Altarpiece - Wood - 1910-1920 - Niche chapel

An antique table-top chapel or dessert-desk shrine, of an open arched structure, made of ebonized wood and richly decorated in the Chinese-inspired style fashionable in France and Spain during the Second Empire (Napoleon III). It consists of two curved columns supporting an upper lintel, on a molded base with decorative projections at the ends, leaving a central hollow intended to hold a standing religious statue.

The decoration combines vegetal and floral motifs painted in gold — acanthus leaves, scrollwork, stylized flowers — with delicate mother-of-pearl inlays, evoking the effect of oriental lacquer. At the base of the columns are cartouches with pseudo-oriental decoration, reinforcing the Chinese-inspired character of the piece. The lower side panels display rich gilded floral ornamentation with multiple mother-of-pearl inlays.

Originally conceived to house a devotional image (Child Jesus, Virgin, or saint) in the home, as a small domestic altar.