645 - A writing cabinet painted with scenes from the New Testament

A writing cabinet painted with scenes from the New Testament Ebony and various fruit-wood veneers (including plum and cherry) on softwood, ebonised carved wood, polychrome cold enamel painting on gilded copper panels, gilded brass, wrought-iron locks, ivory knobs. A two-door cabinet with a base drawer and a stepped gable, featuring a central compartment and two side drawers. Inside, ten drawers surround a larger central compartment. All interior panels painted with scenes from the life of Jesus on a gold background; the interior doors depict the Visitation and the Adoration. The interior walls of the compartments feature illusionistic marquetry. The rear decorated with two marquetry stars. Height 54.3, width 42.4, depth 24 cm. Attributed to Augsburg, around 1650. This kind of portable cabinet with drawers and a drop-front or two front doors was never purely intended as a functional piece of furniture. Whether fitted with silver appliqués, like the legendary, now-lost Pomeranian Kunstschrank of the Augsburg art dealer Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647), or fantastically inlaid with variously coloured woods, like the Wrangel cabinet in the LWL Museum of Art and Culture in Münster, or incorporating panels made of hardstone from the Florentine Opificio delle Pietre Dure - the visible fronts always invited decoration. In this cabinet, the technique and materials used for the panels are particularly unusual and noteworthy: The life of Christ is depicted in twelve scenes in miniature 'Kaltmalerei' (cold enamel painting) on small gilded copper plaques. The combination of ebony, gilding and ivory lends the piece an especially elegant and precious appearance, despite its diminutive size. Marketing authorisation DE-K-260728-253 for the EU internal market has been granted. Provenance Private collection. Exhibitions Die Schildkröte auf dem Schrank. Möbelgeschichte(n) aus fünf Jahrhunderten, Stadt- und Bergbaumuseum Freiberg 2005. Literature Cf. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, vol. 2, Spätbarock und Rokoko, Munich 1970, p. 217, fig. 362, the piece of furniture in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Cf. Kowalski, Die Augsburger Prunkkabinette mit Uhr von Heinrich Eichler d.Ä. (1637–1719) und seiner Werkstatt, Berlin 2011, fig. 4, the piece of furniture in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, inv. no. 19770.404. This publication also includes several examples of pieces with similarly veneered backs.