Neoclassical Inlaid Chest Of Drawers Genoa Last Quarter XVIII Century

Inlaid chest of drawers with three drawers, late 18th century Genoa. The piece of furniture has three drawers on the front, a narrower one under the top separated from the others by a raised frame and the other two with a hidden chain so as to create continuity of design; the uprights are semi-cylindrical and the piece of furniture rests on four truncated pyramidal feet with turned collar. The interiors are made of solid walnut, veneered mainly in bois de violette, divided into four parts on the bottom and at the top in the borders. The surface is richly inlaid with anthropomorphic figures with tails that become leafy spirals, both in the drawer under the band and on the top and front where medallion reserves contain inlaid epic scenes, on the sides a central female figure like a two-tailed mermaid develops from the sides two leafy spirals facing each other. The various leavening frames of the piece of furniture have cypress frames worked with a burin to imitate the inlay. Among the essences used are also boxwood, maple, olive and amaranth. The shape with cylindrical uprights and the use of bois de violette are typical of Genoese cabinetmaking. An interesting detail is added, in the Royal Palace of Genoa there is a console made by Giuseppe Maggiolini from which the idea of the inlays seems to have derived. It should also be underlined that the piece of furniture presents clear assonances with a production of chests of drawers that can be included today in the corpus known as Dardanone. Ferdinando Dardanone, probably both a cabinetmaker and a merchant based in Milan, signs some chests of drawers today known to the studies whose comparison with other furniture is helping to resolve the correct attributions. In this regard we report in the bibliography some articles.