Stipo a Bamboci; Italy, Liguria, XVII century.

Bamboci type; Italy, Liguria, XVII century.
Walnut and walnut root wood.
Presents back and handles of later period.
Measurements: 144 x 103 x 40 cm.
This stipo a bamboci is a splendid testimony of Ligurian furniture of the sixteenth century, where the local craftsmanship tradition dialogues with a decorative imaginary of strong sculptural imprint. Made of solid walnut and richly veneered in walnut root.
The structure is organized in two bodies: an architectural and sober lower body, with semicircular arched doors, and a more dynamic and narrative upper body. Here, small drawers and a central compartment are articulated by a succession of babocci, anthropomorphic figures carved in high relief, which act as supports and transitional elements. These figures, almost theatrical in character, introduce a play between the functional and the symbolic, evoking the baroque taste for the grotesque, the expressive and the animated.
The formal language is reminiscent of 17th century Liguria, a region open to Genoese, Flemish and Spanish influences, where furniture acquired an almost sculptural dimension.