The Renaissance - The Netherlands

The dukes of Burgundy, who controlled large areas of the Netherlands from 1384 for almost a century, were celebrated for their rich collections of works of art including tapestries and furniture. Many of these were made by Netherlanders working in the Gothic tradition but coming increasingly under the influence of the Italian and French Renaissance styles introduced by the Burgundians.

Although the interlopers were strongly, even violently, resented over the years, the Netherlanders carried on with their work, absorbing ideas from many parts of the Habsburg empire and in return, made their own contribution to the design, construction and decoration of handmade furniture and exported not only the finished products but also several influential books of engravings. The draw-leaf table probably originated in the Netherlands in the second half of the 16th century. Publications by Lucas van Leyden appearing c.1520-1530 and those of Cornelis Floris and Cornelis Bos a few years later, included grotesque masks and particularly strapwork, which was a favourite device in the northern Netherlands, being rendered both a shallow-carved surface decoration and in fretted patterns for corner-brackets in the angles where the legs of tables joined the frames. An extended use of fretted is sometimes seen in the front stretchers of chairs.

Hans Vredeman de Vries (1527-1604) published a book of designs in Antwerp in 1565, many of which are concerned less with ornamentation than the shape and functional suitability. While some of his engravings - particularly of beds - are Mannerist and monumental, others are practical, fairly easy to follow and seemingly intended for the middle of the market rather than palaces. His son Paul (born 1567) issued two volumes of furniture, or reproduction furniture, designs in 1630, still Mannerist in style but more richly decorated and demonstrating the persistence of late Renaissance ornament in Northern Europe until well into the 17th century.
Coupled with the dislike by the Netherlanders of foreign rule was the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism, which was not resolved until 1579 when a formal division was made between the Protestant Union of Utrecht in the north and the Roman Catholic League of Arras in the south. Regional differences occur in the furniture of every country and too much emphasis should not be placed on the effect of that arbitrary division; it is broadly true that the southern provinces tended to display a greater love of rich decoration, while those of the north leant towards a more sober style.

Antwerp was a centre for the production of large items of fitted and non fitted furniture, two-stage cupboards, the upper stage recessed and supported on caryatids and with the panels of the doors inlaid with intarsia trompe l'oeil perspectives of buildings; of single-stage cupboards or sideboards derived from the Italian credenza but rather more chunky in proportion, well carved in solid oak and with ringed, Tuscan columns at the corners; and of cabinets with doors enclosing numerous small drawers, their fronts veneered in ebony or painted with mythological or biblical subjects. These were exported all over Europe.