Italian Carved Chest, Certosa di Pavia, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in colors, from Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance, lettered "(XVIe SIÈCLE ITALIEN), COFFRE EN BOIS SCULPTÉ, à la Chartreuse de Pavie." The image shows part of the long front of a carved chest, cut at the right edge, printed in golden brown and olive with cream highlights, beneath a cornice with a running frieze and above a plinth. At the left corner a bracket with lion heads holds an oval with a standing figure. Next comes an arched relief in which a crowned, enthroned figure presides over a crowd with a kneeling woman, then a central panel with an oval framing a bishop with his crozier, flanked by animal heads and supported by an eagle, and at the right a further arched scene of soldiers and a horseman.

The running heads read "LE MOYEN-AGE ET LA RENAISSANCE." and "AMEUBLEMENT CIVIL." Beneath the image are the credits "Henri Dufresne del.", "Chromolith. Lemercier à Paris." and "Kellerhoven, lith.", and below the caption "F. Séré direxit". The caption translates as: (Italian, sixteenth century.) Carved wooden chest, at the Certosa of Pavia. The Chartreuse de Pavie is the French name for the Carthusian monastery near Pavia in Lombardy.

Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, edited the text, and Ferdinand Séré directed the illustrations, which is what the line "F. Séré direxit" on the plates records. The work surveys the customs, trades, sciences, arts and literature of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and its plates reproduce furniture, metalwork, ceramics, manuscripts and other objects from public and private collections of the time. The plates are chromolithographs, printed in color from a series of stones rather than colored by hand. This plate comes from the fourth volume, issued in 1851.

The long horizontal format suits a landscape frame and works well above a chest, a sideboard or a desk.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.