Tea Table
Luxurious materials might catch the eye first, but a closer look reveals the imaginary creatures that adorn the surface of this table. Featuring elaborate arches, a favorite motif that appeared throughout Bugatti's furniture, this fantastical imagery is a window into the designer's expressive imagination.
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Dimensions
- overall: height 0.715 m, width 0.671 m, depth 0.413 m
- Origin
- France, Paris
- Department
- Decorative Art and Design
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Artistic Disciplines
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Design Both · 99%
The Cleveland Museum of Art classifies the work within Decorative Art and Design, and the image presents a deliberately designed furnishing with an elaborate ornamental program.
Subject Matter
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Hybrids and Imaginary Creatures Both · 99%
The museum description explicitly refers to imaginary creatures adorning the table, while the image shows fantastical horned and animal-like forms integrated into the upper rail, ornament, and feet.
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Animals Visual · 89%
The upper rail contains several clearly recognizable horned, goat- or ibex-like animal forms, and the feet include additional sculpted animal-like heads.
Visual Qualities
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Highly Ornamented Both · 99%
The museum highlights luxurious materials and elaborate arches, and the image shows dense ornament across the wood, metal mounts, openwork, inlay, upper rail, and feet.
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Symmetrical Visual · 97%
The table is organized around a strong bilateral axis, with paired arches, legs, feet, openwork panels, and mirrored ornamental arrangements.
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Curvilinear Forms Visual · 97%
Sweeping arches, looping openwork, curved legs, horn forms, and rounded supports dominate the table’s silhouette and ornament.
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Patterns Visual · 94%
Repeated geometric and linear inlay motifs appear across the apron, arches, legs, and lower supports.
Geographic Regions
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French Art Metadata · 91%
The museum records the place of origin as Paris, France.
Materials
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Bronze Both · 99%
The catalog identifies cast and gilded bronze mounts, which are also visibly present as extensive gold-toned sculptural and structural ornament.
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Wood Both · 99%
The catalog identifies inlaid wood, possibly mahogany, and the image shows a warm brown wooden structural framework throughout the table.
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Inlay Both · 98%
The catalog describes inlaid wood and inlays of ivory or bone, while the image visibly shows repeated pale geometric inlay set into the darker wood.
Furniture and Lighting
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Table Both · 100%
The title identifies the object as a tea table, and the image clearly shows a freestanding table with a top, supports, legs, and a lower shelf.
Source & rights
Carlo Bugatti (Italian, 1856–1940). Tea Table. Cleveland Museum of Art.