Armoire

This piece of furniture from Cusco is an example of the traditional two-piece armoire, with drawers in the middle and crowned with an openwork ornamental crest. Among its decorative motifs is a vase shaped like an amphora, one of the most favored devices of baroque decoration. As the historian Francisco Stastny has noted, its creative use in Peru dates back to 1650, when the sculptor Pedro de Noguera used it in the design of the bronze fountain in Lima’s main square. While that work displays a certain ornamental emphasis tempered by what is still a proto-baroque language, in this armoire the vase motif acquires an uncommon richness. The vegetation depicted assumes its own rhythm, which extends to the rest of the decoration. This variegation is counterbalanced by the almost flat carving, an identifying characteristic of furniture from the Peruvian Andes.