FRENCH OR FLEMISH CABINET OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
The Renaissance brought a great change in the surface appearance of furniture, and in Italy, France, Flanders, and Germany the new art spirit manifested itself in different forms, each of which reflected the peculiar genius of the people of the land.
But all the earlier developments in furniture were overshadowed by the splendid achievements of French art in the latter part of the seventeenth century. These began under Louis XIV, and continued with undiminished productiveness and refinement of design through the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, to a decline under the Empire.
LOUIS XV—FURNITURE OF THE BOUDOIR
The foundation by Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, of the Manufactures Royales des Meubles de la Couronne, commonly called the Gobelins, brought together for the production of furniture and tapestry for the royal palaces the most talented designers and expert craftsmen of the time. Of these Charles André Boulle was the master cabinetmaker. His name is commonly identified with marquetry of tortoise shell and brass, which he carried to a high state of perfection; but he was much more than a craftsman. He developed a furniture style that harmonized perfectly in its vigor and magnificence with the splendid proportions of the great royal residences. Large in scale and massive in construction, his pieces rely for their effect upon bold and striking decoration of gilded bronze and marquetry.
AN EXAMPLE OF RIESENER MARQUETRY
STYLE OF LOUIS XV
Boulle’s pieces accord thoroughly with the years of pomp and splendor of Le Grand Monarque; but even before the death of Louis a notable change in the appearance of furniture set in. The nobility, whose resources had been severely strained to maintain the splendor set by the king, found it necessary to substitute smaller apartments for their great rooms and galleries. Moreover, the heroic quality of the earlier Louis XIV decorations was no longer suited to the growing softness and effeminacy of the age. Smaller and more delicate furnishings were demanded. The Louis XIV chairs had borrowed the high upholstered backs, together with the S curves for arms and legs, from the Italians—later on the bold bombé curve appeared in the supports of the tables. By the time of the Regency these outlines had become more slender and refined and the reign of the curved line in furniture became established,—a reign that lasted for fully half a century, during which time some of the ablest masters of design that have ever lived played and conjured with curves delicate and curves bold, now bringing forth an outline pure and exquisite in quality, and again with amazing inventiveness interlacing curve with curve in combinations of infinite variety and bewildering richness.
Most Louis XV furniture develops naturally from that of Louis XIV, and is built upon thoroughly structural lines. The reaction, however, against severity and the increasing demand of a frivolous aristocracy for new and more striking effects, gradually produced a style in which decoration was often not subordinated to structure, but made an end in itself.