Period French Rooms at the Metropolitan Museum Webinar
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Period French Rooms at the Metropolitan Museum Webinar Beverly Vosko’s InteriorDesign-ED 3807 Riley St. Houston, Texas 77005 Tel. 713 464-0055 Cell 713 269-6909 Email: [email protected] Website: www.InteriorDesign-ED.com Or www.vosko.com and click on InteriorDesign-ED Period French Rooms at the Metropolitan Museum Webinar Handouts Welcome to our .3 CEU Webinar! What is an Antique? In America, a furniture item is considered to be an Antique if it is 100 years old. But when I studied at Sotheby’s, I was taught that a “true” Antique furniture piece was a piece of Period Furniture. A piece of “Period Furniture” is a piece of furniture manufactured during the time period that its design style was invented, during the Golden Age of Furniture. What is the Golden Age of Furniture? The invention and introduction of numerous diverse furniture styles, each one rapidly succeeding the next in response to the constant demands from the aristocracy for new furniture fashions. In England this Golden Age of Furniture occurred between 1702 -1830 - It begins with the Queen Anne Period: 1702-1715 and ends with the Regency: 1800-1830 What is the significance of the date 1830? It is the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the Machine Age. Before this date, furniture was handcrafted to an incredibly high standard of technical excellence. After this date, furniture began to be mass produced – and was never again superbly handcrafted to the same standard of technical excellence. In my opinion, at least 75% of all furniture in the Decorative Centers across the U.S. and Canada are either an exact replicas of or adaptations of these Period pieces, so these Antiques are still very relevant today… WHAT MAKES THIS PERIOD FURNITURE SO SPECIAL that it has been popular ever since its inception 250-300 years ago (when it was new – not Antique), it has been copied throughout the last 200-300 years and it is still popular and being reproduced today. The answer is that: This furniture was designed and handcrafted to such an incredibly high standard of technical excellence that it retained a caliber unequalled prior to that time Period and unsurpassed since. The design of this furniture is the combination and culmination of the design styles of all the great civilizations that preceded it …5000 years of design… The 3 civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome provided the prototypes for English furniture design during the Golden Age. Ancient Egypt 3500 BC-1352 BC The civilization of Ancient Egypt provides us with earliest furniture specimens and oldest artifacts known to date Only the Pharaoh’s had furniture but the range of furniture that they had was very small Pharaohs only had chairs, beds and boxes (chests) but what marvelous ones they were The Egyptians: -developed the woodworking techniques of using dowels, mitered joints and dove tails – techniques still used on fine furniture today- -are given credit for inventing the 4 legged chair, a simple low bed, the drawer (although only smaller boxes had drawers) and the art of inlay Inlay is the cutting out a shaped recess in the solid surface of a piece of wood and its replacement with small pieces of various different colored woods and other materials in a jigsaw puzzle-like fashion to create a picture Ancient Greece 650 BC-80 BC The civilization of Ancient Greece culled the best designs from the Ancient Egyptians and built upon them Very little Greek furniture has survived – our knowledge of Greek furniture is derived almost entirely from Greek vase paintings and relief sculptures found on Pompeian cave walls and sarcophagi, yet we believe this information to be very accurate. The most important contribution of the Greeks was the concept that people other than the ruler could own a piece of furniture. The Greeks had a larger range of furniture than the Egyptians They designed 2 types of chairs… A heavy marble throne chairs which were used ceremonially in their marble temples and a light Klismos chair which was a completely new chair design displaying a series of continuous curves which was used by all the nobles in their homes They had Couch/beds that were built higher than their Egyptian equivalents so a table could be placed underneath it. The Greeks were the first civilization to use table on a widespread basis but they only fathomed it as something to eat on They perfected the art of carving and became masters of proportion – constructing beautifully proportioned buildings and furniture Both carving & proportion were crucial to furniture design during Golden Age Ancient Rome 200 BC –400 AD Ancient Rome’s civilization overlapped that of Ancient Greece -they culled the best ideas from both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and added them to their repertoire of furniture design ideas Ancient Roman civilization had almost everything we have today, in the way of furniture And furniture was designed for its esthetic value meaning that there were various different styles of each furniture type and people could choose which style they liked the best They had many kinds of chairs and sofas They had tables to eat upon and/or store things on- Romans were the first to think of utilizing a table as a vehicle for storage and display They had cupboards to store things in and buffets laden with vases and other objects They didn’t have upholstery but they draped magnificent fabrics over their furniture giving the semblance of upholstery They developed the rounded arch and used it repeatedly The Greco/ Roman civilization invented and utilized many Classical motifs such as wreaths, swags, urns, garlands, rosettes, acanthus leaves, cherubs, winged sphinx’s and other mythological figures –all of which were very popular during the Golden Age of Furniture. But with the fall of the Roman Empire, all of these design and construction techniques were forgotten and had to be relearned slowly over time. The remainder of this webinar discloses that learning process Francois I 1515-1547 Furniture was a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance motifs Henri II 1547-1589 Renaissance Motifs come into their own and were a combination of Italian and Flemish Renaissance motifs He married Catherine de Medici from the famous Florentine family and elevated the quality of French cabinetmaking tremendously Henri IV 1589-1610 He was the 1st person who believed that aggrandizing the arts aggrandized the state… He brought many artisans together to make wonderful furniture for France But he was assassinated so his entire Era was considered part of the Louis XIII Era Louis XIII 1610-1643 The Louis XIII Era was famous for its twist turned supports This is the 1st time ebony was cut to be 1/3” thick, carved into diamond point panels and applied on top of a carcase of oak in a manner ½ way between building a solid carcase and veneering Louis XIV 1643-1715 In 1661, at the age of 21, Louis XIV was crowned king It was not until then that a genuinely French style, the Baroque Style, began to be established Louis XIV wanted everyone to be aware of how great both he and France were so he built the Palace of Versailles, with its “grand appartements” Louis XIV then needed equally massive gilt furniture to fit into this architectural scheme For First time consideration was given to Interior Design as an ensemble The main furniture designer of this era is Andre Boulle- Kings ebenist Stylistic concepts of Louis XIV Era: • Veneering, accompanied by marquetry • Carving in solid wood • Gilding and Silvering • Lacquering Symmetry is rigidly observed on Louis XIV furniture decoration In the Louis XIV era, many classical motifs are used: ram’s heads, stag’s hoofs, dolphins, griffons, seahorses, waterlily leaves, laurels, swags, garlands of acanthus leaves, fruit and flowers, also coats of arms trophies, mythological figures, masks and shells Regence 1700-1730 Transitional Period –from rectilinear to curvilinear style Furniture becomes lights and less formal and straight lines begin to curve Cressent is famous cabinetmaker of this era Louis XV 1730-1760 Rococo style – light playful frivolous imaginative style where sinuous Graceful supple curves disguise all joints and a deliberate asymmetry is sought after Motifs: monkeys (synergies) , fantastic little animals, dogs, birds swinging from bows of ribbons and delicate trellis-work patterns, flowers arranged in sprays, garlands and pendants or scattered among twisted branches, cyma “S” curves and “C” curves Wood of Choice is Tulipwood – veneered and embellished with polychrome marquetry using numerous other woods often dyed to achieve desired colors Meissonier and Oeben were famous cabinetmakers Louis XVI-1760-1789 Return to Neoclassical Antiquity – ovals and straight, smooth unbroken lines triumph Veneering and marquetry still popular – both geometric and floral designs Sevres and Wedgewood Porcelain plaques incorporated into furniture Brass is used as pierced galleries, inlaid in narrow strips to frame panels, or inlaid in fluted grooves - brass rings encircle pilasters Bronze mounts are in form of lion’s paws handles, keyhole plates, decoration on friezes which are like jewelry & discretely decorate piece Motifs include Greek key, Pearl Beading, egg and dart molding, dentil moldings, imbricated scalework, rosettes, small repetitive details, tassels, paws and lion’s masks, columns, pilasters, fluting, leaves, flowers, fruit, pastoral attributes and musical instruments Furniture Directoire and Consulate Period 1789-1804 Brief period separating Louis XVI and Empire Period Stylistically severe looking