Cabinets or _armoires_ designed by De Vries are reproduced in Plate XIX
and Plate XX. As usual, we have a large choice in central and side
supports, pediments and panels. There is a good variety of mascarons for
the cabinet-maker to select from. It will be noticed that the “_cuirs_,”
so popular with the designers of the period, enter largely into the
decoration of the doors and drawers.
Spanish influence was now making itself felt. Hispano-Flemish carving
appears on many a panel and drawer front towards the end of this
century. Characteristic carving of this style is shown in Fig. 26 and
Fig. 27.
Perhaps of all kinds of furniture, Flanders excelled in making cabinets.
Antwerp was especially renowned for them. The cabinet is, of course, an
object of special luxury, for the display of little articles of value
possessed only by the rich. Whether carved or inlaid, its shelves were
lined with crimson velvet, cloth of gold, green taffeta, or beautifully
tooled leather; and very frequently silvered ribbon twined into a kind
of geometrical lattice-work into the initials or monogram of the owner
of the cabinet was hung behind the glass and supplied with hooks from
which jewels, watches, pocket-mirrors and other pretty trinkets were
suspended. A cabinet collection in the sixteenth century included
watches, jewels, rings, bracelets, necklaces, pearls from the Orient,
gold and silver work, buttons, perfumed gloves, costly musk and amber,
scent-bottles, pomanders on handsome chains, small scissors, pocket
knives, pocket mirrors, coral beads, rosaries of rock-crystal, little
books, _eau de Damas_, _eau de rose_, _eau d’oeillet_, and other
delicate essences, medals, little pictures, rare stones, fans, etc.
[Illustration:
PLATE XV.—_Armoire._
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
]
French noblemen had such a fancy for collecting Flemish cabinets that
Henri IV sent French workmen to the Netherlands to learn the art of
making these choice pieces of furniture, and particularly the trick of
carving in ebony. On their return, he established them in the Louvre.
The first was Laurent Stabre; another was Pierre Boulle (uncle of the
great André Charles Boulle), supposed to be of Flemish origin. Jean
Macé, who called himself “_menuisier-ébéniste de Blois_,” was also given
a studio in the Louvre, “on account of his long practice of this art in
the Low Countries, and the skill he has shown in his cabinet-work in
ebony and other woods of various colours that he has presented to the
Regent Queen.”
Another cabinet-maker who lived in the Louvre was Pierre Golle, a native
of the Netherlands, whose name was originally Goler, and who left
Holland at Mazarin’s request to settle in Paris. He made various
artistic pieces for the Dauphin, the great Cardinal and other patrons of
art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account