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.

The Renaissance - France

French architecture, interior decoration and furniture - even the best - remained Gothic in spirit until the end of the 15th century, with cautious and uncertain borrowings of Renaissance ornament applied, often incongruously, to traditional forms. Italian cabinet work was much admired and imported by nobles who had seen it during military excursions.
Francois I, King of France, was defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of Pavia (1525) and to secure his release had to cede Burgundy and to give up the Italian territories he had previously claimed. This did not discourage him in the least from creating a magnificent palace and centre of culture at Fontainebleau where French and Italian talents combined to establish what is now known as the Francois I Style, or First Renaissance in France.

The palatial fashions of Fontainebleau gradually came to influence the handmade furniture of the people throughout the 16th century, when a middle class comprised of tradesmen, farmers and merchants was creating homes for itself. During the first half of the 16th century, the variety of shapes and types of furniture did not greatly increase. The craftsman working at a modest level continued to produce coffers of the old kind, but decorated them with architectural pilasters dividing the panels. These were carved with isolated classical figures or, more often, with portrait medallions in profile, the later sometimes attempts at portraying the owner and his wife. The dresser also maintained a Gothic form, with the cupboard above an open space and with arched or column supports. The carving again employs Renaissance motifs, sometimes in combination with linenfold panels.

A fresh treatment of the Renaissance idiom developed early in the next reign, which together with the two subsequent reigns covers the period called the Henri II Style, or High Renaissance in France spanning the years 1547 to 1589. A group of designers and craftsmen who had worked at Fontainebleau set out with the deliberate intention of creating a national style but the result was that while the visual language of the Renaissance remained basically Italian, only the accent was French.

Best remembered of these rebels is Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau the elder (c.1520-1584), a designer who published the first French book of furniture designs about 1550. There is not a single piece of fitted or non fitted furniture in existence which entirely follows even one of his designs, the closest being a table at Hardwick Hall in England, which conforms at least partially to the published drawing.

Between these two limits of excess and purity there exist pieces of furniture, now reproduction furniture, numerous enough for examples to appear quite frequently on the open market, and which are of sensible, practical shapes, architecturally conceived, and are profusely carved with Mannerist subjects - though not in a way calculated to frighten anyone nervous.

The Renaissance - Italy

Italian furniture is usually subdivided by regions rather than reigns. From c.1350 - 1450 Italy was not one state but a number of small ones often at war with each other. The Italian League - a confederation founded in 1455 - fortunately led to a period of comparative unity, peace and prosperity in which the arts could flourish.

In its broad sense of the 'rebirth of learning', the Renaissance owed much to an attitude of mind cultivated a century earlier by the poet Petrarch, who was passionately devoted to classical culture. Although deeply religious, he was the founder of humanism, a philosophy which valued man's earthly existence and revived interest in the mythologies of Ancient Greece and Rome, finding in the legendary gods and goddesses many attractively human traits. A new style of architecture was inaugurated based on classical precepts, and eventually furniture was made to complement the new style.

The effect of all this on the furnishings of the Italian home, even the very prosperous ones, was only gradual. At first, richly decorated furniture in the new style was the exception rather than the rule and indeed the early effect of the Renaissance on Italian fitted and non fitted furniture was more negative than positive, the majority of pieces dating from c.1450-1480, being rather angular and plain. Traditional forms were preserved, and while Gothic ornament had been discarded, it had not yet been replaced by much Renaissance detail.

The true Renaissance man of studious inclination set aside a room for himself in which there were architecturally conceived, built-in shelves and cupboards to hold his precious books and manuscripts, collections of ancient coins, works of art and geological specimens. A chair to sit in, a table to work at and a portable desk with a sloping top which doubled as a lectern for heavy volumes.
If his taste ran to extravagant display, and he had the money to indulge it, the more public rooms of his house took on a new splendour to which, at first, rich textiles and finely-wrought silver contributed most. The piece of handmade furniture on which he would be likely to lavish most expense was the Italian version of the chest, still known today by its old name of 'cassone'. If he had married the daughter of a prosperous man, the cassone would have arrived with the bride, and would have held her dowry. In very rich families there was often a pair of such chests, one bearing the bride's coat-of-arms and the other, the bride groom's.

This special use of the chest was adopted in many countries, and in some peasant communities it persisted as a tradition until well into the 19th century, complete with gaily painted decoration. In early 16th century Italy, the cassone was often splendidly painted - in the north with biblical or other sacred subjects, in the south more often with pagan scenes taken from Roman mythology. Artists of the first rank did not consider it beneath their dignity to execute this work, with the result that some of the finest cassoni have been cut up to satisfy art collectors.

    

Furniture - The Later Middle Ages

France And Burgundy
The period 1200-1500 in Europe was one of awakening interest in learning accompanied by a sense of security that had not been possible for some centuries, and although these years were still marred by periodic outbreaks of international and civil wars, conditions were more conductive to a civilised was of life in which fitted and non fitted furniture could play a more significant role. While even large houses continued to be sparsely furnished a greater variety of articles were made and a fresh repertoire of ornamental decoration was introduced.

The first coherent style to emerge was the Gothic, which overlapped the Romanesque period and was ifself to become modified by the Renaissance in Italy in the second half of the 15th century - it is not unusual to come across early pieces that combine Gothic and Renaissance features superimposed on Gothic forms. To suggest that there are precise dates for the ending of one style and the beginning of another would therefore be arbitrary and misleading.

The term 'Gothic' is itself misleading. It was first applied - or rather misapplied - to late medieval buildings by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), a pupil of Michelangelo and an enthusiast for the Renaissance style. He sought to pour scorn on the earlier buildings and labelled them 'Gothic' after the Goths who had been the conquerors of ancient Rome. The power of the Goths themselves had been finally destroyed in 711, more than 400 years before the first Gothic church was built in France. This was the abbey church of St Denis built in 1140-44 by Abbot Suger, which marked the first major transition from Romanesque to Gothic and set a fashion which by the 13th century was spreading across most of Europe and greatly influencing the design of handmade furniture

Suger set out to create the most beautiful church in France, and called in the finest artists and craftsmen available, thus bringing far more laymen into the church building business than had been customary, the monks having hitherto operated what almost amounted to a closed shop. The practice spread and the experience gained from such employment increased the skills of the workmen, who were able to put them to good use on their return to private business. Craftsmanship in furniture-making, now reproduction furniture, greatly improved but the decoration of domestic pieces was more than ever influenced by the repertoire of ornament derived from ecclesiastical architecture and woodwork.

The most readily recognisable Gothic feature is the pointed arch, said to have been introduced to France by the Normans, who in turn had found it in Saracenic architecture in Sicily. The spaces in the arch are often occupied by delicate tracery, together with plant forms and animal and human figures, all rendered more naturalistically and with less emphasis on the grotesque than is often apparent in Romanesque work.
Furniture with this kind of decoration was substantially made, usually in solid oak or walnut. The carving was frequently enriched with painting in vivid colours that created an effect far from the rather sombre appearance of surviving pieces, almost all of which lack their original colouration.



 

Pre-Renaissance Furniture

The Ancient World
If it is to be enjoyed  to the full, the handmade furniture of any particular period or place needs to be seen in the broader context of its relationship to other periods and other places. A chair made at about the time of Captain Cook's voyages, or a card table made in New York in the year of Waterloo, cannot be properly appreciated without reference to the source of its inspiration, which is to be found, as often as not, in classical antiquity. For this reason if for no other, it is worth learning about the furniture made in Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Etruria and Rome from about 1500 BC to 500 AD, even though the pieces known to have survived from that remote time are usually to be seen only in museums and could hardly be acquired by the private collector. Even so, for the enthusiast there is always the hope of finding a piece of pottery or a carving in stone that depicts one of these very early pieces.

Egypt
From the period of the New Kingdom (c.1575 - 1075 BC) a number of actual pieces have survived more or less intact, supplemented by painting or carved portrayals. Most extant examples have been found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, their families or officials of the Egyptian hier-archical government, so that our knowledge is confined mainly to the kind of fitted and non fitted furniture owned by the ruling classes.
This limitation however, applies to most furniture made anywhere before avout 1500 AD because, before then, few could afford anything more or better than crude essentials. The extent to which the better pieces were status symbols as much as functional articles, is a theme that recurs in every country and in every period down to the present day.
The best known hoard of Egyptian furniture to have come to light so far was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun who died about 1350 BC, and includes couches, beds, chairs, stools, foorstools, chests and small tables. Most of these are of sophisticated design and were made by techniques which, as excavations of older burial chambers have shown, were in use from much earlier times.

The chairs are throne-like, as might be expected, and were obviously meant to do more for the occupant's dignity than for their comfort - a tradition which was to persist in most societies for many centuries and which has still not entirely disappeared. A particular feature of the Egyptian throne-chair which has reappeared at intervals throughout the history of furniture, now reproduction furniture, is the chair leg fashioned in the form of an animals leg, usually that of a lion. Similar legs occur on Egyptian couches and indeed, Tutankhamun's funerary couches are themselves shaped to represent lions.

His camp bed, which also has lions paw feet, is ingeniously contrived to fold down into a compact space, as though intended for a modern bachelor apartment rather than an ancient burial pyramid. Another space-saving device from the same period is a folding stool with X-shaped supports. A different type of stool in fairly common use has a 'dished' (slightly hollowed) seat of interlaced cords and strips of leather, on a rigid frame composed of four legs joined by stretchers and a well engineered system of struts that gave added strength.

18th century furniture - Gustavian

In Sweden, as in Britain, the last 40 years of the 18th century were a golden age of design, and the beginning of a recognisable Swedish furniture style. The term 'Gustavian' is used to describe the Swedish Neoclassical style, and refers to the period from around 1755 to 1810.

Gustav III
The greatest exponent of the Swedish Neoclassical style was King Gustav III. He spent time at Versailles before being crowned in 1771, and developed a love of the French Neoclassical style. On his return to Sweden, he invited French cabinet-makers to Sweden to make furniture. When he wasn't able to pay them, they returned home, leaving behind their handmade furniture - this was copied by the local craftsmen, but in a less ornate style that became known as 'Gustavian'.
Walnut was often used in those earlier pieces, later furniture was usually made from local woods such as pine and schubirch, and then painted rather than gilded because it was cheaper - Sweden was a much poorer country than France at the time.
Gustav's enthusiasm for Neoclassical design led him to incorporate the style into his ancestral home, Gripsholm Castle. The Grand Cabinet, an official reception room, was lavishly decorated in this way.

Fashionable Homes
Furniture and floor-and-wall coverings were all designed as part of an integral interior. The most fashionable floor-coverings were inspired by those of Louis XV's carpet factory, the Savonnerie. However, floors were often bare, so were panelled to resemble marquetry designs.
Upholstered fitted and non fitted furniture was covered in red, blue, or green damasks, which matched the wall coverings. Chairs were oval or square backed, with turned, fluted legs. Daybeds and badkarsoffas, or bathtub sofas - where the sides of the sofa were the same height as the back and curved to create a bathtub form - were typically Gustavian and proved popular.

Late Gustavian Furniture
Swedish furniture design became more austere later in the period. The rectilinear two-part cabinet is a provincial example of this.
Gustavian pieces are clearly influenced by European, especially French, styles of furniture. However, Swedish designers interpreted the style in a way that is instantly recognisable as Scandinavian.

18th century furniture - Robert Adam

The interiors of the Scottish architect Robert Adam became so well known that the term 'Adam Style' was coined to describe his distinctive look.
Beginning his career by training as an architect in Edinburgh, under his father William, a classical architect. Robert spent five years studying in Italy, drawing the sights frequented by scholars on the Grand Tour. On his return in 1758 he established an office in London, where he was later joined by his elder brother James.
Adam's designs were primarily for interiors, rather than for whole buildings, and he designed every element of them, to create an integrated whole, from ceilings and matching carpets down to mirrors and urns. As a result, his designs included a wide variety of handmade furniture, including chairs, sofas, commodes, stools and mirrors. He also designed console tables, bookcases, and sideboards as 'wall furniture', an integral part of his decorative scheme for walls.
Adam did not make furniture himself, but instead commissioned established London cabinet-makers, including Chippendale  and Linnell, to make it. In his first decade in London, Adam developed the style of decoration that was to remain the dominant feature of his work throughout his career.

Early Influences
The Palladian style had a strong influence on Adam's early work. Armchairs and sofas that he designed for Sir Laurence Dundas - made by Chippendale - had typically Palladian, rectangular backs. However, the sphinxes on the curved seat rails showed the influence of Renaissance grotesques, and the use of anthemia harked back to Classical motifs.
By the late 1760s, Adam had begun to develop a more sophisticated style. His furniture designs became more delicate, the carving less dramatic, and he began to use straight legs. Case pieces were still rectangular but Adams began to use new shapes in other types of furniture, now only made using reproduction furniture techniques. In 1767, he designed furniture for the dining room at Osterley Park in West London and the dining chairs introduced a new shape of chair back, known as a harp or lyre back, inspired by Classical shapes.

The Later Years
By the 1770s, Adam's fame had grown and he carried out many commissions for the aristocracy. His elegant furniture designs were widely imitated. His tables and chairs had slender, tapered legs and armchairs had oval backs and slender frames. Mirrors were an important feature of his interiors and included simple designs intended to be positioned above pier tables, as well as enormous pieces with slight frames that were designed to cover an entire wall.

Colours And Decoration
Adam's designs were usually for furniture, fitted and non fitted furniture, made from lights woods, such as satinwood and harewood (sycamore that was dyed grey). Adam favoured delicate, painted designs, in soft pastel colours, such as pale green and lilac pink, and gilding.
The intricate, swirling arabesques that he used to decorate ceilings and floors were repeated in the filigree decoration used on his furniture. He also frequently used scagliola, not just on pieces of furniture but also as architectural features of an interior, such as the intricate scagliola columns at Syon House in West London.