Louis XIII Cabinet

Made for a grand room in an aristocratic residence, this imposing cabinet of exotic ebony is covered with ripple moldings, incised foliage and mythological scenes. The cabinet's upper central panels depict Cephalus, shown on the left panel, receiving a magical spear and hunting dog from his wife Procris who is shown on the right panel mortally wounded by the same spear. Scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses decorate the lower panels: Perseus riding Pegasus rescues the princess Andromeda on the left, and the goddess Diana bathes as prince Acteon watches on the right. The cabinet was originally a chest on a stand. The stand has been lost, and the doors that now form the lower cabinet originally covered the small drawers now visible above.