Chest; Italy, late 19th century.

Chest; Italy, late 19th century.
Wood with bone inlay.
Measurements: 20 x 29 x 18 cm.
This Italian chest from the end of the 19th century is a piece of remarkable decorative character that reflects the historicist interest of the period, when Renaissance and medieval models were recovered and reinterpreted with a refined ornamental approach.made of wood, it presents a prismatic structure of octagonal profile, seated on small supports and topped by a molded lid of sober lines. The surface is enriched with delicate bone inlays that form geometric and floral motifs distributed with regular rhythm on all the fronts.
On the main face there is a circular medallion with the profile of a male figure wearing a helmet or plume of classical inspiration, evoking Italian Renaissance portraits. This type of representation, together with the stylized vegetal motifs and lateral rosettes, refers to the taste for Antiquity and the decorative repertoire of the Quattrocento, reinterpreted in a nineteenth-century key.