Console table, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (after), c. 1769
This console table is the only piece of furniture known with certainty to have been designed by Piranesi. With its bizarre legs shaped like imaginary winged animals, this table is an example of Piranesi’s idiosyncratic, highly personal contribution to the development of a new classicizing style. It was made, along with a second matching table, for the Italian cardinal Giovanni Battista Rezzonico.