Bedside table

At the end of the eighteenth
century, Neoclassicism dominated throughout Europe. Furniture changed to meet
the new requirements of families, who were commissioning smaller furniture,
better suited to use in all the rooms of the palazzi, even those once used only for entertaining. New types of
furniture were created, such as desks, tables and bedside tables. When the
Viennese court moved to Milan, the city became an important artistic centre,
where craftsmen could open thriving workshops that turned out pieces of
exceptional quality. Notable among them was Giuseppe Maggiolini, creator of
some of the finest furniture of his age. Here we
have the example of a bedside table characterised by long slender legs. On the
front it has an inlay with a decorative motif depicting two scrolls of acanthus
leaves emerging from a goblet. Several variations of this decorative motif can
be seen in the Fondo
Maggioliniano, Castello Sforzesco, Milan, which conserves
the model drawings of the workshop.