Vargueño: Spanish, XVIth century Museum of the Hispanic
Society, New York
Trolling
for good news from anywhere (it isn’t easy to find these days), I uncovered this description of the marvelous Spanish
sixteenth century inlaid cabinet shown above:
“VARGUEÑO cabinets exemplified the highest attainments of the
Spanish cabinet makers. In skilful
construction and in mastery of the art of decoration, they are distinctly
characteristic of Spanish furniture, which, in this art, reached the highest
point of excellence.
These
pieces were habitually made of walnut, a wood which lent itself to ornate
turning and carving. At times, inlay, as
well as color, was added to heighten the effect.
The vargueño consists of a chest, which rests upon a stand made
expressly made for this cabinet, but which was treated in a decorative manner
quite different from the cabinet it supported.
In this
special example, the stand is made up of three legs at each end, which rise
from a runner foot and support above a heavy cross rail upon which the cabinet
rests. From these block rail braces, two
massive supports pull out to hold the drop front when the latter is
lowered. These sides are ornamented on
their exposed ends with the cockle shell motif, carved in high relief. An arcaded stretcher, richly turned, connects
the center leg supports.
A different Vargueño, also Spanish XVIth century
The
exterior of the chest itself is of the simplest nature, depending for
decorative effect upon the handsome and intricate designs of the applied
ironwork. In Spain metal trimmings were
developed to an extraordinary degree and far excelled this craft in other parts
of Europe.
Living, breathing cockles
From Verna Cook Salomonsky, Masterpieces of Furniture in
Photographs and Measured Drawings, Grand Rapids, Periodical Publishing Company,
1931.
