Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/884

 848 FURNITURE showing that such objects were sometimes richly deco rated. The carving is apparently of Egyptian origin. The furniture of the Assyrians was more massive, and less varied and elegant in execution, than that of the Egyptians. Greek seats (thronoi) are sculptured in the Parthenon frieze now in the British Museum. They resemble turned wood structures, though perhaps representing bronze. The arms are low and straight, and the backs upright. A curious chair of this kind is represented on one of the bas reliefs from Xanthus (British Museum). In the same collection will be seen statues seated in chairs framed in square bars, the horizontal pieces morticed into the upright, and these details are carefully represented in marble. Certain far- famed gold and ivory statues of colossal size, at Olympia and other places, were represented seated. The bars and frames of the chairs, and of the footstools and pedestals, were constructed of cedar wood, coloured and inlaid with plates of sculptured ivory, and of gold and other precious materials. A sacred chest with carved lid, a table covered with ivory carvings, and other objects in these shrines are described by Pausanias. Unfortunately we have but his verbal accounts of them (see Q. de Quincy, Jupiter Olympien, in which careful engravings are given of their probable shapes). Chairs of the shape in general use forty or fifty years ago (the front and back legs curved outwards, with a plain piece of wood curved to fit the shoulders for the top rail of the backj are not uncommon in paintings on vases. The vase rooms of the British Museum and the Louvre give frequent illustrations of chairs, couches, &c, as well as of the stuffs used in upholstering them. Sumptuous Greek furniture, during the last two centuries B.c , was nnde of bronze, damascened with gold and silver. The Romans employed Greek artists and workmen. Their chairs, couches, and seats were of similar shape to those of the Greeks. During meals men reclined on couches each made to hold three persons ; a low rail protected the back ; three of these couches surrounded the table at entertain ments, leaving the fourth side open for service. The de coration consisted of rich coverings, constantly changed to suit the season, or in honour of the guests. Women sat during meals. The sella curulis, a folding cross-shaped seat, was carried in the chariot, and used in the forums, baths, lecture halls, &c. It was often inlaid with ivory. Sella?, square seats of bronze, were also often carried about, as well as footstools, the former raising the sitter above the heads of humbler persons. Couches, covered with tilts and curtains, could be carried by slaves, and used as litters. Four silver figuresof the 4th century, representing the capital cities of the empire, now in the British Museum, are considered to have ornamented the ends of the poles or shafts of a litter. Tables were of marble, resting on sphinxes or other animals. Dining tables were of wood, curiously veneered, to which a high value was often attached. They rested on tripods or frames of four or of six legs, ornamented with figures, busts, animals, &c., in bronze. Tables were changed with each course. Tables were sometimes protected by rims or borders, sometimes rested on feet of carved ivory. Books and other property were kept in scrinia, round chests that could be fastened. Clothes and provisions had special rooms to hold them. In the later ages of the empire, in Home, and afterwards in Constantinople, gold and silver were plentiful for furniture; even cooking and common house vessels were occasionally made in those metals. The chair of St Peter in Rome, a solid square seat, with pedimental back and panelled with carved ivory, that of t Maximian in the cathedral of Ravenna, round backed, with arras also panelled with carved ivory, and many re presentations on carved ivory diptychs or tablets, will give the student a correct notion of the furniture of the divided empire. The character of the curule chair survived and may be recognized in the Bayeux tapestry (St Edward s seat), and in many mediaeval painting*. The architectural features so prominent in much of the mediaeval furniture begins in these Byzantine and late Roman thrones. These features became paramount as Pointed architecture became general in Europe, and scarcely less so during the Renaissance. Most of the mediaeval furniture, chests, seats, trays, &c., of Italian make were richly gilt and painted. In northern Europe carved oak was more generally used. The coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, made for Edward I. in the 13th century, has a Cabled and crocketed back, is panelled with tracery work, and rests on carved lions, the whole gilt and painted. State seats in feudal halls were benches with ends carved in tracery, backs panelled or hung with cloths (called cloths of estate), and canopies projecting above. Bed steads were square frames, the testers of panelled wood, and resting on carved posts. Chests of oak carved with panels of tracery, or of Italian cypress (when they could be imported), were used to hold and to carry clothes, tapestries, &c., to distant castles and manor houses; for house furniture had to be moved from place to place. A chest of the reign of John is kept in the castle of Rockingham. Many can be seen in old parish churches, and in the South Kensington Museum, the Louvre, and many other Continental galleries. Carved stalls covered by elaborate tabernacle work remain in many cathedrals and churches. The Hotel de Cluny in Paris contains numerous examples of this kind of wood work. Altars were backed by paintings in canopied frames, closed byshutters, which were also painted insideand outside. In some German churches, e.g., the cathedrals of Hildesheim and of Miinster in Westphalia, the entire picture (as well as the shutters) was made to open out, showing ingenious receptacles for reliquaries within. Copes and other vestments were kept in semicircular chests with ornamental lock plates and iron hinges ; an example is preserved in Wells cathe dral. The splendour of most feudal houses depended on pictorial tapestries which could be packed and carried from place to place. Wardrobes were rooms fitted for the recep tion of dresses, as well as for spices and other valuable stores. Excellent carving in relief was executed on caskets, which were of wood or of ivory, with painting and gilding, and decorated with delicate hinge and lock metal work. The general subjects of sculpture were taken from legends of the saints or from metrical romances. Renaissance art made a great change in architecture, and this change was exemplified in furniture. Cabinets and panelling took the outlines of palaces and temples ; sometimes they were actually constructed in perspective, e.g., a small theatre front at Yicenza, the work of the younger Palladio. Curious internal fittings were arranged in cabinets, still following the details of architectural interiors. In Florence, Rome, Venice, Milan, and other capitals of Italy, sumptuous cabinets, tables, chairs, chests, kc., were made to the orders of the native princes. Vasari (Lives of Painters) speaks of scientific diagrams and mathe matical problems illustrated in costly materials, by the best artists of the day, on furniture made for the Medici family. The great extent of the rule of Charles V. helped to give a uniform training to artists from various countries resorting to Italy, so that cabinets, &c., which were made in vast numbers in Spain, Flanders, and Germany, can hardly be distinguished from those executed in Italy. Francis I. and Henry VIII. encouraged the revived arts in their respective dominions. Examples of 16th-century chests, cabinets, tables, seats, sideboards, &c., can be seen in museums, and in many private houses. Pittra dura, or inlay of hard pebbles, agate, lapis, lazuli, and other stones, ivory carved and inlaid, carved and gilt wood, marquetry or veneering with thin woods, tortoiseshell, brass, &c., were