Louis XVI, Venice ca. 1770/80.

Wood, finely carved with foliage and decorative frieze, and painted all around with flower garlands, leaves, cartouches and decorative frieze, on a green ground. Front with 2 drawers below a narrow drawer on top. Top painted "en faux marbre Serpentine". Bronze mounts. Paint work with some losses and restorations.

153x63x94 cm.

Provenance:
- from a private collection, Italy.

An almost identical commode, part of the Collections of the Museo Civico in Padova, is depicted in: E. Baccheschi / S. Levy, Mobili laccati del settecento veneziano, Milan 1962; p. 99 (with the note, "le linee... rivelano l'influsso sensibile del gusto neoclassico"). A further, very similar commode - probably made by the same cabinet maker - was sold by Sotheby's London on 2 December 1997 (Lot No. 122). A third commode is depicted in: G. Morazzoni, Il mobile veneziano del 700, Milan 1958; Fig. CDXXXVII.

Ref.: M. Griffo, Il mobile del seicento - Italia, Novara 1985; pp. 33-43 (general information about the history of Venetian furniture in the 17th/18th century).