The Baroque Era - The Netherlands - 3

Two passions of the Dutch from the second half of the 17th century onwards, were for flowers and ceramics. The first of these loves is reflected in handmade furniture painted with flower subjects, and more especially in floral marquetry patterns employing woods of many colours either natural or stained. The latter was used to decorate the doors of large cabinets on dwarf stands and the tops of tables intended to occupy the centre of a room and to be admired as works of art rather than used as pieces of furniture. One of the leading practitioners in this field was Jan van Mekeren (fl. 1690 - 1735), whose floral panels were based on contemporary still-life paintings.

 

The preoccupation with floral marquetry was a long standing feature of much Dutch fitted and non fitted furniture, though not all of it reaches the high standard set by the style's early exponents. In the 19th century, many pieces which had started life as honest, plain articles, were embellished with rather coarse floral decoration.

The second obsession of the Dutch in the later 17th century was Chinese porcelain which they collected avidly, mixing it with their own Delft pottery. To house their collections, they invented the display cabinet, with glazed doors divided into rectangular panes in the upper stage, and a cupboard below with panelled doors. The panels are often decorated with marquetry. A distinctive feature of these cabinets is the canting of the ends to show the contents of the glazed section to better advantage. The top is usually shaped - not merely the doors and cornice, but the ceiling of the carcase too - in a rounded arch.

Lacquer cabinets were imported from both China and Japan by the East India Company. The Dutch succeeded in maintaining a foothold in Japan after the Portuguese had been expelled in the 17th century as a result of their missionary zeal, and Holland was now chief Western contact with the Japanese until the second half of the 19th century.
In Europe, the lacquer cabinets were mounted on carved and gilt stands in the Baroque style, with little or no attempt in most cases, at an Eastern flavour. Lacquer soon came to be imitated in the West, with various varnishes substituting for the authentic oriental product, which was derived from the sap of the tree 'Rhus vernicifera.
Spa, near Liege, was an important centre for japanning and the Flemish and Dutch imitations of lacquer are so good as to be difficult to distinguish from the real thing. Spa was a watering place and consequently its japanned wares were sold to visitors from all over Europe.