how our piece of furniture fits in with a body of work that revolves around the figure of Hugues Sambin and his workshop. The archives are silent on many of the pieces in this Burgundian corpus from the last quarter of the 16th century; but certain works in museum collections have been studied in particular, confirming the hypothesis that Hugues Sambin worked in Dijon around 1580-1590. The J. Paul Getty Museum has organized an exhibition around a cabinet in their collection, which was requalified following a series of scientific studies on late-Renaissance furniture from Burgundy carried out between 2002 and 2005. This Renaissance cabinet, long thought to be a 19th-century pastiche, can now be counted among the cabinetmaker's works. Thanks to careful scientific analysis, the name of Hugues Sambin has been put forward and the date of 1580 inscribed on the cabinet has been confirmed. A DISTINCTIVE ASSEMBLY TECHNIQUE This "Armoire aux Vertus cardinales" features an assembly technique similar in every respect to those attributed by specialists to the workshop of Hugues Sambin. The two bodies, of equal width, give the cabinet an almost rectangular silhouette, punctuated horizontally by the projecting moldings of the cornice, belt and base, and vertically by the terms and caryatids. Another characteristic feature: the moldings are made of oak, while the front panels are in walnut. This alternation is found on the two cabinets in the Musée du Louvre (OA 6254 and OA 12873), as well as on the cabinet in the Getty Museum (inv. 71.DA.89). Similarly, the structure is assembled using mortise and tenon joints, while the panels are fixed using tongue-and-groove joints (fig. 1). Generally speaking, there is a clear contrast between the sculptural technique of the sides, in very slight relief, and the very high reliefs that adorn the façade. Gold highlights on the casement columns are also a frequent technical feature. They can be seen, for example, on the cabinet from the former Arconati-Visconti collection, now in the Louvre (OA 6254). GENERAL STYLE OF DECOR Specialists who have studied the production of furniture attributed to Hugues Sambin have often observed the variation of various motifs from a range of common models, adapted to each order. Our piece shares stylistic traits with a well-documented group of furniture produced in the 1580s, all of which have been linked to the production of the master and his workshop. In fact, there are references to several figures published in L'Œuvre de la diversité des termes (1572). Thus, the garlands of flowers and fr