The Baroque Era - Spain, Portugal and their Colonies in America and India - 1

At its most extravagant, Spanish Baroque seems to be trying to rival and outdo even the more extreme interpretations found in the rest of Europe. The style employed architectural features and the human figure in the emotional, eccentric style known as Churrigueresque, after the chief practitioner of this fantastic manner, Don Jose Churriguera (d.1725). It was as if the style was a last defiant gesture by a dying empire. During the reigns of Philip III (1596 - 1621), Philip IV (1621 - 1665) and Charles II (1665 - 1700), Spain was growing both poorer and politically weaker. Nevertheless Spanish society seemed determined to keep up appearances, and as always, handmade furniture was one of the main props in the drama.

 

At a time when few could afford it, the writing-cabinet or 'vargueno' came into wider use - a symbol, now, not so much of nobility as of respectability. It's interior facade of colonnaded intricacy became as essay in miniature of the Churrigueresque, with little twisted columns and elaborate marquetry on the drawer-fronts.
The 'papileira', having no writing leaf to conceal the facade, followed closely on the heels of the cabinets of Cologne and Antwerp, but added a fretted gallery of gilded metal to the top, and adopted the fashionable twist legs for the stand.

Twist legs, or less elaborately turned ones, were also a feature of long, narrow tables, and other non fitted furniture which appeared in addition to, but not entirely in place of, those with trestle ends and iron braces. The new type had drawers in the frieze, carved with roundels or later foliage, and usually fitted with iron ring handles. A boldly projecting moulding extended around the frieze on its bottom edge. This type of table occurs in varying qualities. The best are of walnut or chestnut, but cheaper versions, which continued to be made for the peasantry for at least another century, were in pine. Simple chairs with no upholstery, the cross-rails of the back shaped and finished with a little carving, were similarly produced from this time onwards in large numbers.

 

Even the traditional 'monks chair' (sillon de fraileros) was given a new look by being fitted out with the ubiquitous twist legs. In the second half of the 17th century, a Portuguese type of chair became popular in Spain. It had a Moorish medallion-shaped back which, like the seat, was covered in embossed leather, as is a lot of today's reproduction furniture. The legs were turned and on Spanish examples, the foot was often scrolled and fluted. It was transmitted to other countries, notably England, where it is still knows as a 'Spanish' or 'Braganza' foot.