Sep
24
Baroque Antiqies: Louis XIV Style
September 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Needless to say the furnishings of these buildings had to match
setting and once again it was Rome that led the way, this time in
scorative arts, particularl) furniture.
iggeration was the order of the day, in size, scale and proportion.
Jng was lavish and the Renaissance sense of proportion was often
scrollwork and mouldings. This was the furniture of the sculptor
Different styles of turned leg used on
wilh its large leafy scrolls, flower garlands, putti and human figures.
Perhaps one of the reasons for the 19th century’s derisive attitude to the
Baroque was that it was seen out of context. The furniture of this period
was designed exclusively for the room it was to occupy; take it away from
the painted ceilings and the richly hung walls and its ornateness and
massiveness become more obvious. Not all the furniture of the Italian
palaces was so designed, for the members of the household lived mainly
in smaller rooms above their large Baroque chambers. Here the furniture
was of the simpler type common in the 16th century.
As the 16th century progressed the Baroque revolution influenced
other Italian craftsmen including goldsmiths, metalworkers and glass-
workers. It was in France however that the Baroque was further ela-
borated into the Louis XIV style, an interpretation of Baroque that
spread to the rest of Europe in one degree or another.
The reign of Louis XIV, ‘Le Roi soled’, (1643-1717) was a period of
French pre-eminence in European history. An age of cultural and
political ascendancy for France, Louis’ reign saw the origins of an in-
fluence on international fashion that still lingers today. Paris replaced
Rome as the art centre of the world and French became the language of
European courts and diplomacy. The Louis XIV style in the decorative
arts was largely due to Louis himself for he believed that art should be
in the service of the king rather than the Church as it had been for cen-
turies past. Through his minister Colbert, Louis established academies to
standardize style in art. and the style he favoured was a dignified and
stately, but still sumptuous form of Baroque. The over-zealousness of
the Italians was refined into a new classicism.
In England it was not until after the Restoration in 1660 that Baroque
influences appeared. Before that date furniture had remained more or
less in the Elizabethan style and other arts and crafts had made little
progress for a quarter of a century.
A fuller expression of the Baroque only appeared in England with the
reign of William and Mary (1689-1702), after whom the style was named.
The Huguenot refugees from France after 1685 played a significant role
in the propagation of the Baroque, for many of them were skilled crafts-
men bringing with them French techniques and designs at a time when
the Louis XIV style was at the height of its fashion. The influences upon
English decorative arts were both French and Dutch. Dutch Baroque
was characterized by an element of realism which they introduced into
their art by their rejection of the old world peopled with angels and saints
and their acknowledgement of the new Dutch middle class in which the
artist worked not for a sole patron, but for the market.
The Baroque era followed the inspired humanism of the Renaissance
with inflated statements of pomp, power and splendour. During the 17th
century, the institutions of the Church in Italy, the state in France, and
all courts of Germany, spawned materialistic monuments to their
hjlglory in architecture and fine and decorative arts.
■ Italy, papal families such as the Barberini, Pamfili, Aldobrandini
anc Borghese constructed elaborate villas, and filled them with works
■ and expensive furnishings. At Versailles, the association of Louis
V with the sun-god Apollo required the development of an interior
setting not quite of this earth.
I lttiated by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Baroque architectural and
ntural style retained classical elements, but took liberties with
iciples of symmetry and restraint. Columns became twisted, sculp-
tured figures contorted, carvings expressive and exuberant. Baroque
inti nors achieved striking effects through a colourful welding together
irchitecture, sculpture, and painting, which dazzled the eye with
qdour and variety. Rising numbers of wealthy merchants, bankers
and Inewly-aristocratic families resulted in a refinement of rules of
etic uette and ceremony in order to define rank rigidly. The villas of
prii wes, cardinals and courtiers were replete with devices that filtered
anc arranged guests and residents to exclude those of lower rank from
the more intimate courtly gatherings. Private audiences were held in
cat sets and closets, small rooms richly decorated with fine furnishings,
hai stings, crystal, porcelain and paintings.
ink determined access to the ‘public’ levees and touchers of heads of
staM princes and nobility in state bedrooms, where elaborately hung
bee s were generally enclosed inside alcoves or behind ceremonial
bal istrades. Rank also determined the allocation of seats: ornate, gilded
throne chairs in Italy and elsewhere were reserved for heads of house-
hol i and state, and progressively less imposing chairs and stools were
use i according to social position. In Spain, ladies were relegated to floor
cus uons.
Franee, privileged women received in bed, and guests sat on cushions
in hie ruelle, or alley, beside them. Fixed positions of most furniture
pie as emphasized the formality of Baroque interiors. Chairs generally
line d room walls, and were put back in place there by servants after use.
I Mended to impress, these palatial interiors were lined with Turkish
tapestries, Genoese cut velvets, Lucchese silks and Spanish embossed
an< gilt leathers that were exported throughout Europe. Ceilings and
wa Is were painted with brilliant frescoes and self-glorifying messages
we e not uncommon. Gilding of ceiling panels and wall ornaments
bee une increasingly fashionable.
/. though still relatively scarce. Baroque furniture took on the pro-
cla c^tory aura of the pompous fittings around it. Carved sconces,
guerdons and chandeliers provided glittering supports for candles, and
the ij gilded surfaces were reflected in cascades of light by decorative
miirors in elaborate carved frames.
I % Italy, large villas such as the Ca’Rezzonico in Venice housed suites
of (late apartments, including galleries, libraries, dining rooms and
sal< ns, all decorated with hangings, gold galloons and fringes, lacquer-
wo k and ivory and marble wainscoting. The furnishings of these rooms
we e objects of sculpture and art, rather than comfort. Produced by lead-
ing contemporary artists, scale, exaggerated style and cost precluded
casual use. The private family apartments located above the show rooms
of the piano nobile were furnished very simply.
Baroque furniture was bold, vigorous and sculptural. Naturalistic
carving in high relief supported tables, beds, chairs, stools and cup-
boards, Carved dolphins, eagles, shells, putti and grotesques were
combined with volutes, dense scrolling and foliage, and placed beneath
seats or slabs of marble to form chairs or tables.
Gilded chairs with outstretching arms and velvet upholstery were
carved with broad, ribbon-like forms which twisted and furled to in-
corporate putti and foliage. Decorative console tables were carved by
sculptors such as the Venetian Andrea Brustolon (1662-1732) in vigorous
compositions of animals, blackamoors, shells and figures.
Brustolon’s training began in his native city of Belluno and was con-
tinued, from his fifteenth birthday, under the Genoese sculptor Filipo
Parodi whose late Baroque style no doubt influenced him. His earliest
known work is a pair of angels for the sacristy altar in the Frari, Venice,
probably about 1683 and it seems that much of his life was spent creating
religious works for church use. The only furniture that can definitely be
attributed to him is a suite, sometimes called the “negro suite’ which he
made for a prominent Venetian, Pietro Venier, sometime before 1699
and now in the Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice. The chairs of this suite are
carved in boxwood, and the arms are fashioned as creeper-entwined
branches supported by negros with lacquered heads and arms. The
largest piece is a side-table in which Hercules, flanked by Cerberus and
the Hydra, supports a platform on which two river gods lie holding por-
celain vases with three nude negros supporting yet another vase in the
centre of the table. Only two other suites can be tentatively assigned to
Brustolon, one made for the Correr family and now in Ca’ Rezzonico
and the other for the Pisani which can be seen in the Quirinal, Rome.
The collection of Lord Burnham in Beaconsfield holds four armchairs
similar to the Venier pieces.
Features of the Italian Baroque reached France during the reign of
Henri IV, who established craft workshops in the Grand Galerie du
Louvreon the example of the Florentine ducal manufactories. Aided by
cardinals Jules Mazarin and Armand Jean de Richelieu, who wished to
establish a national style, Louis XIII continued to promote the emula-
tion of Italian and Flemish achievement in the decorative arts.
In 1661 Louis XIV acceded to the throne, and in 1667 Jean Baptiste
Colbert, his minister of arts, founded the Manufacture Royale des
Meubles de la Couronne, known as the Gobelins after the workshops
previously established in 1622. Under the directorship of the artist
Charles le Brun, and stimulated by the personal interest extended by
Louis XIV, the Gobelins workshop developed into flourishing collabora-
tive manufactories, in which designs of le Brun, Jean Berain (1638-1711),
and Jean le Pautre (1618-82) were completed by craftsmen contributing
diverse skills and talents. Among the most prominent were Jacques
Caffieri (1678-1755) and Andre Charles Boulle (1672-1732).
Boulle is undoubtedly France’s most celebrated cabinetmaker and
his name has been internationally adopted to describe the style of furni-
ture produced in his workshops. In 1672, he was given rooms and a
shop in the Louvre by Louis XIV, where for the next thirty years
jade furniture for the Court and the nobility, receiving the title
ier ebeniste du roi. While he made a great deal of furniture for
VerMilles, only two fully documented pieces are known - a pair of
commodes made for the king’s bedroom at the Trianon. It is not certain
whether boulle actually invented the commode but he certain!) spent
son e time experimenting with the concept and played an important
role in its development. The original versions of the commode were not
the bureau but with fewer drawers which extended the whole
and sometimes provided with doors and the top in either mar-
or marble. While marquetry was fashionable at this time, it was
: who brought the technique to perfection. The technique involved
glueing together thin sheets of brass and tortoiseshcll and then pasting
on to the surface a piece ol paper on which the required pattern had been
drawn. I he pattern was cut out with a saw and the layers separated to
givel two kinds of marquetry, the first called premiere-partie in which the
pattern of brass was on a tortoiseshcll ground and the other, contre-
partie which was the reverse. His most magnificent achievement was the
cabinet of the Dauphin, completed between 1680-83, which was
iestroyed.
French Baroque incorporated the exuberance and lavishness of
designs, forms and ornamented carving into a more restrained
Classical style. Rectilinear gilt upholstered sofas, day-beds and
were made at the Gobelins along with other furnishings for the
ce at Versailles. Tall, imposing cabinets, bureaux, and commodes
were covered with floral marquetry, or the delicate interlacing composi-
tions of contrasting toitoiscshell and brass popularized by boulle’s
craftsmanship. Heavy ormolu mounts of mythological scenes,
s, lions and acanthus leaves appeared on tables and case pieces,
i Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the great reductions
)belins’ output which the government imposed for economic
is, forced many craftsmen to leave France. Thedesigns of Huguenot
te Daniel Marot (1663-1752) proved especially important in the
lination of the Louis XIV style.
Jul
26
ANTIQUE ARMS AND ARMOUR
July 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment
ARMS AND ARMOUR
THE collector of arms and armour has to contend with one problem that is not common to any other of the collectors’ subjects dealt with in this encyclopaedia. This is the very small smanumber of antique dealers, specializing in their sale. The usual advice given to the new collector to consult the recognized authorities in the trade is less relevant in this field. Information must be gained by study of the various public collections in the Tower of London, the Wallace Collection and the Victoria & Albert Museum and their catalogues, or the Scott Collection in the Art Gallery at Glasgow.
The lack of specialist dealers has, however, from the collector’s point of view, its advantages as well as its disadvantages, since it adds greatly to the field of search. Practically any antique shop may contain something, and the collector must be prepared to enter every shop, no matter how discouraging its exterior. Furthermore, while the auction sales are, in other spheres, not attended by the average collector, in the armour field the converse is true. Private collectors regularly attend the public auctions; furthermore, a great many of the pieces offered for sale are put in by private collectors, who, in the absence of specialized antique shops, use this method of disposing of duplicates and other pieces. The arms and armour collectors form a closely organized group, and it would not be too much to say that a large proportion of the transactions which take place consist of direct exchanges between collectors without the assistance of the dealer as intermediary. In these circumstances, it is a great advantage for the collector to become a member of one or other of the societies existing in London for the encouragement of the collection and study of ancient The large-scale arms and armour dealer died out with
the generation of American millionaire collectors who
dominated the market during the twenties and thirties and made armour-collecting the preserve of the very rich. The situation is now radically altered to the advantage of the small collector, and firearms, though not fine armour and swords, have never before been available in such quantity. The immensely valuable harnesses, such as Gothic armours from the Churburg, armours from the Greenwich royal armouries, or from the Vienna armoury of the former Holy Roman Emperors, many of which were looted in the 19th century and so came on the art market, have now almost without exception been acquired by permanent national collections or protected by export licensing legislation.
But while such objects, in any case out of reach of the private collector in England, are no longer offered for sale, in other respects the modern collector is far better off than his 19th century predecessor. Throughout the 19th century fine arms and armour were in extremely short supply. When in the early decades of that century the romantic Gothic fashion manifested itself in the building of mock-Gothic castles and the reconstruction in the ‘Gothick’ taste of manor houses all over the English countryside, authentic armours and weapons to decorate their great halls were not to be had. The aristocratic owners of hereditary armouries were not disposed to break them up to satisfy the dealer, and the latter was therefore forced to fall back on the resources of the faker. It is difficult now to say whether the large numbers of armours and weapons turned out to furnish neo-Gothic castles were at the time intended to pass as genuine and merit the description ‘fake’ or not. But they cannot now, after over a hundred years of patination, well be distinguished from the true fake, made with the intention to deceive.
One of the greatest of the mid-19th century assemblages Of works of art, the Bernal Collection, while immensely rich in most spheres of applied art, was weak In swords and firearms*. and many of the former, made up from ill-assorted pieces, would not be acceptable to the modern collector. Even during the latter part of the i9th century, when the Baron de Cosson was combing Europe for the two remarkable collections he sold at Christie’s, it was still difficult to find good-quality pieces which had not been altered or reassembled by some previous owner. At the same time the Rothschild phase of armour-collecting, which placed a premium on highly embossed pieces in the taste of the High Renaissance, gave new scope to the faker.
Parts of armour, but not complete suits, swords, daggers and firearms were turned out by highly skilled Milanese fakers in large quantities during the last quarter of the 19th century, and are occasionally to be encountered on the art market still. They carry an air of conviction which is lacking in earlier fakes, since their designs were based on the series of original designs for armour and for swords, facsimiles of which had been published during the second half of the century. In spite of this, they do not exactly resemble authentic pieces of the period; their makers forgot that artists rarely take account of technical problems of manufacture and function, and that it is the craftsman’s function to modify their designs accordingly. The 19th-century craftsman was unable to foresee functional difficulties and could surmount all manufacturing problems, and his productions reproduce all those fantasies of ornament which his Renaissance ancestor would have omitted.
It was not until after World War I that arms and armour became really plentiful. Not only in England but throughout Western and Central Europe, noble families disposed of their hereditary collections, sometimes being forced to do so by financial necessity, sometimes being tempted by the enormously high prices created by the competition of a small number of English and American millionaire collectors. What might be called the millionaire phase of armour-collecting lasted until shortly before, the outbreak of World War II. It resulted in the transfer of some of the finest armours in existence either direct to America or first to England and thence to America. Not only were the armouries of noble families broken up, but also considerable numbers of duplicates were sold from the newly nationalized, former royal, collections of Germany, in particular those of the Saxon Royal House.
Many of these pieces, especially those from Dresden, had been preserved in very nearly pristine condition, and for the first time it became possible for the collector to secure fine arms in admirable state and with known provenance. The pre-war generation of collectors which absorbed these pieces is now dying out, and many of them are coming back on the market again, often at prices below those they fetched between the wars. The appearance of fine and authentic weapons in pristine condition in the sale-rooms relieved the fakers of one of the more tedious tasks of their profession, that of ageing their products. A Dresden faker continued over a period of some twenty years to put on the market convincing copies of the fine silver-mounted Saxon rapiers of the 16th century, authentic examples of which were at the same time being disposed of, though only in small numbers, from the Dresden collection. These are the most dangerous fakes still about on the armour market, and any Saxon sword or rapier with hilt of blued steel enriched with mounts of engraved silver must be regarded with suspicion.
There still exists amongst the uninformed a certain prejudice against the collection of arms and armour on the ground that they represent the least sympathetic aspect of man’s evolution. Whatever one’s moral judgement of the preoccupation of the nobility in the past with the profession of arms may be, it should not be forgotten that until nearly the end of the eighteenth century a finely ornamented sword or dagger performed a decorative function in male costume analogous to that of jewellery in the female costume of the time. Particularly is this true of the period when the sword provided almost the only note of contrast to the sombreness of the black court dress in the Spanish fashion. The decorative qualities of armour tend also to be forgotten, since most of the surviving suits have been so often cleaned that the bright gold, purple, blue or black colours of their surface have been irretrievably lost, and though they may preserve their grace or their grotesqueness, they lack the gaudy splendour which they once possessed.