PAIR OF SOLOMONIC COLUMNS. PINE WOOD. 17TH CENTURY.

Pair of Solomonic columns. Carved pine wood. XVII century. Pair of carved pine wood columns that have a helical twisted shaft (solomonic) and decorated with reliefs of birds, scrolls, leaves, fruits and birds intermingled and are topped by two capitals of the Corinthian order (with two levels of leaves under the volutes more similar to those of oak than to those of acanthus). Although it was an element used in architecture previously, the Solomonic column is a more well-known and common piece in the Baroque, especially since its use by Bernini in the baldachin of Saint Peter's in the Vatican (completed in 1633). It soon arrived in Spain, being used in Andalusia for the first time around 1639 and in Madrid in 1636, spreading throughout the peninsula and the colonial territories since then. Normally, they were decorated with branches and bunches of grapes in slight relief. Although the presence of birds in this type of elements is not the most common, they can be seen in pieces such as the Solomonic column preserved in the collection of the Vivanco Foundation (Briones, La Rioja, Spain).

· Size: 37x37x215 cms.