Contemporary Furniture

Italy Furniture
The
Renaissance in Italy: Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaele—Church of St.
Peter, contemporary great artists—The Italian Palazzo—Methods of gilding,
inlaying and mounting Furniture-Pietra-dura and other enrichments—Ruskin's
criticism. The Renaissance in France:
Francois I. and the Chateau of Fontainebleau—Influence on Courtiers, Chairs
of the time—Design of Cabinets—M.E. Bonnaffé on The Renaissance, Bedstead of
Jeanne d'Albret—Deterioration of taste in time of Henry IV., Louis XIII.
Furniture—Brittany woodwork. The Renaissance in the
Netherlands: Influence of the House of Burgundy on Art—The
Chimney-piece at Bruges, and other casts of specimens at South Kensington
Museum. The Renaissance in Spain: The
resources of Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—Influence of
Saracenic Art, high-backed leather chairs, the Carthusian Convent at
Granada. The Renaissance in Germany: Albrecht
Dürer—Famous Steel Chair of Augsburg—German seventeenth century carving in
St. Saviour's Hospital. The Renaissance in England:
Influence of Foreign Artists in the time of Henry VIII.—End of
Feudalism—Hampton Court Palace—Linen pattern Panels—Woodwork in the Henry
VII. Chapel at Westminster Abbey—Livery Cupboards at Hengrave—Harrison
quoted—the "parler," alteration in English customs—Chairs of the sixteenth
century—Coverings and Cushions of the time, extract from old Inventory—South
Kensington Cabinet—Elizabethan Mirror at Goodrich Court—Shaw's "Ancient
Furniture" the Glastonbury Chair—Introduction of Frames into
England—Characteristics of Native Woodwork—Famous Country Mansions,
alteration in design of Woodwork and Furniture—Panelled Rooms at South
Kensington—The Charterhouse—Gray's Inn Hall and Middle Temple—The Hall of
the Carpenter's Company—The Great Bed of Ware—Shakespeare's Chair—Penshurst
Place.
It is impossible to write
about the period of the Renaissance without grave misgivings as to the
ability to render justice to a period which has employed the pens of many
cultivated writers, and to which whole volumes, nay libraries, have been
devoted. Within the limited space of a single chapter all that can be
attempted is a brief glance at the influence on design by which furniture
and woodwork were affected. Perhaps the simplest way of understanding the
changes which occurred, first in Italy, and subsequently in other countries,
is to divide the chapter on this period into a series of short notes
arranged in the order in which Italian influence would seem to have affected
the designers and craftsmen of several European nations.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century
there appears to have been an almost universal rage for classical
literature, and we believe some attempt was made to introduce Latin as a
universal language; it is certain that Italian Art was adopted by nation
after nation, and a well known writer on architecture (Mr. Parker) has
observed:—"It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that the
national styles of the different countries of Modern Europe were revived."
As we look back upon the history of Art,
assisted by the numerous examples in our Museums, one is struck by the want
of novelty in the imagination of mankind. The glorious antique has always
been our classic standard, and it seems only to have been a question of time
as to when and how a return was made to the old designs of the Greek
artists, then to wander from them awhile, and again to return when the
world, weary of over-abundance of ornament, longed for the repose of simpler
lines on the principles which governed the glorious Athenian artists of old.
Furniture in Italy
Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance.
Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaele may be said to have guided and led the
natural artistic instincts of their countrymen, to discard the
Byzantine-Gothic which, as M. Bonnaffe has said, was adopted by the Italians
not as a permanent institution, but "faute de mieux" as a passing fashion.
It is difficult to say with any certainty
when the first commencement of a new era actually takes place, but there is
an incident related in Michael Bryan's biographical notice of Leonardo da
Vinci which gives us an approximate date. Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan,
had appointed this great master Director of Painting and Architecture in his
academy in 1494, and, says Bryan, who obtained his information from
contemporary writers, "Leonardo no sooner entered on his office, than he
banished all the Gothic principles established by his predecessor, Michelino,
and introduced the beautiful simplicity and purity of the Grecian and Roman
styles."
A few years after this date, Pope Julius II.
commenced to build the present magnificent Church of St. Peter's, designed
by Bramante d'Urbino, kinsman and friend of Raffaele, to whose
superintendence Pope Leo X. confided the work on the death of the architect
in 1514, Michael Angelo having the charge committed to him some years after
Raffaele's death.
These dates give us a very fair idea of the
time at which this important revolution in taste was taking place in Italy,
at the end of the fifteenth and the commencement of the following century,
and carved woodwork followed the new direction.
Leo X. was Pope in 1513. The period of peace
which then ensued after war, which for so many decades had disturbed Italy,
as France or Germany had in turn striven to acquire her fertile soil, gave
the princes and nobles leisure to rebuild and adorn their palaces; and the
excavations which were then made brought to light many of the works of art
which had remained buried since the time when Rome was mistress of the
world. Leo was a member of that remarkable and powerful family the Medicis,
the very mention of whom is to suggest the Renaissance, and under his
patronage, and with the co-operation of the reigning dukes and princes of
the different Italian states, artists were given encouragement and scope for
the employment of their talents. Michael Angelo, Titian, Raffaele Sanzio,
Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, and many other great artists were raising up
monuments of everlasting fame; Palladio was rebuilding the palaces of Italy,
which were then the wonder of the world; Benvenuto Cellini and Lorenzo
Ghiberti were designing those marvellous chef d'oeuvres in gold, silver, and
bronze which are now so rare; and a host of illustrious artists were
producing work which has made the sixteenth century famous for all time.
Chair in Carved Walnut. Found in the house of
Michael Angelo.
The circumstances of the Italian noble caused
him to be very amenable to Art influence. Living chiefly out of doors, his
climate rendered him less dependent on the comforts of small rooms, to which
more northern people were attached, and his ideas would naturally aspire to
pomp and elegance, rather than to home life and utility. Instead of the warm
chimney corner and the comfortable seat, he preferred furniture of a more
palatial character for the adornment of the lofty and spacious saloons of
his palace, and therefore we find the buffet elaborately carved, with a free
treatment of the classic antique which marks the time; it was frequently
"garnished" with the beautiful majolica of Urbino, of Pesaro, and of Gubbio.
The sarcophagus, or cassone, of oak, or more commonly of chesnut or
walnut, sometimes painted and gilded, sometimes carved with scrolls and
figures; the cabinet designed with architectural outline, and fitted up
inside with steps and pillars like a temple; chairs which are wonderful to
look upon as guardians of a stately doorway, but uninviting as seats; tables
inlaid, gilded, and carved, with slabs of marble or of Florentine Mosaic
work, but which from their height are as a rule impossible to use for any
domestic purpose; mirrors with richly carved and gilded frames are so many
evidences of a style which is palatial rather than domestic, in design as in
proportion.
Venetian Centre Table, Carved and Gilt. In the
South Kensington Museum.
The walls of these handsome saloons or
galleries were hung with rich velvet of Genoese manufacture, with stamped
and gilt leather, and a composition ornament was also applied to woodwork,
and then gilded and painted; this kind of decoration was termed "gesso
work."
Marriage Coffer in Carved Walnut. (Collection
of Comte de Briges.) Period: Renaissance (XVI. Century) Venetian.
Marriage Coffer, Carved and Gilt with Painted
Subject. Italian. XVI. Century.
A rich effect was produced on the carved
console tables, chairs, stools and frames intended for gilding, by the
method employed by the Venetian and Florentine craftsmen, the gold leaf
being laid on a red preparation, and then the chief portions highly
burnished. There are in the South Kensington Museum several specimens of
such work, and now that time and wear have caused this red groundwork to
shew through the faded gold, the harmony of color is very satisfactory.
Pair of Italian Carved Bellows, in Walnut
Wood. (South Kensington Museum.)
Other examples of fifteenth century Italian
carving, such as the old Cassone fronts, are picked out with gold, the
remainder of the work displaying the rich warm color of the walnut or
chesnut wood, which were almost invariably employed.
Of the smaller articles of furniture, the
"bellows" and wall brackets of this period deserve mention; the carving of
these is very carefully finished, and is frequently very elaborate. The
illustration on page 51 is that of a pair of bellows in the South Kensington
collection.
Carved Italian Mirror Frame, 16th Century. (In
the South Kensington Museum.)
The enrichment of woodwork by means of
inlaying deserves mention. In the chapter on Ancient Furniture we have seen
that ivory was used as an inlaid ornament as early as six centuries before
Christ, but its revival and development in Europe probably commenced in
Venice about the end of the thirteenth century, in copies of geometrical
designs, let into ebony and brown walnut, and into a wood something like
rosewood; parts of boxes and chests of these materials are still in
existence. Mr. Maskell tells us in his Handbook on "Ivories," that probably
owing to the difficulty of procuring ivory in Italy, bone of fine quality
was frequently used in its place. All this class of work was known as "Tarsia,"
"Intarsia," or "Certosina," a word supposed to be derived from the name of
the well-known religious community—the Carthusians—on account of the
dexterity of those monks at this work.6
It is true that towards the end of the fourteenth century, makers of
ornamental furniture began to copy marble mosaic work, by making similar
patterns of different woods, and subsequently this branch of industrial art
developed from such modest beginnings as the simple pattern of a star, or
bandings in different kinds of wood in the panel of a door, to elaborate
picture-making, in which landscapes, views of churches, houses and
picturesque ruins were copied, figures and animals being also introduced.
This work was naturally facilitated and encouraged by increasing commerce
between different nations, which rendered available a greater variety of
woods. In some of the early Italian "intarsia" the decoration was cut into
the surface of the panel piece by piece. As artists became more skilful,
veneers were applied and the effect heightened by burning with hot sand the
parts requiring shading; and the lines caused by the thickness of the
sawcuts were filled in with black wood or stained glue to give definition to
the design.
A Sixteenth Century "Coffre-Fort."
The "mounting" of articles of furniture with
metal enrichments doubtless originated in the iron corner pieces and hinge
plates, which were used to strengthen the old chests, of which mention has
been already made, and as artificers began to render their productions
decorative as well as useful, what more natural progress than that the iron
corners, bandings, or fastenings, should be of ornamental forged or engraved
iron. In the sixteenth century, metal workers reached a point of excellence
which has never been surpassed, and those marvels of mountings in steel,
iron and brass were produced in Italy and Germany, which are far more
important as works of art, than the plain and unpretending productions of
the coffer maker, which are their raison d'etre. The woodcut on p. 53
represents a very good example of a "Coffre-fort" in the South Kensington
Collection. The decoration is bitten in with acids so as to present the
appearance of its being damascened, and the complicated lock, shewn on the
inside of the lid, is characteristic of these safeguards for valuable
documents at a time when the modern burglar-proof safe had not been thought
of.
The illustration on the following page is
from an example in the same museum, shewing a different decoration, the oval
plaques of figures and coats of arms being of carved ivory let into the
surface of the coffer. This is an early specimen, and belongs as much to the
last chapter as to the present.
"Pietra-dura" as an ornament was first
introduced in Italy during the sixteenth century, and became a fashion. This
was an inlay of highly-polished rare marbles, agates, hard pebbles, lapis
lazuli, and other stones; ivory was also carved and applied as a bas relief,
as well as inlaid in arabesques of the most elaborate designs;
tortoiseshell, brass, mother of pearl, and other enrichments were introduced
in the decoration of cabinets and of caskets; silver plaques embossed and
engraved were pressed into the service as the native princes of Florence,
Urbino, Ferrara, and other independent cities vied with Rome, Venice, and
Naples in sumptuousness of ornament, and lavishness of expense, until the
inevitable period of decline supervened in which exaggeration of ornament
and prodigality of decoration gave the eye no repose.
Edmond Bonnaffe, contrasting the latter
period of Italian Renaissance with that of sixteenth century French
woodwork, has pithily remarked: "Chez cux, l'art du bois consiste à le
dissimuler, chez nous à le faire valoir."
Italian Coffer with Medallions of Ivory. 15th
Century. (South Kensington Museum.)
In Ruskin's "Stones of Venice," the author
alludes to this over-ornamentation of the latter Renaissance in severe
terms. After describing the progress of art in Venice from Byzantine to
Gothic, and from Gothic to Renaissance he subdivides the latter period into
three classes:—1. Renaissance grafted on Byzantine. 2. Renaissance grafted
on Gothic. 3. Renaissance grafted on Renaissance, and this last the veteran
art critic calls "double darkness," one of his characteristic terms of
condemnation which many of us cannot follow, but the spirit of which we can
appreciate.
Speaking generally of the character of
ornament, we find that whereas in the furniture of the Middle Ages, the
subjects for carving were taken from the lives of the saints or from
metrical romance, the Renaissance carvers illustrated scenes from classical
mythology, and allegories, such as representations of elements, seasons,
months, the cardinal virtues, or the battle scenes and triumphal processions
of earlier times.
Carved Walnut Wood Italian Chairs. 16th
Century. (From Photos of the originals in the South Kensington Museum.)
Ebony Cabinet. With marble mosaics, and bronze
gilt ornaments, Florentine work. Period: XVII. Century.
The outlines and general designs of the
earlier Renaissance cabinets were apparently suggested by the old Roman
triumphal arches and sarcophagi; afterwards these were modified and became
varied, elegant and graceful, but latterly as the period of decline was
marked, the outlines as shown in the two chairs on the preceding page became
confused and dissipated by over-decoration.
The illustrations given of specimens of
furniture of Italian Renaissance render lengthy descriptions unnecessary. So
far as it has been possible to do so, a selection has been made to represent
the different classes of work, and as there are in the South Kensington
Museum numerous examples of cassone fronts, panels, chairs, and cabinets
which can be examined, it is easy to form an idea of the decorative woodwork
made in Italy during the period we have been considering.
|