Console (Roman workshop)

In the noble dwellings of Rome between the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, console tables were among the most sought after items of furniture
because they provided a convenient surface without cluttering the large rooms,
which had to remain free to leave as much space as possible for entertaining.
This console table, typical of those made in Rome during this period, has a
marble top set on decorated legs. The
legs have curvy, broken lines with a precious decoration made by elaborately
interweaving volutes, scrolls and masks, and a woman's head in the middle of
the crosspieces. The
decoration adheres to the prevailing taste of woodcarvers working in Rome in
this period, a taste influenced by Bernini's sculpture and by artists such as
Giovanni Paolo Schott and Filippo Passarini.