With the combination of Humanist intellectualism and of high society patronage - this eventually brought Renaissance ideals to France and northern Europe, just as it had done south of the Alps.
The French claim on Naples, and its wider ambitions on the Italian states in general, led to a number of military campaigns and intermittent rule over portions of the peninsula.
This served to increase intellectual and artistic commerce between France and the centres of Renaissance thought, such as Florence and Rome.
Renaissance Spreads To France
Continued papal rule over the enclave of Avignon further promoted Italian influence with France. Many of the artists commissioned to work on the great frescoes of the 'Palace of the Popes' came from Siena.
This tradition was enthusiastically continued by Francois 1, when he invited Italian luminaries such as Francesco Primaticcio, Niccolo dell'Abbate and Benvenuto Cellini to decorate fitted furniture for the interiors of his new chateau at Fontainebleau.
A distinct school of art evolved around the prolonged activity at the chateau, and the Fontainebleau style was subsequently exported throughout northern Europe. This was essentially a French interpretation of Italian Mannerism - a high style that looked to the work of earlier Renaissance artists rather than to nature for stylistic cues.
The Chateau de Chambord, a castle built in the Loire valley by Francis 1, is perhaps the finest example of Renaissance architecture in France. French Renaissance handmade furniture was often shaped to a large extent by architectural developments.
Jacques Androuet du cerceau published works that included furniture designs. Many of his engravings of architectural embellishments and details were modified for decorative uses in furniture. He drew his inspiration from antiquity, and was particularly fond of acanthus leaves, plumes and armorial motifs.
Exotic and fantastical beasts were also favourite themes for carved decoration. Oak was replaced by Walnut as the favoured timber for furniture, the tight grain lending itself well to relief carving. Human figures, which were often in the form of caryatids, are found more often on French furniture and reproduction furniture than on any produced elsewhere during the same period.
German Speaking Countries
The ideals of the Italian Renaissance first reached the German speaking countires through artists such as Albrect Durer - who had visited Italy. A more direct influence on the designs of furniture came from the kleinmeister, the designers of ornament, based in Nuremberg, Westphalia and the Low Countries, who produced engraved or woodcut patterns inspired by Classical antiquity and Italian examples.
Their patterns composed of running floral motifs, birds, animals, naked figures, urns and trophies were adopted by a variety of craftsmen and cabinet makers.
However, the existence of powerful guilds in cities such as Berlin, meant that new types of furniture were much slower to develop as the approved designs that apprentices had to master rarely altered.
The cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg, which didn't have guilds, became famous for their furniture makers, such as Lorenz Stoer and Peter Flotner, who published woodcut designs for intarsia panels popular an Augsburg furniture decoration.
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