SURVEY OF TB.~ USE OF CARVING ON FRENCH FUHNITURE FROlVI TEE GOTHIC THROUGH THE ElvWIRE PERIOD A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT. OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN FINE AND APPLIED ARTS IN THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE TEXAS STATE COLLEGE FOR W9£viEl'f ·.. · ·. · DEPARTMENT OF ,,, ' F I N E AN D A P P L I ED A R 'IS BY RUTH MOBBERLY, B. Se DEN'I'ON, TEXAS AUGUST, 1944 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER .. .. • .. .. • • • PAGE I. INTRODUCTION. • • • • • l II. GOTHIC. • • • • • • 4 III. RENAISSANCE • • • "' • .. • .. • • 17 IV. LOUIS XIV. • .. • • • • • . 34 REGENCE .~ v. • • • • • • • • • " • 46 VI. LOUIS XV • .~ • • • .. • • ., . 52 VII. LOUIS XVI. .. • • • • • • • • 63 VIII. DIRECTOIRE • • • .. • • • • . 74 IX. EMPIRE. • • • • • • .. • • • • • 79 X. CONCLUSION • • • • • • • . 86 LIST OF CARVERS. • .. • • • • • • • 90 BIBLIOGRAPHY. • • .. .. • • • . 94 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES PAGE I. Gothic Carving. ll Figure l. Development of a Characteristic Gothic Motif. ll Figure 2. Development and Diagram of French Tracery • • • ll II. Gothic Carving. 12 Figure l. Panel from French Chest. 12 Figure 2. Carved Gothic Chair . 12 · Figure 2. Details of Gothic Carving . • 12 III. Gothic Chest e • • • .. 13 IV. Gothic Chair • • 14 v. Gothic Cabinets .. • • .. 15 Figure 1. Armoire . • • • 15 Figure 2. Credence. • • 15 VI. Carved Panel of the 15th Century. 16 VII. Panel from a 16th Century French Door . .. • 26 VIII. Panel from a French Cupboard • 27 IX. Renaissance Carving ~ • 28 Figure l. Detail from Top o:f Coffee Table .. • .. • 28 Figure 2. Renaissance Leaf Form .. 28 iv PLATES PAGE Figure 3. Panel From Henry II Cabinet 28 Figure 4. Renaissance Panel. • 28 X. Henry IV Carved Panel • 29 XI. Detail of a Table. • .. 30 XII. Walnut Chest from School of Lyons 31 XIII. Walnut Cabinet from School of Hugues Sambin XIV. Louis XIII Cabinet • XV. Carving of Louis XIV. • • 42 Figure 1. Detail of Carving by Jean Le Pai tre . 42 Figures 2 and 3. Details of Carved Gilt Chair at Fontainbleau by Prieu Dieu • 42 XVI. Carved Gilt Settee Leg at Fontainbleau. 43 XVII. Carved Ormolu Mount from Commode. 44 XVIII. Louis XIV • • " . 45 XIX. Figure 1. Louis XIV Chair • 45 Figure 2. Louis XIV Table • 45 XIX. Regency Pieces. • • 51 Figure 1. Carved Table • • • • 51 Figure 2. Armoire • • " . • 51 XX. Louis XV Chair. .. • 59 60 XXI. Louis XV. • • .. .. Figure 1. Fire Screen. • 60 Figure 2. Louis XV Carved Table 60 XXII. Louis XV. 61 Figure l. Sofa at Versailles 61 Figure 2. Louis XV Console • • 61 v PLATES PAGE XXIII. Louis XV. • • e Figure 1. Carved Louis XV Armchair 62 Figure 2. Louis XV Walnut Chaise Longue. 62 XXIV. Louis XVI Chair in ebEme by Martin Carlin. 69 XJ,..V. Details of Louis XVI Carving • • 70 Figure 1. Armoire Leg by Martin Cc.rlin. • 70 Figure 2. Detail of Small Drawer from Louis XVI Table by Jean Henri Riesener • • • • • 70 XXVI. Louis XVI Chair • • .. • 71 XXVII. Louis XVI • • • 72 Figure l. Louis XVI Chair • 72 Figure 2. Louis XVI Carved Console Table • .. • • .. • 72 Y~III. Louis XVI • 73 Figure 1. Louis XVI Armchair 73 Figure 2. Louis XVI Console. 73 XXIX. Motifs Used on Empire Furniture • 85 XXJ,... Typical Leaf Carvings • 89 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The history of. furniture is indubitably a correla­ tive of the manners and customs of various peoples. One, therefore,can understand and appreciate the changes in furniture styles only through a knowledge of certain historical events which projected their influence upon each stylistic development. 11 The history of furniture in a country with a civilization so old and brilliant as that of France is a very different thing from a technical review of archae­ ology or art. It is the history of the very soul of a people, with its alternations of grandeur and of degrada­ tion, of achievement and of failure, in1 a word it is the history of the inner life of a nation." The sons of" France were never, strictly speaking, inventors, for they never evolved the primary germ of any new style. They did, however, possess a marvelous gift for assimilating the foreign ideas for recasting, in their own minds, such enfeebled, decadent, exotic conceptions, and for issuing them anew to· the world in the form of works stamped with the grace and truth of proportion distinc­ tively characteristic of their own taste. 2 The French lAndre Saglio, French Furniture (London: B. T .. Batsford, 1913), p. 1. 2 Ibid., p. 2. 1 2 borrowed craftsmen and carvers from foreign countries. They assimilated new motifs and merged them into coherent styles. The French themselves seem to have a positive genius for carving and execute it with a sensitiveness and finesse that is outstanding. The carvings made during the Middle Ages were un­ doubtedly executed with crude tools. The rigid and crude technique of the early chests, beds, tables, and cupboards show how primitive was the work of the first Gothic carpen­ ters. Not until well into the fourteenth century did these carpenters possess the proper tools to cut and inter­ lock the panels of wood by a dovetail joint. After this date, the tools were pr~ctically the ones of to-day. The trade passed from father to son, and from master to pupil. In these provincial workshops French furniture developed until Louis XIV instituted the Manufactures Royale. In all the ecclesiastical cabinet work of the fourteenth century, which has come down to us, the skill of execution is even greater than the strength and dura­ bility. In almost every line of decoration, the influence of the tool is apparent, the surface is very much broken up, and a great variety in light and shade makes a striking decoration that is produced in a very direct manner. Apart from the general planning of' the ornament, which shows a sense of scale and balance, the actual treatment of the 3 carver shows consummate skill. His method of handling the design has been such as to produce an astonishingly fine effect.l The purpose of carving wood is to make the surface more interesting through imposing a pattern upon it, and inducing a play of light and shadow.2 Carving is the most natural method of decorating furniture, for in its simplest forms it derives directly from the tools used by the cabinet maker or joiner in constructing the woodwork itself. When detached from a background, carving is said to be "in the round," as in figure sculpture and other "free" ornamental work.. When upon a background it is called "high relief" or "low reliefn according to the height from the background. If sunk below the surface it is kno~~ as incised. In some instances, a carved effect is obtained by the mere scratching of the surface. Good wood carving is neither rigidly mechanical nor capriciously irregular, but is the outcome of a skilled hand and a trained eye, impressing the work with human interest. It is the purpose of this study to trace the development of carving on French furniture from the Gothic period through the nineteenth century. lH. P. Shapland, The Practical Decoration of Furniture (New York: Payson and Clarke, 1926}, P• 32 • 2H. w. Faulkner, wood-Carving ~ A Hobby (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1934r;-p. 2. CHAPTER .IT '.... , , GOTHIC FURNITURE. ·. ':. ! • "Gothic furniture is called Gothic. not because the Goths had anything to do with it 1but because of the con­ tempt that the Italians of the ·Renaissance, felt for a style that was medieval and non-Roman~ They, used the term Gothi.c ... as a synonym of barbarous. nl : 14~thic', how,ever, is by no means a barbaric style. It is primarily, a French style and grew into being as the Franks g±-~w fnto ~· nation. During : / ·, the Gothic centuries, the name f~r· Gothic was Opus Francigenum, '.<.'" ' French work. 2 Gothic was developed •from, the Romanesque plus an infusion of the Oriental s'pirit, intr.oduced by returning :! ,··' Crusaders, and under the great religious impetus of the per-. ' . :·~.. iod was made passionately Christian .. , · . ·; . Gothic art was an architectural .art.-. It was the art o:f the builder, the sculptor; , and, the woo.d-carver. 3 "The Cathedral dominated the French Gothic style. Everything in the art of this period was in some way connected with the church, from the illuminated books used for the services to the sculpture that adorned its walls. The cathedral lG. L. Hunter, Decorative Furniture (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1923), p. 67. 2Ibid .. , p. 68. 3c. R. Clifford, Period Furnishi~gs (New York: Clifford and Lawton, 1927), p. 53. :·.· .. ,.. 4 5 it~elf was the expression o~ the understanding of the world whlch the twel~th and thirteenth centuries believed they had. achie:red.. It forms an ultimate harmony out of infinite var1ety; 1ts thousands of statues, windows, grotesques and reliefs were brought to final unity by sheer soari~g faith. ,1 In Gothic, all lines lead upward to express that faith. The Cathedral also dominated French life. In a cathedral town, the S1Jires and mass of the edifice were visible long before the town itself could be seen from a distance. The little houses cluster around its base in self-effacing anony­ mity~ Just so did the church dominate the lives of the people. It was the meeting place, the educational center, the art museum, the theatre (miracle plays), as well as the religious center for the people. It is easy to understand, then, that the furniture which evolved in this period bears a strong impression of church furniture and that the motifs of decora­ tion were derived from those made familiar by use in the churches. The Gothic of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries retained much of the Romanesque.