Throne, late 15th century. Oak.

 

 

Once the method was adopted in full, it proceeded with unprecedented rapidity. First, bouquets of flowers appeared in their natural colours, their leaves varied with every shade of green. Next, trophies of musical or rustic instruments were suspended by brightly coloured ribbons. It was a small step from pastoral scenes to amorous emblems; quivers and torches surmounted by the customary doves appeared on all sides. More than this, the medallions enriched with garlands showed shepherdesses in satin robes reclining in sylvan groves. Pastoral scenes invaded the panellings of secretaries, sides of commodes, and covered the bonheurs-du-jour.

A strange aberration resulted, even at the moment of execution, in a certain approximation greatly inferior to the models, and which, from the effects of time, the action of light upon the dyes and the natural play of the resins during the drying of the wood, was soon to represent mere faded designs, and an ensemble without any other harmony than that resulting from the destruction of the effect desired to be produced. It is sad to reflect on the amount of talent and labour spent composing these scenes, now reduced to a sort of cloudy sketch. The once brilliant draperies are dulled and dirty, the faded roses lasted as long as roses last; and when we compare these works with the tapestries, seats and tissues which accompanied them, we cannot help saying that even when they first came from the hands of their makers, they must have been extinguished by their brilliant surroundings. But let us pass on from this accomplishment and try, by following the stages in marquetry work, to retrace the evolutionary history of modern furniture, the two subjects sharing the closest connection.

We have said a few words on Italian marquetry without dwelling upon it, for the inventions of brothers Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano were rather intended to decorate the woodwork of cathedral choirs than to enhance private furniture. We find a few rare chests in which some rudimentary sculptures, on a painted background, are framed in a chequered work of brown and yellow wood. There are certainly the certosa works but these are not real marquetry. During the Renaissance, sculptural notions and the search for architectural forms bring furniture into a serious style, incompatible with the coquetries of tinted woods. When, towards its close, the want of a rather flaunting style of elegance begins to manifest itself, it comes in the application of engraved ivory and the addition of pietra dura. Architecture still retains its dominance and finds itself decked in jewels like the people of the court.

Under Louis XIII, furniture increases in size and weight in unison with other works of art. Ebony, which sculpture cannot enliven, seeks aid from chased bronze or even from the application of wrought copper; Flanders is already attempting to add tortoise shell to frameworks.