Table (3/4 right 8/95)

This elegantly proportioned table would have served as a small desk or occasional table for use in a library or sitting room. Giuseppe Maggiolini, one of Italy's most renowned cabinetmakers in the 1700s, produced this Neoclassical piece with its fine marquetry scenes. His superb craftsmanship is particularly evident on the top, which displays a trompe l'oeil architectural drawing of a palace façade, flanked on either side by a trophy of architectural tools hanging from a ribbon. An inscription at the bottom of the trompe l'oeil drawing dedicates this work to Laura Visconti. Genealogical records list only one woman of this name, the daughter of an Italian aristocrat who lived in the 1700s; this table may have been made as a gift for her.