“In the middle of the journey of my life…” Dante Allighieri starts his Divine comedy with these words before descending to hell with Virgil as a guide , journeying through a wonderland of christian guilt and imagery before ascending to heaven with the innocent Beatrice.
The characters who frequent those lines are seen in bronze at the corners of a Satinwood and mahogany coffee table that is a hybrid of two arts.
This piece won the Best in show for traditional furniture at the Providence fine furnishings show in 2010 and is with a Florida collector.
The Leopard of fraud circles the sinner Bertrand de Born. Doomed to carry his head in the circles of hell.
Pisa and Florence surround the prisoners Ugolino and Ruggiero.
The wolf of immoderate living threatens the glutton Ciacco the hog.( Ciacco by jeremy Leichman who did much of the woodwork on this ).
The contrasting tones of the Mahogany base the Satinwood surface and the darkly patinated bronze expertly cast at the Polich foundry blend to highlight each other.