The Baroque Era - Spain, Portugal and their Colonies in America and India - 2

The 17th century was not an especially prosperous period for Portugal but independence from Spain with the accession of the Duke of Braganza as King John IV (1640 - 1656), and the recovery of Brazil from the Dutch in 1654, all contributed to a raising of national morale which expressed itself in the arts, including fitted and non fitted furniture-making.

The chair with the medallion-shaped back which was copied in Spain developed on very similar lines at home. The feet were usually turned rather than scrolled but added interest was provided by the front stretcher, which was wide, arched and pierced with a design of interlaced curves. It was covered in embossed leather nailed to a frame of native oak or walnut, or sometimes jacaranda, a very hard material related to rosewood and imported from Brazil.
The legs on tables and related objects were turned with very bold protuberances refined by multiple rings. Drawer-fronts and lock-plates on doors were in fretted and engraved brass. All these distinctive features were displayed on the 'contador', the Portuguese version of the cabinet-on-stand.

 

A two-stage cupboard, with a pair of doors top and bottom, showed Dutch influence, especially in the treatment of mouldings, which were rippled on their surface. The effect is known in Portuguese as 'tremidos'. Unlike Spain, where cupboards were rapidly ousting the traditional chest, in Portugal it remained popular at least until the end of the 17th century.

Portugal produced several distinctive types of bed, of which the most impressive was the 'cama de bilros' - a posted bed with an open framework, on which the turner clearly delighted to exercise his skills. The posts and the framework are all turned with twist and bobbin patterns, but in a way which lightens the otherwise excessive heaviness of much Baroque turnery.

In the north of both Spain and Portugal but particularly in the Portuguese province of Minho, there was a prosperous industry in richly carved handmade furniture, mainly chestnut, which survived as a form of folk culture, catering for local needs and preserving traditional styles long after they had ceased to be fashionable in more sophisticated areas.

Portuguese craftsmen settled in Brazil and catered for their countrymen in occupation there. Apart from the influence of the earlier Dutch occupation, Brazilian furniture remains fairly close to the original Portuguese types.
Colonization in the Orient, however, resulted in a strange grafting of the decorative techniques of India, particularly Goa, on to basically European shapes. A typical example of the Indo-Portuguese style is a 'contador' or cabinet of small drawers, profusely inlaid with bone or ivory, and mounted on a stand with mermaid supports. This type of article was made for Portuguese residents in the colonies and also for export to Lisbon.

The Spanish colonies in South and Central America produced a curious mixture of Spanish and native traditions. At Cuzco in Peru, the centre of the ancient Inca civilization, furniture was made for both church and domestic use, and displays several features of construction which differentiate it from its Spanish equivalents.
Dovetails are exposed to form a pattern on the surface, which is never veneered. Tenons project through mortises and their ends are left exposed. Although elaborate turning was practised, the lathe cannot always have been readily available and some bulbous projections were made by splicing pieces of wood together and smoothing them into a rounded shape. Leatherwork is often embossed with coats-of-arms, including royal ones, but these can be most misleading. The badge of Charles V of Spain even appears occasionally on chairs made 200 years after his reign ended in 1556.

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.

The Baroque Era - Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Switzerland - 3

For grand handmade furniture, the workshops of Geneva and Berne adopted the Louis XIV style, but some interesting middle-class pieces were made in walnut, particularly a composite buffet (Aufsatzbufett) of asymmetrical form. The design varied. but in principle it consisted of a low cupboard of sideboard height with two doors. Above this was another cupboard, raised at the front on turned columns with the panelled back behind the open space between  the upper and lower stages. To one side only of this main structure was attached a narrower unit of similar construction which was often fitted with a pewter bowl and water cistern in the open space, for washing utensils.
Fine examples carved in Renaissance style were still being made in the mid 17th century, and versions in painted pine continued to be produced until the early 19th century, still retaining the asymmetrical shape.

 

In Scandinavia, German princes had come to rule over Norway, Denmark and, from 1654, Sweden, Inevitably, a strong German influence was exercised over much, though not all, of the furniture. In the main, it follows North German and Netherlands styles, until around 1675 when Sweden began to adopt the Louis XIV manner. Again, it is to the folk culture of the peasantry that one must look for native inventiveness. 

Cupboards, chairs ans simple trestle tables with X-shaped supports, mainly in pine and sometimes painted, sometimes scrubbed to a brilliant cleanliness, often display a love of intricate shapes both in outline and fretted designs. Chip-carving of roundels sometimes occurs on primitive chests.

 

The traditional painting on Norwegian fitted and non fitted furniture is known as 'rosemaling. Flowers, animals and birds were tha main ingredients, but a fresh approach taken by succeeding generations kept this form of folk culture alive and well.

It was once a Norwegian custom for the house and principal items of furniture to be built at the same time. The process began with the careful selection of pine trees in the spring, then in late summer or autumn they were felled and allowed to season for four years before construction began. Characteristic Norwegian pieces included the 'klappbord', an ingeniously contrived table, folding flat against the wall when not in use, and the 'bandestol'. a three legged chair with a semicircular seat, its arms often terminating in dragons heads - not unlike the prows of Viking ships.

 

A popular type of cupboard in Denmark, known as a 'pillar cupboard', had an upper stage supported by columns and stood on a platform in the corner of the room with a bench or form at its side. These pieces are often dated, but it was the custom to repaint the article and alter the date when it was handed on to another generation.

The Baroque Era - Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Switzerland - 2

Paul Decker (1677 - 1713) was a native of Nuremberg who went to work as a designer in Berlin. His designs included some for lacquerwork and it is possible that he was associated with Gerhard Dagly, who was there at the same time. Dagly's work for Friedrich Wilhelm and the latter's successor, Frederick I, was chiefly the decoration of fitted and non fitted furniture in chinoiseries of an unusual kind.
Decorators in lacquer mostly imitated the Chinese and Japanese standard products, using gold figures on a black, red, or green ground. Dagly brought a welcome airiness to the heavy Baroque atmosphere by working on pale coloured grounds, achieving effects that were light hearted and charming. His was nevertheless dismissed from his post in 1713, and his chief assistant, Martin Schnell (fl.1703 - 1740) returned to his birthplace, Dresden.

 

Schnell worked for Augustus the Strong (the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony) as a painter of porcelain at Meissen. He also painted handmade furniture and seems to have specialized in decorating bureaux. 

the German fall-front bureau in the late 17th and early 18th centuries was often inspired by Anglo-Dutch models, and when it was given a cabinet above, this had doors fitted with arched panels of wood or mirror-class (not, at that time, clear glass).

In the South, Italian influence helped to dictate the design of a three-stage article that, by the middle of the 18th century, had developed into a characteristic German form. The base consisted of a three-drawer chest or commode with serpentine front. Above this was the desk section, with sloping fall-front enclosing a fitted interior. On top again was the Tabernakel, consisting of a central cupboard flanked by a bank of small drawers, usually four or five each side. Despite the relatively late date, the style is still Baroque in spirit. The wood is usually walnut veneer with wide cross-banding and linear marquetry. This type was also made in Austria, and given as a wedding gift. 

 

Switzerland, in spite of the infiltration of ideas from surrounding countries, nevertheless evolved a national style. Pine was the principal timber for those carcase pieces intended to be painted in cheerful colours with flowers. All the Alpine countries cultivated this type of peasant tradition, sometimes using the paint to imitate the grain of expensive woods.

to be continued...

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

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.

The Baroque Era - The Netherlands - 2

The precise origin of the kind of colonial handmade furniture is often difficult to decide, especially when more than one European power was in occupation. Simultaneously with, or closely following upon, another, as in the case of Ceylon, first colonized by the Portuguese who were not expelled by the Dutch until 1658, and who left their mark on local interpretations of European requirements long after their departure.

Towards the end of the 17th century a taste for woods more colourful than ebony began to exert itself in the Netherlands. This was fostered by the influence of the Baroque style, especially the French version of it which was given an added bonus when, following the exodus of the Huguenots in 1685, many highly skilled craftsmen, some of them Dutch or Flemish by origin, came to the Low Countries. Included among these was Daniel Marot who became chief designer to William, Prince of Orange, and worked on the interior decoration and furnishing of the royal palace at Het Loo. His style, as demonstrated in his published designs, was a personal interpretation of the Louis XIV manner, with a strong emphasis on luxuriously upholstered beds, chairs and stools. The chairs have high, rather narrow backs, either padded or elaborately fretted and carved with scroll patterns. These seats may be stuffed and upholstered, as is the case with today's reproduction furniture techniques, or caned to receive squab cushions. The legs are either vertical and turned - often to a distinctive shape having a bold protuberance like an upturned cup near the top - or have a hook-like scroll which anticipates the S-shaped curve of the fully developed cabriole leg, which was soon to emerge.

Like many other chairs, stools and tables of the period, particularly Dutch ones, Marot's designs frequently employ stretchers of X or H shape joining the legs to give added strength as well as providing a decorative feature. Some of the grander versions of his style were gilded, but walnut was now the principle wood for fashionable fitted and non fitted furniture in Holland, used both in veneers and in the solid. When William of Orange went to rule England jointly with his wife Mary, Marot followed his master to work there, returning to Holland in 1698. He was especially clever in his use of draped fabrics to create opulent effects, particularly on a type of bed with no posts at the foot but with flounced testers, cantilevered from the wall and suspended from the ceiling.