Bargueño, Luxurious Cabinet of Portugal

Let’s give credit to Moorish Spain for this cabinet that is recognizable among all. It was in Bargas, near Toledo, that the bargueño was born. It is always in this region of Spain that it develops. Marquetry is used on many pieces, testifying to the vitality of central Spain in this artistic field.

Up until the 17th century, ever more luxurious cabinets aroused the envy of the privileged. Furniture opens on a flap or doors revealing drawers. There are two types of lower part: the first is in the form of a chest raised by columns or “bridge stack” or in the form of a credenza with four drawers known as “conventual”. Generally, they are made of solid oak, chestnut or walnut.

As this type of cabinet is designed to be moved, it is usually placed on a wooden or wrought iron base called pie de puente . It is appreciated in symbiosis with the cabinet, and this base often merges with it in elegant flights of sculpture and inlays.

But the coveted or stunned base usually disappears over time, either deliberately removed or lost. Let’s enjoy these bargueños still perched on their original feet!

Superb and often ostentatious, the Spanish bargueño is nevertheless gradually losing its influence to cabinets where German or Italian lines reign. Soon, he was summoned by 18th century Spain to bow to the craze for Italian and Anglo-Dutch influencedarquimesa. Is Portugal following suit? Certainly not.

In fact, it is quite different. Following a traumatic Spanish domination stretching from the late 16th century to the middle of the 17th century, Portugal – which only became truly independent in 1662 – developed a real aversion to Hispanic culture, with which the country intended to sever all ties. Not an easy task !

Determined to assert its cultural distinctiveness, Portugal drew on English, French and Italian influences as well as Japanese, Indonesian and Brazilian thanks to the vast colonial network it had patiently woven.

Using materials and motifs with mastery, Portuguese syncretism develops its own recognizable and unique look.

Above all, the generous forms of the Portuguese cabinets are enlivened by the warm reflections of exotic woods worked with great finesse and enriched with delicate golden bronzes. The patterns are chiseled, the influences exotic, the result is unique.

Long before the 18th century baroque, turned wood dynamically elevates the elegant – though still timid – Portuguese flights of fancy.

This Portuguese character, born in the 17th century, was fully affirmed at the beginning of the 18th century when the minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Count of Oeiras and Marquis of Pombal (1699 – 1782), under the reign of Joseph I (1750 – 1777), undertook a series of reforms in the spirit of an “enlightened despotism”.

This determined man revived trade by creating chartered companies, created new industries (notably silk and cutlery), and reorganized the University of Coimbra.

These energetic undertakings, which began in the last quarter of the 17th century, also had a more delicate and political than economic and cultural purpose: it was necessary to alleviate the resentment of a part of the population that saw the innumerable richnesses coming from the colonies without ever feeling the benefits. Bad reallocation is rampant when, at the same time, ostentatious abundance is beginning to make people uncomfortable.

A royal decree soon limited the silver and gilding of furniture, while the baroque flights suddenly became more discreet.

The Portuguese furniture of the 17th century, such as this cabinet that we presentThe Portuguese furniture of the XVIIth century, then that of the XVIIIth century, responds to a fierce will to exist in the face of an invading and dominating Spain. In the second half of the 18th century, the imperative economic revival of the country naturally required a vitality of Portuguese creation, fanned by the baroque influences fashionable in Europe and enriched by the numerous colonial richnesses.

What do we see on our cabinet? Spiral movement of the turned wood and gilded bronzes evoking the delicate and interwoven patterns of the distant Indies. An exemplary illustration of a Portuguese creation from the early 17th century.

Without a doubt, the bargueño is reserved for the wealthier classes of Portuguese society. This type of furniture is admirably presented in many museums in the country, while cabinets very similar to ours are exhibited in the Palace of the Dukes of Bragança and in the Cadaval Palace.

Marielle Brie
Art Historian for Art Market and Cultural Media
Author of the blog Objets d’Art et d’Histoire