Lot 06

Hugues Sambin (1520 - 1601) (group / school) IMPRESSIVE MANNERIST DRESSER

Thanks to the diversity of his interests and the breadth of his talents as a cabinetmaker, architect, decorator, hydraulic engineer, and engraver, Hugues Sambin remains a defining figure of French Renaissance and Mannerist art. He had a lasting influence on the ornamental repertoire of the second half of the 16th century. While working at the Château de Fontainebleau in the 1540s, he became acquainted with the canon of the Italian Renaissance (Sebastiano Serlio), where he mastered the concept of disegno. This theoretical foundation enabled Sambin to explore, through sketches, the possibilities of artistic interpretation in architecture and furniture. He concentrated his work in the regions of Burgundy, Franche-Comté, and Dijon. During his stay in Lyon in 1572, he published a significant collection of 36 engravings titled “Œuvre de la diversité des termes dont on use en architecture,” which, due to its fanciful imagination, remains a remarkable work intended for classical architecture to this day. He worked on many influential commissions for the aristocracy, such as for the Governor of Luxembourg and King Charles IX. His unmistakably sophisticated and richly ornamental compositions had an influence even beyond the borders of the French kingdom. Typical elements in Sambin’s work include palmettes, stylized floral motifs, ovoid moldings, mascarons, and above all, caryatids with stylized figuration. Worth mentioning is the exhibition dedicated to Sambin at the Musée National de la Renaissance at the Château d’Écouen, which took place between 2001 and 2002 and sparked interest in this figure among experts.

This impressive and truly exceptional piece of furniture, known as a dressoir, dates from the Haute Époque period in France, likely from the area around the city of Dijon. During the Second French Renaissance (c. 1540–1600), two major schools with very different approaches emerged in furniture making: the Lyon School and the Dijon (Burgundian) School. While the more restrained Lyon School preferred low relief and architectural austerity, the Dijon School was characterized by rich carving with varied motifs. This example of the Burgundian School features carving on the upper half depicting a total of five allegorical female figures, typically dressed in cloaks as is characteristic of Sambin’s work. The figures serving as caryatids display a variety of attributes referencing the symbolism of cultural motifs (a mirror, a lute) and animal motifs (a turtle, a monkey, a deer, an eagle, and a dog). The lower half consists of three half-human, half-animal creatures with the grotesque expressive style typical of mascarons. A recurring mythological motif on the furniture depicts the Hippocampus, a mythical creature in the form of a seahorse, with the front half of its body that of a winged horse and the rear half that of a fish. In addition, the furniture is adorned with motifs of abundance and numerous figural reliefs of high carving, employing a stylization typical of the aesthetics of Huguese Sambin.

The cabinet on offer was likely restored in the 1820s, at a time when the pre-revolutionary aesthetics of the Ancien Régime were experiencing a revival. The wood in the base of the upper half of the cabinet, including the interiors of the two drawers, was replaced. The hardware is—judging by traces of its earlier placement—likely also a later addition. The legs of the sideboard have not survived and were replaced with lion’s paws. A later modification can be seen in the conversion of the upper section into storage space with drop-down doors. Lit.: Hugues Sambin: Un Créateur au XVIe siècle (vers 1520–1601). Paris, 2001.