Important Mallorcan chest of drawers in the style of Charles IV, 18th century.
Walnut wood and marquetry of rosewood, lemongrass and fruit wood.
With three keys.
Missing veneer.
Measurements: 103 x 128 x 59,5 cm.
Majorcan chest of drawers from the Charles IV period, in a fully neoclassical style, entirely made up of clean and well-proportioned lines, without volumes in relief that interrupt its smooth surface. Its front has four longitudinal drawers with a flat finish and decorated with classical marquetry: the upper one with stylised vegetal fretwork and the lower one with vertical strings, combining walnut with fruit wood. This front structure is conceived as a façade, with each of its parts perfectly differentiated and housed between chamfered flanks. The side sections continue the same decoration, with circular pavilions containing pastoral scenes worked in marquetry on the inside, a typical feature of 18th-century furniture that denotes the technical skill of the cabinetmakers who worked in Mallorca. The top is presided over by an almond-shaped pavilion, larger than those of the side sections, highly decorative and decorated with floral bouquets.
Charles IV's furniture is Spanish neoclassical, although this language began to develop in the time of his predecessor, Charles III. However, neoclassicism in our country will always be closely linked to the figure of Charles IV, from his youth as Prince of Asturias. Specifically, the Carlos IV chest of drawers will have certain main characteristics that will be repeated in almost all the examples: simple drawers decorated with marquetry, wooden top with motifs worked in the same technique, matching the rest of the piece of furniture; absence of metal applications in relief, metopesque friezes, importance of geometry at a structural and ornamental level and, finally, the combination of geometric compositions with the search for contrast by combining light and dark woods.