Side Table (Full front)

This table combines curving, inventively intertwined elements--qualities typical of the Rococo style--with motifs drawn from classical antiquity, as used in the Neoclassical style in the second half of the 1700s. Sitting on six feet, this table is composed of four outer legs and two sets of intertwined inner legs, all connected by curving stretchers and draped with long garlands. Also decorating the basic form are such antique-inspired ornaments as rams' heads, acanthus leaves, and the Greek key pattern. The table's unknown maker was influenced by the furniture designs of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, one of the leading forces behind the development of Neoclassicism in Europe.

Standing against a wall in an eighteenth-century Italian palace, this table most likely displayed decorative objects or sculpture.