Motives of marquetry of a formal floral nature are reproduced in Fig. 37.
Plate XXXI.—Marquetry Cabinet.
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
During the Spanish dominion in the sixteenth century, the chair in which great personages sit for their portraits has a high straight back with the side posts usually ending in carved lions’ heads, straight or scrolled arms and carved or plain straight legs connected by stretchers. The feet are sometimes carved with the heads or feet of animals. The back and seat are upholstered with velvet or stamped leather fixed to the frame with large brass-headed nails. This “Spanish chair” was common in Spain, Italy, France and England, as well as in the Netherlands. We find it in the pictures of the great portrait painters of the Renaissance—Raphael, Titian and Velasquez—as well as the great Dutch and Flemish masters. Fig. 36 shows a fine solid and simple example of this style of chair of Flemish workmanship. It is well-proportioned; both front and back legs and the arms are turned, and the stretchers are grooved and shaped. When in use, of course, the seat would be comfortably cushioned. The back, seat and arms are covered with leather.
The most common chair of the seventeenth century, however, is one without arms. It is rather low and is a simplified form of the above “Spanish chair.” A fine early example of this model is represented in Plate [XXVIII], now in the Cluny Museum, Paris. It will be noticed that the heads on the back posts are still carved, and that the legs are shaped and turned, while the rails are grooved. The Cluny Museum has a considerable number of Flemish chairs of this style and period. One of them, stamped with the monogram of Christ and the date 1672, probably belonged to an ecclesiastic. The ordinary form of this chair appears on either side of the chimney-piece in Plate [XXIV].
The low-backed chair without arms is very common in interior scenes by Dutch and Flemish masters. Sometimes we see guests seated on them at the table; and sometimes it will serve as a seat for a lady as she takes a music-lesson. (See Plate [XXXIX].) It is found in various dimensions and proportions. Sometimes it has one set of rungs and sometimes two; sometimes the legs are plain, and sometimes elegantly turned. Sometimes the back posts have lions’ heads and frequently not. (See Plates XXXV and XXXIX, and Fig 35.)
The design by Crispin de Passe, Fig. 32, shows the style for an armchair of the middle of the century. Here the centre of the top back bar is raised with ornamental carving and the lions’ heads are suppressed. A variety of the same style of chair fashionable during the period of Louis XIII is represented by the handsome piece of Flemish workmanship in Plate [XXIX], also in the Cluny Museum. The arms and bars and front legs are turned in elegant spirals effectively relieved. The back posts do not rise above the top rail, and have no lions’ heads, but finely carved heads terminate the arms. The back and seat are covered with gilt leather stamped with a beautiful floral design and fastened to the frame with the usual large-headed nails. Sometimes instead of lions’ heads, we find carved heads of other animals and of women. Besides leather and velvet, this style of chair was frequently covered with embroidered material and tapestry.
A Dutch chair of this general form, though with sloping and scrolled arms, is in the Rijks Museum. (See Plate [XXXIII].) The legs are turned in spirals; and the back and seat are upholstered with a rich material figured with large flower forms—tulips, roses, irises, etc.
Plate XXXII.—Kitchen.
STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.