Based on the great length of this credenza, it can be posited that it originated in a church setting. Indeed, dated church carving provides clues to its age. The four doors are spaced by hybrid caryatid-pilasters of a type which reached its greatest vogue in the years 1550-1570, succeeding the more delicate Raphaelesque and arabesque decoration popular in the first half of the Cinquecento, and anticipating the highly sculptural decoration of the nascent Baroque style. As observed by William Odom, grotesque caryatids of this type appear in the frieze of Bartolommeo Neroni's choirstalls at the Siena Cathedral, executed in the years 1567-1570, as well as the choirstalls designed by Ambrogio Santagostino for the church of San Vittori al Corpo in Milan around 1583 (see W.M. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture From the Fourteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries, I, New York, 1966, pp. 297-298).

For numerous credenze designed with the same conceit, see those illustrated W.M. Odom, op. cit., pp. 252-253, figs. 236-238; and one from the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence illustrated in S. Colombo, L'Arte del Mobile in Italia, Milan, 1975, pl. 59. A further long credenza, retaining its superstructure and constructed with complex paneling, is illustrated in S. Colombo, op. cit., pl. 116. Cross-shaped paneling similar to that on our credenza appears on an inginocchiatoio (prie-dieu) from the Church of San Biagio, Montepulciano, illustrated in A.M. Massinelli, Il Mobile Toscano 1200-1800, Milan, 1993, p. 60, fig. 92.