356 MORE POT-POURRI 



was the most remarkable piece of furniture from some 

 points of view I think I ever saw in my life, though 

 perhaps many would call it unartistic. Historically, 

 it is interesting from the religious attitude it represents. 

 It was a large cabinet on a raised stand. It belonged to 

 Cardinal Leopoldo dei Medici, and was placed in his 

 dressing-room. One side of it, when the doors were 

 opened, acted as an altar, with a delicately-carved crucifix 

 in a recess, before which the Cardinal could say Mass. 

 On the other side the doors opened on to an elaborate 

 toilet table of a most luxurious kind, with looking-glasses 

 and every other appliance. The whole piece of furni- 

 ture contained a number of small drawers, many of 

 them secret. The black wood of which it was made 

 was highly polished and a beautiful specimen of cabinet 

 work. The whole was richly inlaid, outside and in, 

 with various marbles, stones, and alabasters of different 

 colours and sizes. The veinings and colourings of these 

 were used and adapted as the landscape backgrounds 

 of wonderfully delicate little oil paintings, representing 

 almost the whole of the Bible stories, both Old and New 

 Testament. It requires hours to see this cabinet pro- 

 perly, and among all the treasures in this wonder palace 

 it is, perhaps, the object that gives one the greatest idea 

 of the wealth and luxury of that God-and-Mammon 

 period that can possibly be seen. It is supposed to have 

 been made in Germany and painted by Breughel. Some 

 paintings on wood, using the graining of the wood as 

 suggestive of the landscapes, are the only attempts I have 

 seen in modern art to carry out this idea of Breughel's 

 paintings on stones. The natural markings of the wood 

 give great variety to the composition of the landscape. 

 This is very much increased by the varied materials used 

 for the decoration of this marvellous cabinet. 



Of course I re-read ' Bomola ' ; everyone does and 



