The Renaissance - Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia

The influence of the Renaissance on German furniture became marked at around the same time as Charles, the Habsburg king of Spain, succeeded his grandfather as German king and head of the Holy Roman Empire in 1519. Impressive though his titles and the extent of his domains appear, the German kingship was little more than an honorary presidency over a number of states governed by princes who were no longer mere feudal lords but sovereigns in their own right, some of whom set up court with pretensions to granduer. The older concept of fealty was undermined by Renaissance thinking, and the religious disturbances brought about by the Reformation disarrayed it even further. All these factors had some bearing on the development of handmade furniture making.

In Northern Germany where Protestantism was strongest, the styles of the Northern Netherlands were influential. Carcase fitted and non fitted furniture, such as the two-stage cupboard and the armoire, displayed carved decoration in which the solid oak ground was often covered with strapwork, animal and human heads and closely packed, scrolling leaf patterns in the manner of Heinrich Aldegrever (d.1561), who worked at Soest in Westphalia, producing woodcuts and engravings that provided wood-workers with patterns for Renaissance ornament. Westphalia - close to France and sometimes adopting French mannerisms - produced a distinctive class of furniture over a long period. Some fine chests of massive, housed construction, decorated with simple carving or left severely plain but for stout iron bands, have survived from the 16th century onwards in quantities large enough to be available to the private collector.

Scandinavia accepted with caution elements of Netherlandish and Germanic Renaissance decoration, applying it with discretion to Romanesque and Gothic forms. The restrained application of Renaissance ornament to Scandinavian furniture resulted in a graciousness not always evident elsewhere in northern Europe in the 16th century.
Shortly after 1600, Franz Pergo of Basle made furniture, which would sometimes now be used in reproduction furniture, carved with Mannerist motifs. Switzerland adopted some styles from Italy and France but the birthplace of Calvin was strongly Protestant and tended to prefer furniture nearer in style to that of the Netherlands and North Germany. A chest with strong Reformation associations is known as the 'Erasmus chest' and is carved with numerous heads in profile, including a portrait medallion of Erasmus himself. It was made around 1539 by Jacob Steiner and Veltin Redner of Basle, where it is still to be seen in the Historisches Museum. the woods used are ash and lime. The wood is a significant factor to be considered when trying to decide on the area where a particular piece was made. Oak was scarce in Southern Europe and the Alpine countries and a variety of other timbers more readily available, were employed instead.