Console table (one of a pair)

François Rournier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Made by François Roumier, these two console tables can be dated to around 1740. Sculpteur ordinaire du roi in 1721, Roumier was famous for this type of furniture and published a number of books such as the Livre de plusieurs Desseins de Pieds de Tables en Consoles, which was published after his death in 1750. Working for most of the royal residences, Roumier’s masterwork is a magnificent carved table supplied in 1737 for the Cabinet doré in Louis XV’s private apartments in Versailles. The rich decoration of these two consoles is emblematic of the Régence (1715–1723) and the beginning of Louis XV’s reign. They illustrate the triumph of sculptors from the Bâtiments du Roi responsible for room paneling of which consoles and mirrors were part. Here the frieze is carved in the center with a heart-shaped cartouche pierced with a rose-window motif. Four dragons decorate the consoles, two flanking the cartouche and two others on the feet.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art