Getty Museum
Console Table
Creator
Johann Paul Schor (called Giovanni Paolo Tedesco)Austrian Artist · 1615–1674
All works by this person →The great Roman artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini praised Johann Paul Schor as a great decorator and a man of unlimited ideas and invention, declaring that whether one wanted a design for a carriage, a chair, or some silver, Schor could produce it. The son of a painter, Schor traveled to Rome around 1640. From 1656 until his death in 1674, he was employed by the Vatican, becoming the best-known German-s
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1670
- Medium
- Gessoed and gilt poplar
- Culture
- Austrian
- Department
- Decorative Arts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Without any practical function, this table was conceived of as a sculpture and probably served as pure decoration in a Roman palace. It is composed of twisted laurel branches and berries that sprout from a rocky base. An eagle with outstretched wings and holding another laurel branch in its beak has landed in the center. Large, curling seashells form the top. Scholars cannot tell whether these elements might have had special emblematic meanings or whether they were chosen simply for their decorative qualities. A 1713 guidebook of Rome mentions a room in the Palazzo Altieri that was decorated as "an artificial cave, composed of mountains and rocks. Inside is a bed made of tree-trunks, a table, a fountain..." The Getty Museum's table would not have been out of place in such a grotto.
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