Decorative Art. Albert Jacquemart

[2] arranged in the Gothic style; the four front compartments are composed of elliptic shaped arches, trefoiled interiorly, and supported by small twisted columns. This structure is done with coloured backgrounds which completely frame the subject, each of which represents the same young man presenting himself successively before men in religious costumes. Next the young man’s presence is announced in a castle by men sounding the trumpet while women advance to receive him and introduce him into the interior of the dwelling. The final picture represents a room in which the young man is seated between a matron and a young girl, who has appeared in the two preceding pictures; musicians are sounding trumpets and everything suggests that it is a betrothal ceremony. Thus, the bahut of the 15th century is already the cassone, or marriage coffer, which was presented with the wedding gifts, a custom we will see reproduced throughout the whole of the following century in Italy, and which has been adopted in many other countries, where the splendidly furnished corbeille is still an object of great luxury.

      Throne, 16th century. Carved wood, 174 cm. Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

      What confirms our opinion that it is a marriage coffer is another painted specimen, belonging to the Cernuschi collection, which forces this title upon itself. On this, appliqué ornaments of antique style are gilded to form three compartments. The middle one contains a painted coat of arms in relief, while the other two represent a young married couple followed by a cavalcade, accompanied by musicians, arriving at the paternal dwelling where they ask for admittance; they are received, and the mother embraces the young wife in a columned vestibule in the presence of the assembled family. The train of attendants has disappeared and all we can see near the doorway is the sumpter mule laden with the baggage of the married pair. This piece is also of the 15th century, as the costumes show, but its style of ornament already gives us foresight into the Renaissance. We will not even attempt to list the Italian artists who were able to devote their chisel to the embellishment of furniture; contemporaries themselves were content to say that the most illustrious among the sculptors did not disdain this branch of art.

      It is extremely difficult to specify the dates of 15th century works. The oldest and most numerous are derived from the Gothic style; buttresses, mullions, trefoils and rosettes form their most common ornament. However, this style lasted, more or less, for such a considerable time because it was modified according to various centres and tastes of the changing times; the Gothic of the north of France is not that of the south nor of Italy, rather, the pieces with figures have yielded to still more variable influences. There are some pieces of furniture without analogy to any others which defy all classification; of such is a magnificent cedar chest belonging to Edmond Bonnaffé. Figures wearing the costume of the Court of Burgundy towards the middle of the 15th century represent scenes from Jean de La Fontaine’s fable of love, framed in a rich scroll border with animals running among the foliage. This border is specifically reminiscent of the precious Sicilian-Byzantine fabrics executed at Palermo. Yet, in regards to workmanship, the piece is still mere carpenter’s work, particularly when considering the simplicity of its joining; the lid, plain and without moulding, is bordered by a crossed pattern of small hollow triangles, imitating the setting of Oriental marquetry piqué. The subject itself is deeply engraved rather than sculpted.

      “Clairvaux” cupboard, c. 1570. Carved wood, 246 cm. Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

      Chest panel, 16th century. Carved wood, 150 cm. Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

      “Farnèse” wardrobe, c. 1530. Carved walnut, 230 cm. Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

      Fan-shaped table, 16th century. Carved wood, 82 cm. Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

      The close of the century is mainly a compromise between the past and the ideas of the Renaissance. After Louis XIII we have to look for very specific clues in order to distinguish what is of the 15th or 16th century, French or Italian. On all sides, people sacrificed taste for antiquity; palmette ornaments, branches of coiled flowers, and acanthus with its spiny decorative leaves replaced the western flora. In some old centres, however, they maintained the carvings of flamboyant arches and Gothic canopies; the new designs often led the artist to mix the styles indicative of the transition in ideas and operation.

      Already furniture becomes complicated; the credenza, a simple buffet table for tasting dishes, becomes a tall elegant cupboard, often with flaps and a small shelf underneath, it is completed by a back piece and a shelf, thus passing on to the new form of the credenza. What was this to be called? At first the name was given to the room destined to contain the most valuable plate; later, it was applied to a piece of furniture meant to serve the same purpose, and by extension to the other articles which decorated it. The sideboard differed little from the buffet. It also displayed large gold plates, jewellery, and any other flattering items worth showing; the number of shelves was fixed according to the rank and importance of the people with things to display. The credenza was, therefore, the buffet of reception rooms, as the buffet was the sideboard of the banqueting hall.

      Where it is necessary for us to pause a moment, is at the word cabinet. The Marquis de Laborde considers this piece of furniture, so prevalent in the 16th and 17th centuries, to be a bahut: raised on four legs, filled with small drawers, all shut together behind a double, sometimes quadruple, folding door, with locks. An architectural disposition was given to this piece, both inside and outside, and thus the cabinet was formed. The learned archaeologist has overlooked the transition which took place in the 16th century between the cabinet, properly so called, and the armoire, a piece of furniture composed of two superimposed bodies and crowned by an elegant pediment. The fact is that the armoire is a cabinet in which the support table has been replaced by a closed base with folding doors and thus utilised.

      Apollonio di Giovanni, Marriage chest, A Tournament on Santa Croce Square in Florence, mid-15th century. Carved and gilt poplar wood, oil painting decoration. The National Gallery, London.

      Moreover, it would be a hopeless task to describe these different pieces of furniture, which are clear to the connoisseur based on their splendid figures, medallions with busts almost in relief, and arabesques of the finest taste. Such cabinets and credenzas are masterpieces in every respect. A series of the coffers, or cassoni of Italian origin, offer an interesting subject of study in regard to history and art. There is one in the Musée Cernuschi with plain moulding and entirely ornamented with paintings; one would be tempted to attribute it to the beginning of the 15th century if the costumes of the figures did not indicate the period of Louis XII. Those from Baron Gustave de Rothschild’s collection are nearly of the same period, yet their magnificent sculptures in relief, broken at intervals by the coat of arms, griffin supporters, and elegant arabesques which stand out boldly from the gilded piqué background, would seem to make them nearly a century younger. These gilded backgrounds are a relic of the customs of the Middle Ages; a majority of the furniture which our museums possess, which shine with the warm colouring of old polished oak, were once illuminated in their backgrounds as well as in their reliefs. The Musée de Cluny still has a coffer representing the twelve apostles which has retained its ancient paint.

      It is to the Renaissance, therefore, that we owe the progress which substituted the simple force of relief for the artificial glow of blue or vermilion. To strengthen this force they began to choose fine wood which was more accessible to the delicacy of touch than oak with its rough fibres. France especially gave the preference to walnut, raising figures borrowed from the School of Fontainebleau on its smooth surface figures. The choice of material and the style of workmanship enable us to determine a certain number of schools. The school of the north of France, faithful to its ancient traditions, retains oak and covers it with scenes in which the figures, though rather short, assume a harsh energy; the abundant embellishments remind us of those of Rouen and other Norman edifices. The schools of Touraine and Lyons, nearer to the sources of the Renaissance,