In the early part of the fifteenth century and during the whole of the century the furniture of Europe generally was designed more or less on Gothic lines, but gradually the new forms that were now rapidly developing in the architecture of the Renaissance, but in a slower measure, began to assert themselves in furniture designs. Consequently, we find in many articles, such as arm-oires or presses, and cabinets, a mixture of style in the design - as, for instance, the upper panels would be in the Mediaeval, and the lower ones in the Renaissance style, or the general construction would be Gothic, and the details and decoration would be Italian.

This was more often the case in the furniture and other art in Germany, where the Renaissance was tardily welcomed.

Styles Of Design In Furniture

Styles Of Design In Furniture overlap each other so much, especially in the Renaissance period, that it becomes very difficult to assign a correct date to many pieces of important work. Gothic designs continued to be used during the sixteenth century, although the Renaissance had been developing for a hundred years earlier. The most authentic means of fixing the date is when certain work can be proved to have come from the hand of a particular artist, or when there is a record of its having been made for a king or some great person, for the style is not always a sure proof of the correct date.

In the "Quattrocento" period (1400-1500), or fifteenth century, Italian furniture made for churches, palaces, or private houses, was usually decorated with paintings, sometimes on a gilt ground, which was prepared in a gesso material before the gold was applied, some parts of which had relief ornamentation.

Reliquaries, altar-fronts, panels of cabinets, chests, and marriage coffers were decorated in this way.

The work known as "tarsia," or certosina work, was made in great perfection about this time in Italy. It is inlaid work of a geometric character in design, or is composed of floral ornament, and sometimes consists of representations of landscapes and buildings. This kind of inlay was derived from Persian sources, was developed chiefly by the Venetians, and was used mostly by them in the decoration of choir stalls, tables, chairs, cabinets, etc. Ebony, ivory, and metals were also employed in the Italian inlays of this period.

The Italian Cassoni, Or Marriage-Coffers

The Italian Cassoni, Or Marriage-Coffers, were the most ornate and most imposing articles of furniture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They were placed in the long halls and corridors of the palaces and great houses, and were usually given as presents to newly married couples. They were generally used as the receptacle for the bride's trousseau and other treasures. In the latter century they were carved in walnut with sculptural mythological subjects, and had endings or corners of half-figures and half-foliage, as caryatids, with feet designed from the claws of animals to raise them from the ground (Fig. 233). The carving was relieved by gilding in parts, and sometimes the whole of it was gilt.

Other examples of an earlier date were covered with a finely modelled decoration of gesso work, and gilded, and in other cases the large panels in the front were painted with figure subjects in brilliant colours and heightened with gold.

A less costly kind of marriage coffer was made in cypress-wood, and fitted up in the inside with drawers, having the decoration on the surface engraved or etched in brown lines, with the ground slightly recessed and punched or stamped with a fine ornamentation.

In the Kensington Museum there is an extensive collection of Italian cassoni embracing all the above varieties. Chairs carved and gilt of the same style and period as the coffers were usually placed between the rows of the latter in the halls of the Italian palaces (Fig. 235). These chairs had their backs and legs richly carved, each part being made out of a single slab of wood.

The Pair Of Bellows

The Pair Of Bellows (Fig. 234) is a further illustration of the design and excellence of workmanship as shown in the work of the wood carvers of Italy in the sixteenth century, or "Cinque-cento" period.

Another fine specimen of wood carving is the Italian stool (Fig. 236) of the same date, which is remarkable for its delicacy of treatment.

Another form of chair of a rectangular character, with or without arms, having an embossed leather or velvet covering on the back and seat, with turned and carved legs and rails, was made in Italy about this time (Fig. 237); it was much used subsequently in Spain, France, and in England, and has continued to be in favour down to the present day.

Cabinets

Cabinets were made in Italy and in France in which slabs of beautifully coloured and veined marbles and rare stones were inserted as panels in various shapes, to which the name of "pietra-dura" work has been given.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries painted plaques of porcelain took the place of these marbles.

In England, France, Spain, and Germany, the great houses, both private and religious, and the king's palaces were elaborately furnished, and kept in a state of great splendour.

Churches

Churches were also furnished with elaborate - stalls, pulpits, and rich utensils, but in the latter the style of the designs was still Mediaeval.

In the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. in England the style gradually altered to the Italian forms of the Renaissance, and many Italian architects and carvers found work in this country in making furniture for the royal palaces, and besides, great quantities of Italian, Flemish, and French furniture were largely imported. Jean de Mabuse and Torrigiano were employed as architects and sculptors by Henry VII., and Holbein and some Italian artists designed furniture and goldsmith's work for Henry VIII.