Gilded Baroque Style Chest of Drawers with Wood Carvings – Italy/Spain, Mid-20th Century (3700)

Augstums 54 cm × Platums 68 cm × Virsma 54,5 × 61 cm

Gilded Baroque Revival Chest of Drawers with Carved Ornament — Italy / Spain, mid-20th century

This extravagantly theatrical chest is a magnificent continuation of the Baroque and Rococo tradition — the aesthetic vocabulary that ruled European palaces and churches in the 17th and 18th centuries and whose language of luxury never truly died. By the mid-20th century, Italian and Spanish decorative workshops were still producing gilded pieces of this kind on commission for film stars, opera singers, and anyone who required a fragment of Versailles in their bedroom. This piece belongs to that lineage.

The entire surface — from the volute feet to the profiled edge of the top — is covered in gold leaf (foglia d’oro) or high-quality gold enamel on a gesso ground. The two drawer fronts carry densely carved rocaille and floral arabesque ornament — shells, tulips, poppies and acanthus waves woven into an unbroken decorative flow. Corner pilasters feature vertical floral garlands in full relief. The legs are massive, curved cabriole forms with large volute ends. Side panels carry flowing rocaille compositions with a central medallion. Drawer interiors are painted in vivid orange — a theatrical and strikingly modern contrast to the gold exterior.

A moment in time. In Rome, 1958, on the set of Cinecittà, Federico Fellini paused at the door of the props warehouse. There stood a gilded chest exactly like this one — brought from some aristocratic villa in Trastevere. Fellini ordered it moved to the edge of the frame. Without explanation. The next morning, cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo found it at the centre of the shot. Fellini only shrugged. “L’oro racconta da solo” — gold tells its own story.

No maker’s mark is present. The gilded Baroque Revival aesthetic, dense gesso carving and orange-lacquered interior point to an Italian or Spanish decorative workshop of the mid-20th century. A fully gilded chest of this carving density with intact finish and working drawers is a striking collector’s and designer’s piece. The condition of the item is fully reflected in the photographs.

⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTE: This item is not an original of the period indicated, but rather a stylistic continuation — produced in this aesthetic tradition in the mid-20th century.

BESCHREIBUNG AUF