Part 1 (2/2)

I

THE RENAISSANCE ON THE CONTINENT

ITALY. Flight of Greek scholars to Italy upon capture of Constantinople by the Turks--1453.

Rediscovery of Greek art.

Florence the centre of the Renaissance.

Leo X., Pope (1475-1521).

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1520). Raphael (1483-1520). Michael Angelo (1474-1564).

FRANCE. Francis I. (1515-1547).

Henry IV. (1589-1610).

SPAIN. The crown united under Ferdinand and Isabella (1452-1516).

Granada taken from the Moors--1492.

Charles V. (1519-1555).

Philip II. (1555-1598).

GERMANY. Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany (1459-1519).

Holbein (1498-1543).

In attempting to deal with the subject of old furniture in a manner not too technical, certain broad divisions have to be made for convenience in cla.s.sification. The general reader does not want information concerning the iron bed of Og, King of Bashan, nor of Cicero's table of citrus-wood, which cost 9,000; nor are details of the chair of Dagobert and of the jewel-chest of Richard of Cornwall of much worth to the modern collector.

It will be found convenient to eliminate much extraneous matter, such as the early origins of furniture and its development in the Middle Ages, and to commence in this country with the Tudor period. Broadly speaking, English furniture falls under three heads--the Oak Period, embracing the furniture of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; the Walnut Period, including the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; the Mahogany Period, beginning with the reign of George III. It may be observed that the names of kings and of queens have been applied to various styles of furniture as belonging to their reign. Early Victorian is certainly a more expressive term than early nineteenth century.

Cromwellian tables, Queen Anne chairs, or Louis Seize commodes all have an especial meaning as referring to styles more or less prevalent when those personages lived. As there is no record of the makers of most of the old English furniture, and as a piece of furniture cannot be judged as can a picture, the date of manufacture cannot be precisely laid down, hence the vagueness of much of the cla.s.sification of old furniture.

Roughly it may in England be dealt with under the Tudor, the Stuart, and the Georgian ages. These three divisions do not coincide exactly with the periods of oak, of walnut, and of mahogany, inasmuch as the oak furniture extended well into the Stuart days, and walnut was prevalent in the reigns of George I. and George II. In any case, these broad divisions are further divided into sub-heads embracing styles which arose out of the natural development in taste, or which came and went at the caprice of fas.h.i.+on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Frame of wood, carved with floral scrollwork, with female terminal figures.

Italian; late sixteenth century.

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