CUBPBOARD WITH WRITTING DESK (BARGUEÑO). WOOD AND WROUGHT IRON FITTINGS. ASTURIAS, SPAIN, 17TH CENTURY.

Bargueño with three bodies. Walnut wood and wrought iron. Asturias, Spain, 17th century. The lower part is a two-door cupboard with carved decoration, the central part is a desk with a hinged lid and a two-door cupboard above. On the outside, below, rhomboidal geometric motifs alternate on the sides and tongues in the center, rectangular elements above and below, and plant elements; The doors show moldings around rectangles resembling paintings and frames; The upper part, in addition to those carved details mentioned, has its doors and two openwork sides with balusters. The set is completed by a split pediment with decoration of drops like those used under triglyphs in classical art. The lower doors are secured with catches and have teardrop-shaped handles. The desk has a handle and key closure with the horseshoe shield highlighted and decorated with an openwork metal plate with S-shaped braces flanking a central shield, topped by a simplified floral detail; Inside, the drawers are divided into an upper and a lower band with four each and a central area of two drawers on the sides of an open central chapel with a semicircular arch, and the fronts, in all, decorated with marquetry of simple geometric lines. The cupboard doors lock. The carving decoration already appears on the fronts of bargueños and in the lockers of the 16th century and the inclusion of details used in architectural entablatures of that style belongs to Renaissance influence. However, the more vertical than horizontal proportions of the furniture are seen in those known as “Carlos V”, which appear towards the second third. The Spanish taste for carved panels and moldings can be clearly seen in this example, and the marquetry inside the desk resembles that of others made in Asturias. Logically, balusters and movement details show belonging to the Baroque. Also known as “bargueño closet”, this type of furniture did not belong to strictly domestic furniture, but was used in public places or rooms of important residences where they could be seen. Due to this value, examples like the present one were not very common, but some very similar ones have been preserved in important private collections. Compare it with a very similar example preserved in the Provincial Ethnographic Museum of León in Mansilla de las Mulas, but it can also be related to others such as the cupboard of the Lope de Vega House Museum in Madrid (inventory CE00234) from towards the end of the 17th century, or the cupboard from the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid (CE02504).

· Size: 105x46x215 cms.