Armoire Attributed to Hugues Sambin

More than two metres tall, this single-bodied cupboard is carved so deeply that its figures nearly step off the doors. On the uprights, two terms, human busts rising from tapering pedestals wreathed with leafy stems and fruit, carry baskets of fruit on their heads. A third term with a woman's bust covers the joint between the two doors. On the doors themselves, almost fully in the round, Hercules raises his club and Venus stands on a sphere with a small Cupid at her side, each beneath little compartments of shells and garlands and framed by slender columns. Above, among masks and swags, two small painted panels show the Creation of Man and Cain killing Abel. The side panels carry flat-carved rosettes. Traces of paint and gilding remind you that Renaissance furniture was often coloured.