Ancient Furniture (part 9 of 12)

Renaissance Italy
The instigators of the Italian renaissance realized that they were entering a new and modern era, even as they helped to lay its foundations.
Leonardo Bruni was the first to present a tripartite view of history comprised of antiquity and the modern age, separated by an intervening middle period, or 'dark age', characterized by the neglect of Classical knowledge and accomplishments.

A Spirit Of Enquiry
In the 14th century, the affluent city of Florence in Tuscany emerged from a period of civil strife and pestilence into an age of unprecedented prosperity. The peculiarly Italian urban culture, and the republican attitudes of Florentines in particular, predisposed them to the emerging philosophy of civic humanism that informed Renaissance thinking.
The universities and merchant classes began to reappraise the science, philosophy, art and design of ancient Greece and Rome, and Florence's great wealth brought many artists to the city who were all seeking commissions from merchants eager to display their success and good taste to produce now antique furniture.
The same spirit of scientific inquiry that led to remarkable discoveries by Copernicus, Vesalius and Galileo also pervaded the arts. Andrea Palladio recommended architectural proportions that were based on models from the Classical world, and Filippo Brunelleschi clarified the laws of linear perspective.
Artists jettisoned the elongated, stylized figures of medieval painting in favour of more accurate depictions of the human form, facilitated by advances in anatomy. A new realism, fused with the humanist principles of the age, took root within the fine and decorative arts.

The Explosion Of Patronage
All these developments influenced the fitted furniture and non fitted furniture of the period. The middle classes built sumptuous town houses and palazzi, and began to fill these opulent living spaces with furniture and decorative artworks that reflected their status.
The greatest families, such as the Medici of Florence, the Montefeltro of Urbino and the Farnese of Rome, engaged the finest designers and craftsmen to produce monumental items of handmade furniture in marble, inlaid with semi-precious stones and decorated with family crests and emblems.