A pair of Venetian console tables

These tables are dramatic, sculptural objects, combining the well-known Venetian skill in baroque carving with exceptional inlaid tops. The tables were acquired jointly by the National Museum of Scotland and the V&A, with each museum adding one of the pair to its collections. Each of the tables bears a different central design. The table acquired by NMS depicts an architectural perspective of a Classical arcade. The second table, which will now reside at the V&A, shows a galley leaving a port city, with arcaded buildings populated with men bearing spears and firing guns. The elaborate marquetry decoration adorning the top of each table includes finely detailed acanthus, birds and animals as well as scenes of warfare and of hunting. The subject matter of both top and base suggests that the tables were made to celebrate the Venetian conquest from the Ottoman Empire of the Morea, or Greek Peloponnese, between 1685 and 1687 and were possibly as part of a series of six. This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.