Chest; Spain, Aragon, 16th century.

Chest; Spain, Aragon, XVI century.
Carved, gilded and polychrome wood.
With base of later period.
Measurements: 21,5 x 46 x 25 cm.
This type of pieces, destined both for the custody of valuable objects and for the conservation of documents or precious textiles, occupied a prominent place in the domestic and devotional sphere of Hispanic material culture. In the Crown of Aragon, where the late medieval craft traditions survived for a long time, chests continued to play an essential role in the domestic trousseau, while progressively adopting the decorative languages of the Renaissance, reinterpreted through local workshops deeply rooted in the Gothic and Mudejar traditions.
The piece presents a prismatic structure of robust lines and compact proportions, conceived to guarantee its functionality and durability. Its surface is profusely decorated with carved reliefs that organize the ornamentation in well-defined fields, later enriched with a polychrome that combines bluish, reddish and golden tones. This treatment reveals the importance given to the chromatic effect in the furnishings of the period, where polychromy contributed to giving the object a visual presence comparable to that of the greater arts, integrating it into the general aesthetics of noble interiors.
From a stylistic point of view, the chest reflects the moment of transition that the decorative arts experienced in Aragon during the 16th century, when Italian Renaissance models began to spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula through engravings, artistic exchanges and the activity of itinerant artisans. In this context, Aragonese workshops developed a hybrid language that combined the Gothic heritage with the new classicist sensibility, giving rise to works of remarkable personality.