IRISH GEORGE I PERIOD CARVED GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLE, CIRCA 1710

the grey marble top, with inverted serpentine sides and front, above a boldly carved frieze and apron, centred by a pierced scallop shell, raised on scallop shell headed, layered cabriole legs, terminating on trefid feet

Dimensions: 81 cm. high; 76 cm. wide; 56 cm. deep

The Birth of Venus was painted by Sandro Botticelli between 1482 and 1485 and is one of the most famous and loved paintings in the world. In this milestone fifteenth-century Italian painting, the Roman goddess Venus is portrayed naked whilst standing contrapposto on a scallop shell. Botticelli’s work was inspired by the Latin narrative poem Metamorphoses by Ovid.

Venus who embodies love, sex, beauty, enticement, seduction, and femininity was a theme much favoured in Irish furniture where she is represented by her symbol the scallop shell. The classically educated eighteenth-century Irish elite was visually literate. They understood the artistic devises and representations used in architecture and the applied arts throughout the Neo-classic movement.

A delightful example of the significance of Venus is to be seen in this Irish gilt console table. The dramatic curve and sweep of the ‘grisaille’ marble top sets the stage for the bravura carved frieze and apron beneath. In the centre, a pierced stylised convex scallop shell emerges from the C-scroll acanthus waves below. The stencilled ground contrasts the crisp carving in low relief and is a typical device employed by Irish furniture makers of the period. All is raised on scallop headed cabriole legs where the upper convex curves descend and taper to concave curves and terminate on trifid or tripartite feet common on Irish furniture.