Byzantine, Romanesque, Saracenic, and the Furniture of the Middle Ages.
The furniture, such as tables, chairs, beds, and the chariots, of the Byzantine period, was like the architecture in having something of the classic Roman mixture with some Asiatic Greek forms in its design. Scarcely any remains of such are now in existence, although we have evidence of the extreme richness of the sumptuary furniture and vessels of the great houses and palaces of Constantinople, for owing to the decadence and destruction of the Roman empire in the provinces, the capital of the East became enriched by treasures of the old Roman families, who naturally fled to Constantinople for protection for themselves and their valuable effects.
The old ivories known as consular diptychs have different varieties of seats, chairs, and footstools, on which the consuls are seated, represented in the carving. Many originals of these and casts from others may be seen in the Kensington Museum.
The chair of St. Maximian, preserved at Ravenna, is covered with ivory carvings, and is one of the finest examples of Byzantine work. It is described at page 138 and is figured in Labarte’s “Art of the Middle Ages.”
Much of the furniture of the early centuries of Christian art is represented in the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts. Beds and couches kept the old Roman forms with the turned legs. Chariots must have been used very much, as the old game of chariot racing was kept up by the Byzantines. The Iconoclasts of the Eastern Empire under Leo the Isaurian (A.D. 726)—whose injurious rule lasted about one hundred and twenty years—were responsible for much destruction of sumptuary furniture, as well as for other productions of an artistic nature, but at the same time they were the indirect means of causing a new development in art in the western parts of Europe, and more particularly in the Rhenish Provinces, by driving the Byzantine artists and craftsmen to these places, where they were welcomed by Charlemagne, and by his powerful nobles and Churchmen. In the course of time they succeeded in founding the school of art known as Rhenish-Byzantine. The finest illustrations of this art are seen in the magnificent enamelled reliquaries or shrines. The gilt-bronze chair of Dagobert is of Romanesque design, and is one of the earliest pieces of furniture of the Middle Ages (see Fig. 134). Another mediæval chair or throne is high seated, and exceedingly rich in design (Fig. 221). It is of Scandinavian origin, and is a good example of the Romanesque style of Northern Europe. Many forms of the Romanesque are seen in the furniture and carving of the Gothic style that immediately succeeded the former.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in England the ordinary houses usually consisted of one room. Sometimes a shed-like structure was erected against the wall of the room to contain the bed of the mistress of the house, and as a rule the inmates slept on a large table placed in the centre of the room, or on benches on which bags of straw were placed. Seats without backs, or stools, long settles or benches with backs and carved ends or arms, were the chief articles in furniture.
After the Norman Conquest domestic improvements were multiplied, more rooms were added to the houses, such as the solar or upper room, and the parloir or talking-room, and some of the rooms had fireplaces, but not chimneys. The principal room was the hall or assembly-room, which had a fireplace in the centre, the smoke escaping through the lantern light in the roof.
In the Norman times the principal additions to the furniture of English manor-houses and castles were the cupboard, presses or armoires, and chests. These pieces of furniture were introduced from France. Sometimes the portable presses and the chests were painted with tempera decorations, and were bound with wrought-iron clasps and hinges, which were just beginning to come into use.
Fig. 221.—Scandinavian Seat or Throne of the Middle Ages.
The bed-clothes and personal clothing of the nobles and rich landowners began to assume a rich character, and were often embroidered.
Tapestry and painted cloth hangings were imported; also pottery of an ornamental description was not only imported, but made in England at this time. All this applies to the homes of the rich only, for the poorer classes remained for a long period in a very primitive condition as regards their style of houses and their furniture.
Fig. 222.—Flemish; Sixteenth Century. (P.)
Fig. 223.—German; Fifteenth Century. (P.)
Fig. 224—English; Fifteenth Century. (P.)
The construction of furniture and the panelling of chests began to exhibit some workmanlike appearances of good carpentry. Panels were placed in framework that was mortised and fastened with wooden pegs, which became the universal method of panelling throughout the Gothic period. Room panelling came into use in England in the early part of the thirteenth century, when pine timber was used at first for this work, but was displaced later by the more substantial oak. This oak panelling during the Gothic periods was often carved with elaborate tracery of an architectural character (Figs. 222, 223), and a common design was a carved imitation of a carefully folded textile, known as the “linen panel” (Fig. 224).
Fig. 225.—Dining Room; Fifteenth Century. (P.)
Chests were used as tables, and the tops had inlaid checkers to be used as chessboards. They were also used as sideboards on which to place dishes of food, the dining-table being a board which was placed on trestles, that could be removed and packed away when not required (Figs. 225, 226). A cross-legged chair and a three-legged stool is shown at Fig. 228, which were common shapes in the fourteenth century. The illustration, Fig. 227, is that of a bedroom of the same period, and is taken from an English manuscript of the date of 1400. For these illustrations, and many others on the subject of furniture, we are indebted to the work of Mr. J. H. Pollen on “Furniture and Woodwork.” The bed in the latter illustration has a flat canopy, or tester, with embroidered hangings. The walls of the room are panelled, and the floor is in checkered parquetry. There is a curious seat that is partly an open press, with pottery, and metal vases placed as decoration on the top.
Fig. 226.—Dining Table on Trestles; Fourteenth Century. (P.)
Fig. 227.—Bedroom Interior; 1400. (P.)
Fig. 228.—Seats; Fourteenth Century. (P.)
Fig. 229.—The Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey. (P.)
Chests, trunks, or bahuts, were at this period, and in the time of the Normans, the most important articles in furniture: they were often made with inlaid wood decorations, and had strap-work of iron and ornate hinges. They were the usual repositories of the household valuables, money, and other treasures, and were carried on horses or mules when the family moved about from place to place. By degrees the chest, with the addition of a back and arms, became the settles or principal seats in the living-room, and the back developed with an added hood or projecting covering into the daïs, or throne-like seat, that was placed at the end of the chief room—the place of honour.
Another and later development of the chest was to raise it on legs, and to add a back arrangement to it, with shelves for the display of household plate, to which was given the name of dressoir, or dresser, the latter in time developing into the modern sideboard.
Chests were also important articles of church furniture, in which the sacred vessels, treasures, books, and priests’ garments could be locked up, and a particular form of chest kept in church vestries was the cope chest, which took the semicircular shape of the copes when laid out flat in these chests. Examples of these chests are still to be seen in some of the large cathedrals.
Fig. 230.—Travelling Carriage; English; Fourteenth Century. (P.)
The coronation chair (Fig. 229) gives a good idea of a state chair of the early Gothic period in England.
Fig. 231.—Travelling Carriage; English; Fourteenth Century. (P.)
Carriages of the fourteenth century were used for the conveyance of women and children, but were not very common. They were long-shaped covered vehicles on four wheels, with or without panelled sides, and were painted and decorated (Figs. 230, 231). Carts for carrying and for agricultural purposes were used in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods in England, and in France at the same dates: these were two-wheeled vehicles, each wheel being usually of one solid piece of wood.
Fig. 232.—Table (Kursy); Saracenic. (L. P.)
The Saracens were very ingenious in the using of wood, as in carpentry, carving, and turning in the lathe. Their ingenuity and skill in carpentry and turning is seen in the Meshrebīya work and lattice, and in the carvings of the pulpit and door panels. This work has been noticed under the heading of Saracenic Architecture and Ornament in the former volume.
Regarding the furniture of the domestic dwellings of the Saracens, whether of Egypt, Arabia, or elsewhere, there was very little of a movable nature except the small tables and reading-desks. The tables of Saracenic design are usually small and of a greater height than width (Fig. 232). These tables or kursys are sometimes panelled with turned, latticed, or carved decoration, having stalactites under the top, as in the illustration, or in the kursys of a lighter construction are generally inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl. Some of the richest variety are hexagonal in shape, are inlaid with brass and silver filigree ornamentation, and are of splendid workmanship. The next important article in movable furniture is the Saracen reading-desk, which is made in the form of a camp-stool, with cross legs. It is usually inlaid and decorated like the tables.
The divans are platforms raised slightly from the ground, and covered with cushions on the seats and backs. The carved cupboards or shelves on brackets placed behind and above the divans, on which vases and trays are kept for ornament or when not in use, complete the usual furniture of the Saracenic living-room. Seats or chairs of lattice-work (dikkas), on which the doorkeeper sits, are usually found in entrance-halls, and if we add the elaborate metal and coloured-glass lamps, the vases, the large metal salvers or trays, and the rugs and carpets, the furniture of a Saracenic house is complete.