Console table with candlestick
Medium
furniture
Classification
furniture
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Museum purchase through gift of various donors and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund
Accession Number
1938-88-2020
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
This elegant console table with candlestick, crafted around 1795 by Italian artist and designer Giuseppe Barberi (6–1809), exemplifies the refined furniture-making traditions of late 18th-century Italy. Barberi, active in Rome during a period of neoclassical revival, specialized in architectural ornaments and decorative objects that blended functionality with sophisticated ornamentation. Console tables like this one—typically wall-mounted with a shallow shelf—served both practical and aesthetic purposes in grand interiors, often supporting candles or vases to illuminate and adorn palaces or sa...