Armoire
- unknown artist
Unknown artist, Armoire, about 1750. Painted wood; 71½ × 36¼ in. Anonymous Gift, 1992.44A-B.
This painted cabinet from Paraguay is made of a tropical cedar hardwood known as lapacho and, most likely, was made in the eighteenth-century Franciscan missions of the Alta Parana area of central Paraguay. The interior doors are painted with vases full of flowers. The back of the interior has vertical bands and swags, typical of textile patterns from the 1700s, painted in pinks and greens on a blue ground. The exterior is painted with large red and green volutes on a pale green ground. In addition to painted flowers, the scalloped crest has a carved heart pierced by seven swords, symbolizing the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary.
-- Donna Pierce, 2015