Panel with medallions, France, 1st half of the 16th century
Carved walnut
Bequest of Émile Peyre, 1905
Inv. PE 1086-1088
© Les Arts Décoratifs
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Furniture evolved in the first half of the sixteenth century; its forms remained identical to those of the fifteenth century, but the Italian decorative repertoire and themes began to be assimilated with greater ease. Columns, scallop shells and medallion busts were decorated with highly inventive “grotesques” inspired by antiquity.