The impetus for the exhibition was the spectacular acquisition of an opulent cylinder bureau by Canops for the Kunstgewerbemuseum. Loans from the Royal Collections in Madrid that have never before been displayed open up a previously unknown cosmos, for German and international audiences alike.

Though largely unknown today, the work of the royal workshop in Madrid under the direction of the ébéniste of German extraction José Canops (1733–1814) is among the crowning achievements of European furniture-making. It combines the explosive Rococo ornamentation developed by the court painter Mattia Gasparini for Carlos III – a truly European creation combining Italian tradition with an admiration for Parisian luxury and an exociticising enthusiasm for Asian art – with the precision of German carpentry and the wealth of the Spanish colonial world.

A special exhibition of the Kunstgewerbemuseum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin