Cabinet

The form suggests a rectangular chest. The top, the front (that is, the folding table), the back and the sides are of ash inlays in a dark frame. The front is further decorated with birds of coloured feathers, sitting on flowery-leaved boughs. The corners of the cabinet bear etched iron mounts filled with white paint. Inside, are shelved compartments behind a small door and twelve small drawers. Their decoration shows the typical motifs of intarsia: deserted ruins and buildings. The folding table has a putto in the middle, resting its head on one elbow, and holding a bough with berries. The putto is surrounded by a wide border of pierced volutes, intertwined with flowery-leaved tendrils. Companion pieces: "Schreibtisch" from the collection of Archduchess Ann Catherine, made in Innsbruck(?) about 1590, now in the Innsbruck Servitenkloster "Schreibtisch", made in Tyrol between 1580-90, now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (for both cf. Mailer 1956 No.28,68, Plates 114-116 and 174). There was no stand for cither of the pieces mentioned above or for the one in the collection of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts. The decoration has an air of death and decay, although the rich flora and the putto would suggest the idea of revival. It is assumed that the architecture of the ruins was copied from the woodcuts of Leonard Thiry and J.A. Duccrceau (1550). Later these cuts were further popularized by the drawings and the woodcuts of Lorenz Stöer, who worked mainly in Nuremberg and Augsburg. Ilis collected woodcuts, published in 1567 (“Geometria et Perspectiva etlicher zerbrochener Gebew") show clear Mannerism with abstract and symbolic meaning. Plenty of the motifs on cabinets and "Schreibtischen” can be traced back to this style. On the basis of the pierced volute, which is one of the most important motifs on the piece described above, we think that the cabinet was made in Tyrol, more precisely in Innsbruck, since other pieces from the same workshops have similar decoration.