The Baroque Era - Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Switzerland - 1

When Gerhard Dagly went from Spa to Berlin in 1688, the Baroque Style had been flourishing in Germany for around fifty years, and was to persist there for another seventy. Its heavy grandeur, almost fitted furniture, seemed to settle itself immovably in palace and farmhouse, town and country.
The most typical piece was the 'Schrank', or large cupboard, which while displaying regional variations was always of architectural form, massive construction ans such generous proportions that it was usually accommodated in the entrance hall to save space in the living rooms. It is probable, too, that it was placed there strategically, as the status symbol to be encountered on first entering the house.

Frankfurt was especially noted for its handsome version of the Schrank which was unrelieved by carving and depended for its effect on the series of mouldings arranged geometrically, like picture frames set one inside another, in long narrow rectangles on each of the two doors of the large handmade furniture. In some examples the corners are canted and similarly treated. The play of light on the mouldings produces a wave-like effect. This type is also known as a 'Wellenschrank'. The Schrank is usually fitted with two drawers in the base, and most regional types have heavy cornices. The exceptions are some Austrian examples, which do not always have drawers, and on which the cornices are frequently of modest proportions.

 

A related type is the 'Geschirrschrank' (china cupboard) made in North Germany. This is a dwarf cupboard, with moulded or carved decoration on the doors and fitted with a rack of shelves for china above. The 'Stollenschrank' (cabinet-on-stand) was also made with a surface composed entirely of mouldings, like the Wellenschrank. It usually stood on twist legs joined by X-shaped stretchers.

Bavaria at this time was allied by marriage to Savoy, and this Italian influence was strong in the later 17th century. Palatial furniture in the High Baroque style was made for the court and its imitators at Munich until that city began to rival Augsburg and Nuremberg in the production of luxurious pieces, such as marble-topped tables on gilt stands with supports formed as carved figures.

 

...to be continued