1 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AfiCHIITECTDHE LIB. GIFT OF MRS. CHARLES SUMNER GREENE AND NATHANIEL GREENE FROM THE LIBRARY OF CHARLES SUMNER GREENE FRENCH FURNITURE NEWNES' LIBRARY OF THE APPLIED ARTS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/frenchfurnitureOOsaglrich Frontispiece CUPBOARD. XVI Century. School of Du Cerceau. Cluny Museum FRENCH FURNITURE BY ANDRE SAGLIO LOTMDON GEORGE NEWNES LIMITED SOUTHAMPTON ST. STRAND W.C NEW YORK CHARLES SCR1BNER:S SONS Architecture Add'l GIFT CONTENTS 5 3> ARCH. UBRARY Introduction I. The Gauls, the Gallo-Romans and the Invaders of Gaul .... II. The Fourteenth Century III. The Fifteenth Century . . . . , IV. The Renaissance ..... V. Henri II. and the Second Half of the Six teenth Century ..... VI. The Seventeenth Century before the Ac cession of Louis XIV. VII. The Reign of Louis XIV. VIII. The Regency and Louis XV. IX. Louis XVI., the Revolution and the Empire Useful Books of Reference Index PAGE I 5 24 34 49 63 82 lOI 126 143 167 173 520 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE CUPBOARD, Sixteenth Century, School of Du Cerceau. Cluny Museum . Frontispiece I. CHEST, Fifteenth Century. Cluny Museum . 36 II. CUPBOARD, end of Fifteenth Century. Louvre Museum ....... 44 III. STALL, end of Fifteenth Century. Paris Exhibi- tion, 1900 ....... 46 IV. RENAISSANCE ARM-CHAIR. Louvre Museum 50 V. RENAISSANCE CHAIR. Palace of Compiegne 52 VI. RENAISSANCE CHAIR. Palace of Compiegne 53 VII. RENAISSANCE DRESSER. Louvre Museum . 54 VIII. MISERERE STALL, beginning of Sixteenth Century. Abbey of St. Denis . . . -58 IX. CHEST, beginning of Sixteenth Century. Cluny Museum, Paris . . . . . .62 X. CARVED WOOD CHAIR, Sixteenth Century. Belonging to M. Chabriere-Arles ... 64 vii .FRENCH FURNITURE PLATE PAGE XI. BED OF DUKE ANTOINE DE LORRAINE, Sixteenth Century. Nancy Museum . . 66 XII. DRESSER, after an Engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau 68 XII A. BED, after an Engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau ....... 68 XIII. CUPBOARD by Hugues Sambin, Middle of Six- teenth Century. Arconati-Visconti Collection . 70 XIV. CUPBOARD, Middle of Sixteenth Century . . 72 XV. SIDEBOARD, epoch Francis I. Cluny Museum 72 XVI. PANEL OF CUPBOARD, School of Hugues Sambin. Middle of Sixteenth Century. Boy Collection 72 XVII. TABLE, Second half of Sixteenth Century. School of Hugues Sambin . . . • 74 XVIII. CHEST, Middle of Sixteenth Century. Carnavalet Museum, Paris 74 XIX. DRESSER, Second half of Sixteenth Century. School of Du Cerceau 76 XX. TABLE, Second half of Sixteenth Century. School of Hugues Sambin. Dijon Museum . . 76 XXI. CHEST, Second half of Sixteenth Century, Louvre Museum . . . . . '76 XXII. DRESSER, Second half of Sixteenth Century. Garde Meuble National, Paris . . . .78 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE XXIII. DRESSER, Second half of Sixteenth Century. Louvre Museum . . . . .80 XXIV. CHEST, end of Sixteenth Century. Louvre Museum ....... 80 XXV. CHAIR, Louis XIH. Cluny Museum . . 82 XXVI. ARM-CHAIR, epoch Louis XIII. Cluny Museum ....... 84 XXVII. CHAIR,epochLouisXIII. Palace of the Elysee 84 XXVIII. EBONY CHEST, epoch Louis XIII. Palace of Fontainebleau . . . . .86 XXIX. EBONY CHEST, beginning of Seventeenth Century. Cluny Museum . . . .90 XXX. CHEST OF DRAWERS of Louis XIV. at Versailles : attributed to Charles Boulle. Bibliotheque Mazarin . - . . .104 XXXI. CHEST, epoch Louis XIV. Palace of Versailles 104 XXXII. CUPBOARD, by Charles Cressent, epoch Regence. Chappey Collection . . .126 XXXIII. COMMODE of the Regency Period, by Charles Cressent. Wallace Collection . . .126 XXXIV. GILDED REGENCE TABLE. Collection of Mme. Brach 126 XXXV. LARGE REGENCE DESK. Louvre Museum 126 XXXVI. CHEST OF DRAWERS, epoch Regence. In the Bishop's Residence at Meaux . . 126 b ix PLATE XXXVII. XXXVIII. XXXIX. XL. XLI. XLII. XLIII. XLIV. XLV. XL VI. XLVII. XLVIII. XLIX. FRENCH FURNITURE PAGE TABLE, epoch Regence. Retrospective Ex- hibition, Paris 126 CONSOLE, epoch Louis XV. Carnavalet Museum, Paris . . . . -128 CONSOLE, epoch Louis XV. Collection of M. de le Breteche 130 SOFA, Louis XV. Palace of Versailles . .130 CORNER CUPBOARD, epoch Louis XV. Greffuhle Collection 134 WRITING-TABLE & CABINET, Louis XV., Mahogany, inlaid with Sevres Plaques. . 136 LOUIS XV. COMMODE, by Jacques Caffieri. In the Wallace Collection . . . .138 CHEST OF DRAWERS, epoch Louis XV. In the Prefecture of Indre-et-Loire . .140 MEDAL CABINET, by Slodtz. From the private apartments of Louis XV. at Versailles 140 LOUIS XV. SECRETAIRE, with Marqueterie inlaid with Sevres Panels. South Kensington Museum ....... 140 LOUIS XV. WRITING-TABLE, Mahogany inlaid with Sevres Plaques. South Ken- sington Museum . . . . .140 SMALL DESK, by Riesener. Reign of Louis XVI. ...... 144 ARM-CHAIR, covered with Beauvais Tapestry, Louis XVI. South Kensington Museum . 146 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE L. LOUIS XVI. SOFA. Palace of the Petit Trianon, Versailles . . . . .146 LI. SOFA, epoch Louis XVI. Palace of the Elysee, Paris ...... LIT. APPLIQUE, by Gouthiere, epoch Louis XVI. Grandjean Collection .... Liii. CONSOLE, beginning of Louis XVI. epoch. Garde Meuble National, Paris Liv. CONSOLE, epoch Louis XVI. Ministry of the Interior, Paris ..... Lv. SMALL DESK, by Weisweiler. Louis XVI. epoch ....... LVi. EMPIRE ARM-CHAIR. Palace of Fontaine- bleau ....... LVii. CHEST OF DRAWERS, First Empire. Garde Meuble National, Paris LViii. CHEVAL-GLASS, First Empire. Garde Meuble National, Paris ...... Lix. JEWEL CABINET of Queen Marie Antoinette. Designed by Schwerdfeger, Degault, Roentgen and Thomire. Palace of Versailles . .160 146 148 150 152 154 156 XI FRENCH FURNITURE INTRODUCTION HE history of furniture in a coun- try of a civilisation so old and so brilliant as that of France is a very different thing from a technical review of archaeology 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 ; in a word, it is the history of the inner life of a nation, a life that is too often overlooked in studying the glorious or tragic episodes in which kings and nobles overshadow their subjects. Yet those subjects are as important as dynasties in the annals of history. Turn, for instance, for a moment from the accounts of the victories of this or that conqueror to the home of some one of the men whose destinies he controls. How sudden is the change to gloom ! The furniture is of the very simplest description, ready for immediate flight or ex- ile, and its owner's poverty proves that art and industry are alike paralysed. Some other ruler who has left behind him a great reputation A I FRENCH FURNITURE for luxury and generosity, if judged by the unbridled extravagance indulged in in every household during his reign, will appear in the novel character of a disorganiser of domestic economy. The intellect, the conscience, the vital force of a race is often concealed behind the deceptive personalities of its chiefs, and it is really in studying the con- dition of the people that an insight can be obtained into their moral history. For this reason, it is desirable to bring something more than a mere artistic curiosity to bear upon the changes which in the course of centuries have taken place in such furniture as tables, seats, and beds, for these humble objects have been the inseparable companions of many owners through many vicissitudes. To these general considerations, applicable to the study of domestic art in every country, we must add one which has special reference to the genius of France, and will be to some extent the guiding principle of this book. The sons of the soil in that country were never, strictly speaking, inventors, they never evolved the primary germ of a new style ; but they had a marvellous gift for assimilating the foreign ideas with which they were brought in contact, and, as it were, recasting in the powerful crucible of their brain enfeebled, incomplete, or decadent exotic conceptions, 2 INTRODUCTION issuing them anew to the world in the form of works instinct with vigour and vitality, and stamped with the grace and truth of propor- tion that are the distinctive characteristics of French taste. The great events, whether of peace or war, which brought the French into communication with other nations were there- fore, it is evident — as will be proved in the course of our narrative — the natural causes of the succession of different styles which arose in France during the course of some two thousand years. We take up our story at the birth of the French national character — the result of a happy fusion of Romano and Celtic elements ; we lay it down on the threshold of the nine- teenth century, for in our opinion the modern period is essentially one of transition, during which popular taste is unconsciously and, as it were, secretly adapting the home of the day, to the requirements and theories that are the outcome of an age of unparalleled scientific progress. It is indeed always somewhat rash to criticise work without making allowance for the natural recoil of time, and contem- poraneous opinion is ever ready to recog- nise the decadence of its own epoch. The laudator temporis acti does not date from the time of Horace only, and we should hesitate long before we lose confidence in a people 3 FRENCH FURNITURE such as the French, who have proved them- selves able during so many centuries to give birth to great revivals at the very moment when their creative vigour appeared to be finally exhausted. Andre Saglio. THE FIRST CHAPTER THE GAULS, THE GALLO-ROMANS, AND THE INVADERS OF GAUL HEN the Romans took posses- sion of Gaul they had to contend with a strong, intelligent, and numerous population, divided into a multitude of tribes, the civilisation of which could only be called barbarous when compared with the extra- ordinary development of Italy. In his *' Com- mentaries " Caesar recognises this civilisation, and does not fail to acknowledge the skill of the conquered tribes in the construction of fortified cities or the wisdom of their legis- lators ; but, unfortunately, he is silent on the details of their domestic life, which must have been familiar to every one in his day. Not a trace, not so much as a memory, now remains of Gallic furniture ; even conjecture is for- bidden in view of the fact that the very language spoken from the English Channel to the Mediterranean no more than twenty centuries ago has become a mystery ; and in the tombs that have been opened nothing but a few weapons and jewels have been found. These relics, however, confirm the belief in 5 FRENCH FURNITURE the skill of the Gauls in working metal, whilst the tradition that they were the first coopers points to their having been clever at turning and shaping wood. The sudden and apparently complete swallowing up of Gallic civilisation in Latin manners and customs, makes it impossible to begin the study of French furniture before the earliest owners of the soil had become so merged in their conquerors as to form with them but a single race — the Gallo-Romans. At the same time may be said to have been evolved the first germ of the essentially French character so admirably adapted to art development, which was the outcome of the fusion between barbarian audacity and imagination and Latin sense of proportion and adaptability. Less than a century after the conquest the conical roofed mud huts of the Celts were replaced by villas built and furnished in imita- tion of those of Italy, of which Gaul was now a province, and the sole aim of their designers was to copy the lavish luxury of the masters who had reduced the whole world, as well as Gaul, to subjection. Unbridled indulgence in the pleasures of the appetite became as much the fashion with the wealthy citizens of Roman Gaul as with the patricians of the capital — dining-tables were inlaid with costly 6 THE GAULS marqueterie, rich furs and embroidered cushions adorned the couches on which the guests reclined. A fifth-century Bishop of Lyons, Sidonius Apollinaris, has left us a description in elegant verse of a fete at the house of one of his contemporaries, and his indulgent Christian spirit displays nothing but admiration for the luxurious accessories of the feast. '* The end of the day approaches," he says, '* let wine, dancing, and merry- making delight its closing hours. Here are couches draped with purple, revellers eagerly drinking purple nectar. Behold ! all is luxury ; everything is glittering ; the eye is charmed at every turn. Here is furniture from Asia, there furniture from Greece ; everywhere are sculptures and paintings, sanguinary hunting scenes in which no life is lost, groups of wounded men where not a drop of blood is shed. It is indeed a pleasure to wander amongst the masses of bloom drooping from the plants in the alabaster urns, to yield the body to the seductions of the graceful and languid dance, and to mimic the trembling limbs of the Bacchantes overcome by wine ! . . . Here blooms the cytisus, the lily, and the jonquil. . . . Already the incense brought from its native land of Arabia is burning in the swinging lamps, its smoke rising up to the gorgeous roof ! ..." 7 FRENCH FURNITURE At the very timewhen the Bishop was thus celebrating the delights of this refined, but effeminate life, Roman Gaul was already being invaded by the barbarians of the East and North. These were the Germani, of whom the Franci, or Franks, were but a tribe ; the Burgundii, succeeded by the Huns ; the Avars, and the Goths. Fierce warriors, ignorant of art and intellectual culture, they had but the savage passion for brilliant-look- ing objects, such as precious metals — which, by the way, they knew how to work, probably through their Asiatic traditions — and though Attila himself chose to affect simplicity in the presence of the Roman ambassadors by eating out of a wooden platter and sitting on a simple stool, the Avar chiefs who succeeded him used couches of embossed gold with silken draperies, which served them alike as beds and thrones. The Goths, especially, amassed an enormous treasure, alluded to by Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius, which, amongst other valuables, included a table formed of a single emerald encircled with three rows of pearls, and upheld by sixty-five feet of solid gold encrusted with precious stones, the total value of which was estimated at five hundred thousand pieces of gold. The ravages committed by these hordes, who flung themselves upon the Roman 8 THE GAULS Empire, suffering as it then was from an excess of luxury, were far less destructive than is generally supposed. The Iconoclasts who, with ferocious delight, broke to pieces works of art were but a small minority of degraded tribes. The greater number of the invading hosts had indeed a certain technical skill of their own that was by no means to be despised, as proved by the jewellery that has during the last fifty years been dug up all over Europe ; they pillaged a great deal more than they destroyed, and often, with some crude notion of religion, they enriched the churches of France and Italy with their plunder. It must not be forgotten that Attila had his own portrait painted in a palace at Milan, and that Theodoric appointed a magistrate whose special business it was to look after the preservation of the masterpieces of antiquity. The barbarians were really am- bitious of continuing to live in the luxurious style of the Romans, but in their coarseness and ignorance they only recognised the ex- ternal evidences of that luxury, without com- prehending that the source of its refined delights was the intellectual culture of the Latin race. This will explain how it was that domestic art in Gaul, instead of spreading rapidly, was merely gradually transformed into the heavy, massive style that very B 9 FRENCH FURNITURE distinctly dominates the architectural tradi- tions of the Latin races, and is known in art history as the Romanesque — a title which enshrines the old familiar name of '* Roman." To understand the subject now under notice it is necessary briefly to consider the tendencies of the earliest Frankish kings, amongst whom the exclusive love of shining metal completely dominated their interest in art. To own silver dishes and golden cups easily carried about in the vicissitudes of war, represented to them the very height of luxury and good fortune. Thierry gave Clotaire a silver dish to make amends for an attempt at assassination ; and a valuable vase, now at Soissons, was the cause of the famous quarrel between Clovis and his warriors. By slow degrees all aesthetic refinement became concentrated in the abbeys, where certain in- tellectual traditions were preserved, although a certain St. Ouen in his history takes Tullius Cicero for two distinct personages, and the biographer of St. Bavon commits himself to the assertion that the Latin language predominated in Athens during the ascendancy of Pisistratus. Some few religious houses became positive art manufactories, under the liberal patronage of the kings and of private citizens of wealth, jewellery, of 10 THE GAULS course, being the chief product. When CIo- taire wished to have a throne made that should be worthy of his important position, he chose a humble artisan from Limoges to do the work — an artisan who later became celebrated, and is still dear to the memory of the French under the name of St. Eloi. A man of great gifts and of the highest integrity, St. Eloi retained the favour of two kings, and to him is due the credit of raising the making of jewellery in France to the importance of a fine art, whilst he at the same time kept up the intimate connection between work and religion. He converted a property given to him by Dagobert, the successor of Clotaire, into a great atelier for the working of precious metals. He founded at Paris the convent of St. Aure, in which the nuns devoted them- selves to embroidering in gold; and round about his church of St. Paul des Champs in a quarter long known as the *' Culture Saint Eloi " were grouped the workshops of the chasers and beaters of metal. Tradition attributes to him a gilded bronze arm-chair, preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, which served as the throne of Dagobert. As a matter of fact, however, it cannot be more than a copy made of the golden throne not long after its completion, and used by that ostentatious and cultivated monarch II FRENCH FURNITURE when he presided over the meetings of his leudes — as his faithful advisers were called. Such as it is, however, it remains an interest- ing example of the barbaric modification of the Latin style, for whilst its general form is that of an antique curule chair such as was used by the chief magistrate of Rome, its feet ornamented with the claws and heads of lions, have really in their rugged strength some- thing novel about them. A century later, under Charlemagne, we note a final development of luxury according to the traditions of the ancient Romans. The architects and decorative artists of Aix-la- Chapelle — a town rich in palaces, churches, and baths, the favourite residence of the all- powerful emperor — all came from Italy. Lavish display was the rule at table, as was the fashion in ancient times ; the Emperor, wisely economical in his personal expenses, was prodigal when it was a question of enhancing the glory of the monarchy; and on one occasion, probably at Aix, he caused three wonderful tables to be made, one of gold, on which was represented the earth as then known, with the fixed stars and planets ; whilst on the others, both of solid silver, were seen the plans of Rome and of Constantinople. Unfortunately, no relics now remain of 12 THE GAULS these pieces of furniture of fabulous beauty ; they have in the course of centuries dis- appeared as completely as the humblest uten- sils in use amongst the peasantry. Indeed, there are no archaeological survivals in France of earlier date than the thirteenth century on which to found a history of early furniture, except the arm-chair of Dagobert of doubtful authenticity, and a little stool, very crudely carved, preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral of Poitiers, under the name of the Pulpit of St. Radegund, which points to the sixth century as the time of its production. Scholars who have endeavoured to work out some theory on the subject of French furni- ture of the first half of the Middle Ages have been obliged to have recourse to a compari- son with the relics preserved in Italy, and with those in Scandinavia. Their learned but debatable theories cannot, however, be discussed here, for to admit them would be beyond the scope of a work that is to deal with facts only. The most ancient existing piece of furni- ture in France is of a kind that only came into domestic use some eight centuries ago : a wooden armoire, or wardrobe, that belonged to the Church of Obazine, in the Department of Corr^ze. Nothing could be more simple or massive than its square structure, decorated 13 FRENCH FURNITURE merely with a few simple semicircular arches in the Roman style, upheld by slender little pillars, the two leaves of the folding-doors of oak, each held in place by clamps of iron, known as hinges, and closed with straight bolts running in a groove, also of iron. This humble, half-destroyed piece of furniture is of infinite value, on account of the information it gives on the subject of the art of the carpenter up to the time of its production. To begin with, it proves that style in furniture followed exactly the gradual transformation of Latin architecture ; moreover, it shows that sculpture was not employed for the decoration of domestic articles. This fact leads, further, to the suggestion that furniture was painted, confirmed by relics of very little later date than the armoire of Obazine, such as that of the Cathedral of Noyon, the fold- ing-doors of which still retain a canvas glued on, on which can be made out the painted figures of angels and traces of foliage. It was not until the structure of furniture was modified, the size of the panels becoming smaller, whilst more iron-work was required, that the painting intended to relieve the monotony of the wide spaces of wood gave place to mouldings masking the joints. The two pieces of furniture just mentioned, to which we have given the name armoires^ so 14 THE GAULS as to convey a dear idea of their form and use, were known in mediaeval times as bahuts or huches, hence the term huchiers, long used to denote the corporation of carpenters or joiners. The bah^tt, often referred to at greater length in old MSS. as the coffre de bahut, is really nothing more than a simple chest or coffer mounted upon feet or rests. It was probably as a rule the only piece of furniture in domestic use in France in the primitive times, when famines, war, and the constant change of residence of the Court made it often necessary hastily to transport all the royal belongings from place to place in carts. The bahut may have served as a seat during the day, but at night it was turned into a bed by the addition of coverings ; at times it held all the worldly goods of the family to which it belonged, and could be converted rapidly from an armoire into a trunk. Probably, also, the huche was originally used as a table, and this, again, was often converted into a ** dresser," a name im- plying that it had two ends ; the silver and gold plate and drinking-vessels, always a valuable part of the household goods, being '* dress6," or set up on it between meals — hence the name of *' dresser" for the humble set of shelves to be found in every French or English kitchen. Nothing, therefore, could have been more 15 FRENCH FURNITURE simple for many a long day than the living- room even of the king and the greatest nobles. In a few minutes it could be re- arranged in the first chdteau or the first inn reached by chance on a journey. The bahuts were at once unpacked, out came the familiar tapestries and painted canvases from home, to be quickly nailed upon the walls, the coverings and pillows for the beds, the plate to be set up on the dresser, the carpet to be spread upon the floor, or in default of it the straw or sweet-smelling plants often used instead. It was not until the fifteenth century that the custom of taking the home environment un- altered everywhere was abandoned. It is easy to understand that under such conditions furniture remained very much the same — at least domestic furniture, for that of churches, on the other hand, developed in a remarkable manner. Under the all-powerful protection of the clergy, the htichiers were able to relieve the monotony of design to which they were restricted by their lay patrons. From the thirteenth century a truly wonderful imagin- ative power was displayed, especially in the execution of choir-stalls, as the rows of seats on either side of the choir opposite the altar were called, where during the celebration of divine service sat the priests, monks, and lay dignitaries. The principle of this arrange- i6 THE GAULS ment was. no doubt, borrowed from the churches of Italy and the East, a fact that suggests the possibility of arm-chairs having been at first made of stone, though that material, too cold to the touch for a Northern climate, was probably very soon replaced by wood, of which many chairs must have been made long before the thirteenth-century ex-- amples, which are the oldest that have been preserved. The stalls of Notre Dame de la Roche date from the early part of the thirteenth century, for the church was consecrated in 1232. They reflect in a very marked degree the best ecclesiastical architecture of the same period, in the simple grace of their clustered columns and airy arches, whilst the carved foliage decorating them recalls that in the pro- jections on the under-sides of the seats of the choir-stalls half the height of a man, to which the name of misereres ox patiences was given^ because they enabled the priests using them to rest without appearing to do so during the fatiguing services at which they were sup-^ posed to stand. The Cathedral of Poitiers has also retained seventy stalls of workmanship as fine as that of those in Notre Dame de la Roche, which were executed by order of Bishop Jean de Melun, who died in 1257. The skilful but modest artists who designed them hit upon c 17 FRENCH FURNITURE the happy device of leaving a souvenir of them- selves by introducing amongst the carvings the miniature figure of a seated huchier hold- ing his compass in his hand. Lastly must be mentioned the carved seats of the church of Saint Andoche de Saulieu, which are a good deal mutilated, but mark in a very noticeable manner the transition from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century in the great increase of small sculptures, forming what may be called pictures framed in the architecture. Some of the designs seem to have been inspired by the drawings in a curious contemporary book, the '* Album" of the architect Villard de Honnecourt. It is now time to say a few words on the sources from which artists drew their ideas, very succinctly of course, for if we dwell too much on this point that might embark us on a vast enterprise, we shall be in danger of for- getting that the title of our work limits us to the consideration of the productions of the huchierSy or furniture-makers. Before enter- ing on the epoch rich in examples, in which the transition of styles can be clearly distinguished, it seems to us necessary to point out, as clearly as the obscurity in which the Middle Ages are involved will permit, how French aestheticism could develop from its crude and barbarous manifestation in the chair of Dagobert to its i8 THE GAULS delicate florescence in the wood carvings of Notre Dame de la Roche and Poitiers. From the end of the reign of Charlemagne, or, to be strictly accurate, from that of Charles the Bald, to Louis VL, in other words, from the middle of the ninth to the eleventh cen- tury, France appears to the historian to have been wrapped in an almost impenetrable night of barbarism ; the monarchy was de- graded, the feudal lords were mere brigands, the weak were grossly oppressed, and raids from bands of Scandinavian pirates were of frequent occurrence. The tenth century was marked by a culmination of horrors, epidemics were succeeded by famines, in many places human flesh was actually devoured by starv- ing wretches, whilst added to all the rest was the ever-present dread of the approaching end of the world, predicted for the year looo. There was no brightness left on the despairing earth ! . . . Yes, there was one little ray, the flickering flame of art lit by St. Eloi, and still kept burning in the recesses of the monas- teries. There the peaceful monks, indiflerent to everything but the promotion of the glory of God, continued patiently to beat out precious metals, to cut and set valuable gems, pro- ducing works of art in which Latin traditions were gradually modified as a new and strange development began. Hawkers and pedlars 19 FRENCH FURNITURE brought images from Byzantium, the last out- post of civilisation, silks from Persia em- broidered with representations of unknown animals, cloisonnd enamels, the secret of the manufacture of which had been revealed to the artisans of Constantinople by their fellow craftsmen of the remote confines of Asia. All this acted as a strong stimulant on the imagi- nation of the monks — who copied, imitated, and combined designs, insensibly Gallicising them. At Limoges champlevd enamels were turned out of an even more sumptuous appear- ance than the cloisonnes they were intended to copy, yet which cost a hundred per cent, less. The year looo passed harmlessly away, and the world was transported with a deep feeling of gratitude to the divine goodness that had spared it. ** It seemed," said the chronicler Glaber, ** as if it had shaken itself free of its old age to clothe itself with the white ecclesiastical robe" (instar ac si . . . candidam ecclesiarum vestem indueret). Presently the treasures of art began to spread beyond the monasteries ; the humblest artisan, sustained by religious faith, turned out art work ; on every side churches sprang up in which the Roman arch was abandoned, up- lifting to Heaven their more or less pointed ogives, like hands joined in devotion, the details of their architecture enriched with 20 THE GAULS stone carvings representing an infinite variety of flora and fauna of superhuman beauty, whilst the light of Heaven poured into them through splendid stained-glass windows like the precious stones in some dream of glory. In 1025 the Synod of Arras alluded to the paintings in consecrated buildings as the books of the illiterate ; and the famous Abbot Suger inscribed in Latin verse on the doorway of St. Denis the ad- mirable definition of the union of art with faith : '* It is neither gold nor lavish outlay that should be admired here ; if the work is brilliant, its glory should illuminate souls and lead them by its light to the true light of which Christ is the only source. . . . The sluggish spirit of man is raised by means of material things to the contemplation of immaterial truth." Thus the most beautiful of all renaissances — and never was that word more justly used — succeeded the depth of human humiliation by means of the aspiration which faith alone was able to arouse. The worst of all catas- trophies was expected, and, in obedience to the law of reaction that is of such almost con- stant potency in history, a splendid era suddenly succeeded that of dread. Moreover, other events, one after another, occurred to add to the artistic, that is to say, the moral, 21 FRENCH FURNITURE glory of France, although at first they seemed likely to be its ruin. We allude to the Crusades, which, strange to say, historians have always looked upon as warlike enter- prises only, that retarded the moral and material progress of the world. Is it neces- sary to dwell upon the fact that the number of soldiers who took part in the Crusades was very small in comparison with the population who remained at home engaged in their usual work ? The troops were, of course, led by the so-called '' finest flower of chivalry," but truth to tell that fine flower consisted of the fierce and ignorant feudal nobles, hostile to the unity of the country, whose habit of plundering on all the main roads had hitherto contributed so greatly to the general misery. Some of them remained upon the battlefields of the East ; those who returned were com- pletely changed in character. Their habits had been modified by a different climate and still more by frequent and courteous inter- course with the great Saracen chieftains, from whom they had obtained new ideas of what true magnificence and refinement really were. Henceforth nothing was wanting to the full development of French genius ; side by side with religious art, under the control of the Church and paid for out of her inexhaustible treasury, might now flourish that of the 22 THE GAULS civil community, for artisans were now able to produce works as sumptuous as they liked» secure of finding amongst the wealthy no« bility patrons sufficiently appreciative of their beauty to be willing to buy them at any price. 23 THE SECOND CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY HE most noteworthy character- istic of the fourteenth century- was that luxury — derived exclu- sively during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries from re- igious sources — became purely secular. Our remarks in the preceding chapter shadowed forth that logical evolution. An outburst of intense faith such as that which succeeded the terror of the year looo, was not likely to continue in all the purity and fervour which during nearly two hundred years produced successively such masterpieces of architecture and sculpture that are, in my opinion, the most naively charming works of art ever conceived. A bargaining spirit leavened piety even in the time of Philip the Fair, who dared to defy the Pope, encouraged the schism of Avignon, and ruined the order of the Knights Templars ; already the Crusaders of the last expe- ditions to the Holy Land thought less of the sufferings of Christ than of the wealth and luxury of the Orient, whilst artisans, as we have seen in the case of the church of 24 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY Saulieu, began to allow secondary considera- tions to influence them. Certain fragments of ecclesiastical wood-carvings of the new century really remind one of the frames of looking-glasses ; in the choir-stalls of the Chaise Dieu, which were, according to tradi- tion, carved by the monks themselves, medi- ocrity is triumphantly displayed in the way the oak is slashed about, and the subjects of the medallions are most irreverently fantastic, a monkey or a pig appearing dressed as a monk, or a donkey playing the organ. The stalls of the Cathedral of Lisieux, with their confusion of decorative foliage and the number of inappropriate animals' heads carved upon the misereres, have similar defects, whilst the elbow-rests in the church of St. Benoit-sur- Loire represent grotesque human figures. Examples of a similar kind might be multi- plied. 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 durability; in the cathedrals of Toul, Dol, and Dijon, for instance, worked a number of wonderfully gifted carvers in wood, the names of many of whom have been preserved, notably Pierre of Neufchiteau, Jean of Lifege, Guillaume of Marcilly, Pierre and Guillaume Picheneau, Philippot Viard, and certain Flemings, who D 25 FRENCH FURNITURE are often confounded with their French fellow workmen, such as Laurent of Ysbres, sur- named Flamenc, Pierre Moselmen, Hennequin of Antwerp, &c. The so-called htichierSy or cabinet-makers, moreover, soon won the distinction of being looked upon as distinct from the mere ordi- nary carpenters. In 1371 Hugues Aubriot, then Provost of Paris, defined their obliga-- tions and duties in a sentence pronounced by him — a sentence confirmed by an edict of Parliament dated September 4, 1382. Louis XL, Henri III., and Louis XIV. each in turn modified in various edicts the statutes of the powerful Corporation, of which the following points may be stated here to avoid having to recur to the subject. No one could aspire to the title of a master cabinet-maker who had not served an apprenticeship of six years, at the end of which he would have to submit to an ex- amination before a selected jury, and be called upon to execute in the house of one of them, without any assistance, a masterpiece on some prescribed theme that should test to the uttermost his power of dealing successfully with the difficulties of his profession. The manufacture of any furniture in wood except in the licensed ateliers was strictly forbidden, as was also the buying or selling of anything 26 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY produced elsewhere. To set against these restrictions master cabinet-makers were bound to send forth none but work of the highest quality, alike of material and execution ; it must all be in bon bois loyal et marchandy under penalty of having anything inferior publicly burnt before their doors, and having to pay a fine of ten crowns. Long and minutely detailed sets of rules were issued as to how different kinds of furniture were to be made — for instance, the feet of armoires in which valuable property was to be kept must be of a certain size and weight ; it was sug- gested that desks, benches with backs, and couches or beds should be '' delicately " made, that the ornamentation of chairs and stools should be appropriate, and, lastly, that every- thing should be in the French style. The names here given to furniture are those used in the last edition of the Rules of the Corporation — that is to say, the one issued in 1645. I^ must not, however, be supposed that the houses of the fourteenth century were suddenly enriched with a number of new pieces of furniture. The bahtd, or chest, the wooden arm-chair covered with painted canvas, the table, the bed, and the bench were as yet all that the imagination of the huchiers had evolved, or, in other words, all that the ideas of the time with regard to luxury and comfort 27 FRENCH FURNITURE exacted from them. Moreover, it was still, as in earlier times, essential that furniture should be easily portable on a journey — a fact that regulated its shape, size, and weight. If we were restricted in our consideration of the domestic furniture of this brilliant period to describing the examples left to us, our task would be an embarrassing one. All that remain are a few chests, one of the most beautiful of which is in the Sculpture Room of the Cluny Museum. On the outside, be- neath the arcades, are carved the figures of the twelve peers of France in the warlike costume of the end of the thirteenth century, on the cover is a series of bas-reliefs repre- senting scenes from married life, jugglers, and grotesque animals. Not a single example of a chair or an arm-chair can be quoted, and this scarcity need not much surprise us when we remember that most houses only contained a single seat, that of the master, whilst the rest of the inmates were content to sit on the floor-cushions, known as carreaux, orhassocks. We are able to gain some idea of the furniture of princely houses at the time when the Mon- archy of France was struggling for its very existence in the never-ceasing civil troubles, and under stress of an interminable foreign war, by reference to the ^'Comptes de TArgen- terie," or accounts of the finance minister^ 28 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY who was long called the argentier. The num- ber and value of the purchases there set down would indeed be surprising, if nothing were considered but the demands upon the treasury necessitated by the political events of the day, but it must be remembered that even the most cautious rulers, such as Philip the Fair and Charles V., were as prodigal, so far as buying luxuries was concerned, as were even the in- sane John the Good and the mad Charles VI., so that it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that there was a good reason for this extra- ordinary expenditure in the necessity for maintaining the prestige of the Monarchy in the eyes of the great vassals of the Crown, who were almost as noble and powerful as the King himself. The accounts for 13 16 include an order for two arm-chairs from the ** image maker " Martin Maalot for King Philip v., surnamed the Tall, and two chairs for the Queen ; in the following year, that of the Coronation, the Court was supplied with a large number of bahuts, chests, in which to pack the King's robes, his bed, the accessories of his devotions, and the spices, then so costly, for his table. Two chests were reserved for the Queen's bed, and ten for the rest of her belongings, and in addition to these are men- tioned two '* gilded caskets for her head," which were most likely boxes for her head- 29 FRENCH FURNITURE dresses. The chests, also enumerated, intended to carry " rooms" require a little special ex- planation. We have already referred above to the fact that the great nobles, and even plain citizens of wealth, used to travel about with all their family goods packed in huge chests which at stopping-places served as furniture. The portion of this luggage known as the '' rooms*' contained the hangings that were fastened to the walls of the lodgings with hooks and cords, and the coverings for the beds. The hangings generally consisted of tapestry, that varied according to the season of the year. This is how it comes about that in docu- ments relating to the royal household such expressions occur as the Easter Room, the All Saints Room, the Christmas Room, &c. Occasionally, however, the name applies rather to the subject of the tapestry than to the time of year ; for instance, we read of the Room of the Cross ; of the Lions ; of the Conquest of England ; of Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons ; of the Nine Prussians, and so on. The bed was surmounted by a canopy with three curtains, and above the King's toilet- table was another smaller canopy. At the end of the century, *' rooms'' made of leather prepared and painted by a process invented in Spain came into use, to which were given 30 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY the appropriate name of Cordovan chambers ; in 1 416 the Due de Berri had such a room made in red leather, adorned with several shields in gules, that is to say, in red with three bands of silver surrounding the coat of arms of Castile ; and Queen Isabella of Bavaria sent for six leather carpets to match the summer hangings of one of her rooms. The Coronation Room of Queen Jeanne of Burgundy, which has served us as a pretext for these explanations, was the most sumptuous ever seen, for it was embroidered in gold, with no less than 1321 parrots, and the coat of arms of the Duke of Burgundy. Not only does a perusal of the ** Accounts of the Minister of the Royal Finances" reveal how gorgeous were the travelling bahuts, or chests. There is the item of two dining- tables, also for Jeanne of Burgundy, one with folding-leaves, both with feet of ebony and ivory. Clemence of Hungary, wife of Louis X., surnamed '' le Hutin," or the quarreller, had an arm-chair made of copper, such as was then manufactured in the neigh- bourhood of Dinan (hence the term dinan- derie, still applied to copper-work), and had it covered with velvet by an artisan of the name of Gilbert leChasublier, or the chasuble-maker. When, as was customary, a seat was to be covered with painted canvas, it was usual^. 3t FRENCH FURNITURE as well as natural, to apply, not to a maker of chasubles, but to an illuminator. Thus we find the Court Painter Girard of Orleans commissioned in 1352 to paint and carve the thrones to be used on the occasion of the marriage of Blanche of Bourbon to the King of Castile. He it was, too, who in 1364 made those for the Coronation of Charles V., and he worked for John the Good even during the latter's captivity in England. For the house of the King richly carved benches were also made — the larger ones known as bancs de taille, or waist-high benches ; the others as forms. The accounts also include dressers, dais, footstools to be placed in front of the benches, carved animals as ornaments for the feet of furniture, and buffets or sideboards, which were apparently merely low dressers. In the celebrated library formed by Charles V. in a tower of the Louvre the cabinet-makers Jacques de Parvis and Jean Grobois executed some important panelling work, and did a good deal of restoring of old furniture. The walls were wainscoted with oak from Holland ; the ceiling was of carved cypress-wood ; the windows were provided with iron gratings to prevent birds from flying in, glass being as yet little used ; and cabinets divided into three stories were con- structed, in which, as was then the custom, 32 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY MSS. were kept spread out flat, one division being reserved to specimens of jewellery. All this gives a singular impression of combined luxury and simplicity. We find Charles VI. appearing in a robe on which were embroidered i400Jewelled swallows, each holding a golden dish in its mouth. At the same time, however, the King contented him- self with sitting on a wooden bench, or a chair, covered with painted canvas ; whilst Isabella of Bavaria decked herself with a fabulous quantity of diamonds and otherprecious stones, yet was ignorant, as were all her contem- poraries, of such a thing as a nightdress, and she slept in a room the w^indows of which consisted of nothing but thin pieces of bone or perhaps of leaves of parchment. In fact, the luxury which prevailed to so great an extent in society in the fourteenth century represents merely the desire to cut a dash in the eyes of others — not a real love of comfort. Barbarism was still really triumphant over Latin culture, and many more years were needed before by slow degrees the desire became general for the refined surroundings which are one of the most noteworthy features of civilisation — a word that must not, by the way, be confounded with the idea of moral progress. 33 THE THIRD CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY N a technical history such as that we are now writing the term ''fifteenth century" must be taken to refer, not to a definitely re- stricted period, but to the school of art which in it carried on the Gothic tradi- tions of that which preceded it. As a matter of fact the influence of the celebrated Italian Renaissance of the sixteenth century made itself felt in the midst of the prolific Gothic age long before the year 1500. To make our work clear, therefore, it seems to us desirable, in spite of rigid dates, to consider in this chapter what may be called the bastard furni- ture which came into use immediately after the war with Italy began. Not without reason did we quote the example of Charles VI. and Isabella of Bavaria as a striking instance of the state of mind to which a frenzied love of wealth had brought a people who were still in other respects mediaeval barbarians. Their reign indeed was divided between the two cen- turies, and serves as a permanent symbol of a period of art development that has been 34 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY arbitrarily cut in half by historical classifica- tions. It is in the wood-carvings of the churches, in which the imagination and skill of the artists were alike unfettered, that can best be studied the easy transition from the grand and simple Gothic of the thirteenth century to the aspiring, attenuated, and complicated ornamentation culminating in the confusion of decoration that won for the final develop- ment, in the very moment of its decline, the name of flamboyant. Truth to tell, the passage from one to the other was so imperceptible that the most expert critics are sometimes at a loss to determine the age of a series of choir- stalls within ten years or so. As a general rule the main features of architecture betray their date far more readily than do details of decoration. The latter lose something of their first grace as time goes on ; the noble-looking columns, rising up in their pure, unadulterated beauty, gradually become overburdened with ornamentation, often of fine execution no doubt, but wearisome to the eye by reason of its redundancy. Profane subjects are of frequent occurrence on the misereres and elbow-rests of the choir-stalls, whilst the simple wooden canopy above the seat, origin- ally a mere rounded extension of the back, is replaced by an elaborate baldachino at right 35 FRENCH FURNITURE angles so as to provide the insatiable wood- carver with yet another string-course on which to exercise his skill. The two magnificent, painted and gilded, reredoses from the Carthusian monastery of Dijon, now in the Museum of that town, which were saved from destruction during the Revolution, are admirable examples of the transition period. The monastery to which they belonged was founded in 1380 by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whose Court exceeded in luxury even that of Charles the Mad. The reredoses were designed by Jacques de Baerze, a Flemish subject of the Duke, and the beautiful ogives are prophetic of the attenuation of architectural motives in which later huchiers were all too ready ta indulge. To gain a really true idea of the trans- formation that was effected in Gothic architec- ture by the influence of Northern mannerism, it is also essential to study the marvellous carvings of Amiens. Every line of the architecture is encumbered with quantities of figures, campaniles, and foliage. The church of Brou is even more belated, for it relegates the close of the Gothic period to 1522, whilst that of Amiens would make the date 1508. It is, if possible, even more overladen with figures of saints, apostles, and patriarchs, executed by 36 CHEST. XV Century. Cluny Museum THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY the two celebrated huchiers Terrasson and Am6 le Picard, after the designs of Jean Perrdal. On the other hand, it is only fair ta add that the famous wood-carvings dating from 151 2 in the church of St. Pol de L^on, situated in an intensely conservative province,, hostile to innovation, retain the dignified character of earlier work. This late example of Gothic art confirms what we have just said on the necessity of caution in assigning without definite evidence a date to the many works belonging to the transition period, such as those preserved in the Church of the Madeleine at Chateaudun, the collegiate church of Tro6 (Loir et Cher), the Abbey of Blanche de Mortain, the church of Andelys, that of Gassicourt, near Mantes, the Cathe- dral of Rodez, that of St. Claude, the Church of the Holy Trinity at Vendome, that ot Charlieu (Loire), of Notre Dame, and of the Carthusian Monastery of Villefranche, with many others which it is unnecessary to name. Examples of the domestic furniture of this period are pretty numerous, with the excep- tion of beds, which seem all to have dis- appeared. The design and ornament of all these articles resemble that of the wood-work in ecclesiastical buildings, and they are faithful reflections of the architecture of the period at which they were made ; whilst they in their 37 FRENCH FURNITURE turn supplied motives to the workers in ivory who adorned the lids of coffers, &c., as well .as to the painters of the illuminations of missals and manuscripts. It could, indeed, scarcely be otherwise, for at that time artists of every kind were in the habit of congre- gating about the great centres of luxury and patronage, the habitual residences of the great nobles, and above all at the Courts of the King at Paris and of the Duke of Burgundy at Dijon. We have already alluded to the latter provincial dukedom as an inexhaustible storehouse of wealth for nearly one hundred and fifty years. In the Museum of Dijon, side by side with the reredoses of Jacques de Baerze, are to be seen some relics of furniture which bear witness to the splendour of the Court, including the central panel of what was once the back of the chair of John the Fearless, than which it would be impossible to imagine anything more rich and delicate. The upper portion encloses within an ogive festooned with foliage the coat of arms of the Duke, upheld by two angels; the lower portion, of rectangular shape, contains the coats of arms of eight feudatory provinces, set in a kind of trellis of delicate workmanship, enriched with foliage and supplemented by four angels playing various instruments 38 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY of music. In this same Museum are to be seen three ivory caskets, which, according^ to tradition, belonged to the toilette service of the Duchesses of Burgundy ; two of them are adorned with arabesques and painted birds, picked out with gold ; the third is encircled by a series of scenes from the New Testament, embossed in polychrome. Entries in the archives supplement these costly relics, which are a perfect revelation to the spectator. Fresh acquisitions were constantly made : dressers and benches for Antony of Burgundy, known as le Grand Batard ; a wooden chest with iron clamps for the reception of gifts of visitors to meet the expenses of an expedition against the infidels of Constantinople ; end- less descriptions of jewels, paintings, manu- scripts, and costly garments are, as it were, sprung upon the student of these wonderful archives. John Duke of Berri at his Court at Bourges vied in splendour with his powerful brother, Philip the Bold ; the Dukes of Orleans, waiting their turn to reign, constantly en- riched their chdteau of Blois ; the Kings of France dissipated their resources betimes, for the treasury was often at a terribly low ebb in the century which witnessed the replacing of Charles the Mad by Charles VII., most effeminate and most lax in principle of any 39 FRENCH FURNITURE of the French princes; the Cabochiens, named after their leader, the butcher, Caboche, were masters of Paris whilst the English were masters of France. Lastly, and above all, all classes of society, were permeated by deep and widespread demoralisation — a demoralisation that did not check luxury, but imbued the people with a distaste for work and for thrift, which are the very foundations of prosperity. The great nobles went forth, to quote the words of a contemporary historian. Bishop Jacques of Vitry, like birds of prey to plunder the churches and to assassinate the plebeians who were guilty of letting their wealth become known. This contempt of right in high places lent sanction to all manner of popular excesses, and many must have been reminded of the Republic of Florence, for the statutes of the new State, drawn up by the victorious burghers, declared that it owed its greatness ^ro homicidio, pro fur to, pro incest o, and also of their kindred spirits of England, Jack Straw and John Ball, who said to the mob, '' Good people, things will never go well in England so long as goods be not in common, and as long as there be villeins and gentlemen." Meanwhile the people imitated the luxury of their oppressors with an eager zeal — which led to an attempt, unsuccessful of course, to check that zeal by sumptuary laws. Even 40 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY during those terrible years of excessive mor- tality when, as a contemporary wrote in his journal, wolves scoured the country and even ventured at night into the streets of Paris to carry off dead bodies, the common people continued to indulge in wearing costly and luxurious clothes — from which it is natural to conclude that they showed no more discretion in the embellishment of their houses. Un- fortunately, actual evidence of this is wanting; or, to speak more correctly, it is all but im- possible to prove that this or that piece of furniture which has been preserved in some museum or private collection belonged origin- ally to the household of a burgher, a noble, or an ecclesiastic. This doubt assails us, for instance, in examining the charming table in the Bardac collection, consisting of simple planks set on trestles, the only ornament a little purling, a perfect marvel of combined lightness and strength. Other examples that have come down to us are the set of panels known under the name of the Lit de Justice of the Chateau of Argentelles, which now belong to M. Edmond Foule, and appear to have originally formed part of an alcove of that Norman castle. If this be a true attribution — and the most expert judges think that it is — this Lit de Justice proves how very ornate the interiors of private houses were. The so-called bed F 41 FRENCH FURNITURE consists of a square canopy, on three sides of which is a double frieze of carvings with floral motives and arcades in the flamboyant style, further enriched with campaniles, pendentives, and figures of children balancing themselves in the air, whilst below an angel with folded wings holds a shield bearing a coat of arms. The panels surmounted by the dais are adorned with fleurs-de-lys and Gothic ornaments, and the whole structure rises from two steps. All that is needed to form just such a corner of a room as is represented in the miniatures of many old manuscripts is the actual bed with its velvet or tapestry curtains. The arm-chairs, or thrones, that we are able to cite as examples of skilful carpentry are all of a princely character, such as those in the Cluny Museum bearing the arms of France, or the combined arms of France and Brittany. The most remarkable dates from quite the end of the Gothic period : the back is finished off at the top by a frieze of open-worked vine foliage, and eagles with drooping wings, in the centre, beneath an arch, stand two angels in long robes holding the royal shield sur- mounted by what is known as a couromie ouverte, or a crown consisting of a simple fillet. A large number of authentic and un- injured coffers have come down to us. In quite humble collections specimens of a cha- 42 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY racter so simple were to be found as to lend probability to the theory of their plebeian origin. They are nearly all put together in much the same way. The front is divided into a series of little arcades, subdivided in their turn by curves and semi-curves imitated from monumental architecture ; the spaces between are often filled in with carved rose- tracery or other floral designs, occasionally with the figures of children. A fine example is the chest in the Cluny Museum from the Abbey of Val Saint Benoit (Sa6ne et Loire) ; and another typical specimen is one in the Tours Museum, in which the principal panel is divided into rectangular spaces ornamented with a lozenge moulding, each lozenge con- taining rose-tracery — a motive often also met with on doors. Lastly, though more rarely than the ornaments just described, a series of Gothic arcades is sometimes met with, in each of which is introduced a kneeling figure. It is also worthy of note that the smaller side-panels of chests are generally decorated with the simple but effective linen- fold design, that is not unlike an open book, or, which is perhaps a better comparison, a parchment rolled up at each end. We will not pause to describe the armoires, or wardrobes, which are, as a general rule, nothing more than a chest set upon a bench, 43 FRENCH FURNITURE or two chests one on top of the other. From them we may, however, deduce the fact that the more valuable ones were decorated in the style alluded to above, whilst those intended for humbler purposes had no other embellish- ment than the iron bands or hinges, the chief purpose of which was to add to the strength of the chests. As very perfect examples of the latter we may quote those lining the walls of the Treasury of St. Germain I'Auxerrois at Paris. The dresser was the most distinctive article of furniture in the houses of the nobility in the fifteenth century. *' Mme. de Charolais," says a writer of the tinie, *'only had four shelves to her dresser, whilst Mme. la Duchesse, her daughter, had five I have often heard it said," he adds, *'that no princess, except the Queen of France, should have five shelves. The dressers of countesses should have three shelves, on which should be ranged dishes, pots, flagons, and large drinking -cups, whilst on the broadest part of the dresser there should be two large wax candles, to be lit when any one is in the room." For all that, however, the dresser is really only a gradual develop- ment of the primitive trestle on which chests used to be put down. The finest and most complete specimen we know of is that in the 44 Plate II CUrBOARD. End of XV Century. Louvre Museum THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY Basilewski Collection, bought by the Emperor of Russia, and taken from Paris to St. Peters- burg. It is surmounted by a rounded dais, which recalls that of the choir-stalls of a church. The carving, which is extremely delicate, includes representations of the Annunciation and Nativity, figures of saints and angels, and one of St. John the Evangelist, the last occupying a central position between the folding-doors of the armoire. We could multiply and vary to any extent descriptions of such Gothic furniture, but to do so might lead the reader to lose sight of those general characteristics of mediaeval carpentry, the thorough recognition of which, in our opinion, is essential to forming a clear judgment on what at first sight appears to be the confused and complicated work of the artisans of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Before passing, however, to the study of the Renaissance, we must note certain historic data which will enable us to grasp the intel- lectual transition from one period to another. In the sketch we have given of the fifteenth century, we have had to bear in mind the extra- ordinary combination it reflects of extreme misery and inordinate luxury, but for all that we must not pretend to ignore the undoubted 45 FRENCH FURNITURE progress made in intellectual culture, slow but sure, which places a gulf between the time of Charles VI. and Louis XII. Side by side with the beautiful and voluptuous Agnes Sorel rose up the heroic and simple-hearted Joan of Arc, who awakened amongst the masses of the people the ennobling idea of patriotism. After Charles VII., a mere shadow of a king, came Louis XI., a prince of iron hand, but acute intelligence, who subdued nobles, con- quered provinces, and even introduced the principles of economy into the financial policy of the State. The moral effect of this policy was incon- testable, but at the same time it had a less immediate result upon the manners of the time than historians lead us to suppose. In this connection, also, the special annals of luxury to which we can only now devote a single chapter bring things out in their true proportions. Joan of Arc, simple peasant though she was, was so far imbued with the ideas of her time that she went to battle wearing over her armour a robe woven of gold thread. She was decked out in this style when she was taken prisoner, as is proved by the authentic records of her trial, and Louis XL, the bourgeois monarch of popular tradition — who is always, by the way, /epresented as an old man, who delighted in 46 Plate III STALL. End of XV Century. Paris Exhibition, 1900 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY wearing a cheap fustian cassock, a rosary round his neck, and on his head a cap with leaden images of the saints round the brim — also had his times of indulgence in the extrava- gant luxuryof a great noble. It would indeed be a great mistake to suppose that he limited the money he spent on furniture to having cag'es made in which to shut up his enemies. It so happens that entries in the royal accounts reveal that he had a costly aviary set up in his room at Plessis les Tours, in which to keep the rare little birds that he was in the habit of buying by the dozen at a time, and for whose use he had gilded perches made ; moreover, he spent a good deal on violet- powder to scent his clothes and rose-water to wash in, put round the neck of his greyhound that he called his cher ami a golden collar set with three big rubies and twenty pearls, bought many valuable clocks, games of bil- liards, and numerous pieces of furniture from the carpenter Jacques Cadot, also pleasure- galleys for boating on the Loire and the Seine, with regular houses on board with glass windows, &c. Do not all these domestic details, too much despised by historians, give an altogether new idea of the great King ? Was this Louis XI. in his perfumed robes, walking about with a greyhound decked exit like a grand lady, so very unlike in his ways 47 FRENCH FURNITURE and ideas to the lavishly extravagant vassals whose ruin he was so anxious to bring about ? This is the point at which we have been arriving. Nothing throughout the whole course of the fifteenth century, not even the political wisdom of the conqueror of Charles the Rash, succeeded in even temporarily checking the inordinate love of luxury that prevailed in France. Charles VIII. must therefore not be too severely judged for a pomp that he did not inaugurate, but merely kept up according to the usual custom of princes, and with the approbation of a section at least of his subjects. No doubt the first expedition he led to Italy that had such dis- astrous results, was an act of policy quite unworthy of the lessons bequeathed to him by his father. For all that, however, it is very certain that had Louis XL himself been drawn into such a war in the land of art, he would, like his son, have been unable to resist the temptation of bringing back in his train, together with a booty of masterpieces, some of those artists who were true experts in magnificence, with the result that the Re- naissance would have been dated from his reign. 48 THE FOURTH CHAPTER THE RENAISSANCE T is very much the fashion nowadays to deplore the fact that Charles VIII., previously imbued with the Romanesque spirit, should have been so excited by the perusal of the ** Rosier des Guerres " as to provoke in 1494 the conflict between the French and the Italians which could but be the death-blow to the highest expression of French genius : Gothic art. This judgment, however, really proves a very superficial knowledge of facts. The Gothic art that gave birth to such splendid buildings as the cathedrals of Chartres, Notre Dame of Paris, Rheims, and Amiens was the result of a fervent faith which could not long be main- tained at its original intensity, and had indeed already begun to decline at the end of the thirteenth century. The growing intricacy of the works we have been studying in chrono- logical order, the decline in good taste every- where noticeable, prove all too surely that at the date to which we have now come Gothic art was dying of natural causes ; dying because it no longer had in itself the vital sap which G 49 FRENCH FURNITURE was the essential principle of its life, so that it resembled a fruit-tree that is no longer pruned, the supports of which have given way, and which must eventually succumb beneath the weight of redundant foliage and sterile blossom. Weary of exercising their skill on lines of architecture that never varied, artists and artisans were ready to accept any innova« tion, no matter what its source. At the Court of Burgundy, for instance, as we have seen, the Flemings who brought with them nothing novel but certain mannerisms of their own, readily found pupils ; whilst in the South, Italian ideas early filtered across the boundary, and King Rene sent from beyond the Alps for such artists as Laurana and Pietro da Milano to enrich his capital of Aix. To resume : The Renaissance originated in France at the favourable moment for the rapid adoption of decorative motives founded on antique Latin models, that had already been freely drawn upon for some hundred years by Italian artists : decorative motives only, be it observed, for no new form of domestic furniture was introduced until a long time afterwards, everything of that kind still re- maining what it was when sudden and frequent removals were the rule. Moreover, French cabinet-makers never gave up the carving in relief of which they were such thorough SO Plate IV RENAISSANCE ARMCHAIR. Louvre Museum THE RENAISSANCE masters, for the less familiar processes of painting on panels, nor did they adopt the use of coloured marqueterie, or of paste mouldings, in the style to which the names of tarsia, intarsia pittoric, and certosina were given in Italy. Sudden as was the invasion of France by Italian design, it is doubtful whether the change was really effected all at once. As already stated, some works have been pre- served in the purest Gothic style, that date from the first quarter of the sixteenth century, most of them in churches, for which the supple Florentine line did not appear suffi- ciently dignified to the artists who designed them and who were attached to old traditions. Leaving them aside, we will first study the examples in which the old and new styles jostle each other, and then those in which the pointed arch has completely disappeared, giving place to a purely Italian motive. What may be called a classic type of the marriage of the two styles — which we must quote as a masterpiece of wood carving, though it leads us somewhat away from our subject — is the door of the church of Saint Sauveur at Aix in Provence, which dates from 1504, and on which, though the whole is evidently the work of one hand, niches with pointed arches in which stand 51 FRENCH FURNITURE the figures of prophets are separated by pilasters decorated with arabesques and the animals that symbolise the Evangelists. The two styles are naively used side by side, the artist having made no attempt to unite them by any transitional features, and the effect of the whole is charming. The same combina- tion is met with in a pulpit of the church of Beaulieu les Loches, in which panels in the flamboyant Gothic and Italian styles alter- nate with each other. This little masterpiece was no doubt produced in the brilliant work- shops on the Loire, whose talented owners were the first to learn the technical secrets of the craftsmen brought back with him from Italy by the victor of Fornova to his favourite Chateau of Amboise, and to win fresh inspira- tion from the works of art that formed part of the spoil he amassed in it. It is probable that the new arrivals themselves at first worked in the princely mansions of France, as was the custom in their own country, side by side with the carpenters of Amboise and Tours, who in 1493 received from the King a commission for a large number of benches, trestle-tables, dressers, wooden bedsteads and wooden chairs, to be covered with red leather. In any case the lessons the foreigners taught were very quickly learnt, for not a single Italian name occurs amongst those of the 52 THE RENAISSANCE twenty-one cabinet-makers who a few years later executed by order of the noble Arch- bishop of Rouen, George of Amboise, and his nephew, the wood-work of the famous Chateau of Gaillon. Not a single piece of furniture that belonged to that residence has been preserved but a few wainscot panels now at Cluny and in the Abbey of St. Denis, the beauty of which would have been quite enough to prove what the grandeur of the whole work must have been, even if the accounts of the payments made for it were not accessible. Although of exclusively French manufacture, they are good examples of the blending of the Gothic and Italian styles. M. Emile Molinier, who is one of the most learned and expert writers on these subjects, refers in his ''Histoire gdndrale des Arts appliquds a Tlndustrie," apropos of the Chateau of Gaillon to certain Italian plaques and engravings, the motives of which were evidently reproduced by French artists in the decorative, and even in the monumental work, produced during this period. The double corbels introduced by Michelozzi above the gateway of the Palace of the Medici at Milan, were very possibly familiar to French cabinet-makers through Mantegnas engraving of the Flagellation; the dolphins that occur so frequently at 53 FRENCH FURNITURE Gaillon and at Cluny appear to have been borrowed from the frontispieces of such collections of engravings as the St. Jerome printed in Venice in 1498; the illustrations of the '* Strife of Love as seen in a Dream by Poliphilo,"* by Francesco Colonna, issued in the same town in 1499, seem to have suggested the idea of the siren and many other motives; and the dolphin rolling itself round an anchor introduced on the tomb of Guillaume Goufifier in the Chapelle d'Oiron is really nothing more than an imitation of the trade-mark of the great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. The easy transportation of such decorative details was not the only reason for the rapid propagation throughout France of the so- called antique style. It must be added that the cabinet-makers themselves were ready enough to travel alone or in groups from one town to another where much building was going on and good wages were paid. There they produced works which in their turn served as patterns to the native artists and were hawked about in other places. These facts, of which there are plenty of proofs, are * A facsimile of this rare and valuable book, of which but very few copies remain, was published in 1894 by Messrs. Methuen, under the original title, " Poliphili Hypnerotomachia," with a pamphlet giving its history. — Trans. 54 Plate VII RENAISSANCE DRESSER. Louvre Museum THE RENAISSANCE enough to upset the ingenious theory evolved by certain learned writers, otherwise reliable enough, that it is possible to classify geographically the various centres of art production of the French Renaissance. We must give up the idea of being able ta define the characteristics of a Norman school, a school of Champagne, of Auvergne, of the South, of Lyons, of Tours, of Burgundy, and so on. The truth is that the new style took possession at the beginning of the reign of Francis I. of all the provinces at once, appearing at first, as we have seen, side by side with the Gothic and then gradually ousting it. Prudence dictates the necessity of relegating to the first part of the sixteenth century all works in which any traces caa still be made out of the old style, even if every detail of the construction be foreign, and then to consider those that are evidently entirely Italian in spirit. In both, whether produced in the North, the South, the East, or the West,, identical motives are everywhere prevalent ; such as candelabra, columns with floral capitals, figures in relief beneath a canopy of foliage and fruit, or a mere moulding known as a chapeau de triomphe or chaplet of victory, dolphins, arabesques of conventionalised flowers, and flat mouldings called bandelettes. It was in a comparatively short time that 5S FRENCH FURNITURE Gothic design, already thoroughly outworn, merged itself in the graceful style borrowed from Italy. In the examples preserved, the progress year by year of the latter can be distinctly followed, traces of the pointed arch becoming rarer and rarer, taking refuge only, as it were, in the cornices or in the attenuated mouldings, and then finally disappearing. About the end of the reign of Francis I., therefore, the triumph of the style brought over from Italy may be said to have been complete, but in the very moment of victory it found itself transformed in the hands and at the initiative of French artists, and com- pelled to submit to the strenuous influence of their traditional taste, out of which resulted a national art of individual character, alike vigorous and versatile, known in history as the Henri II. style. We will consider that style in the next chapter. The '' antique school," strictly so-called, has produced too many fine works to be dismissed in a few lines, in spite of those purists who choose to see in it nothing but the decadence, or, to be Biore accurate, the complete disappearance, of French genius. The word decadence should really be replaced by that of evolution, for transition between two artistic systems, bearing witness to the intellectual as well as the aesthetic 56 THE RENAISSANCE vigour of a nation, cannot be likened to a decline leading to ruin. Moreover, the evolu- tion now to be considered was extremely brief, undeniably brilliant, and far more French than a mere cursory examination of external appear- ances would lead us to suppose. If the art that prevailed in Italy in the time of Francis I., such as the painted marqueterie and plaques, in which quantity excelled quality, be studied, it will be seen that the craftsmen of France did not really produce mere counterfeits of those designs, and that even when they borrowed motives, detail by detail, they assimilated them with a discretion and refined taste that really recalled the work of the Italians of the fifteenth rather than of the sixteenth century. Some writers who recog- nise this fact as we do, have not chosen to explain it in this simple manner, so glorious for French craftsmen, but make out that the works of this period of the Renaissance were actually produced by Italian artists. Of course we are unable to contradict these learned critics when they claim such an origin for the panels and marqueteries that adorn the chapel of the Chateau of La Batie en Forez, built by Claude d'Urfd, or the panels of the chapel and sacristy of the Chateau of Ecouen that are now at Chantilly, but it is very probable that these were all actually H 57 FRENCH FURNITURE executed in Italy and brought over at immense expense by wealthy connoisseurs. The ques- tion becomes an even more delicate one when we have to deal with such works as the panels of the Chiteau of Fontainebleau, of which it is true but a very small portion, badly restored some fifty years ago, now remains, but with which many old engravings have made us familiar. We read, indeed, in the ''Comptes des Batiments du Roi " that French and Italian artists were at work at the same time at Fontainebleau, and it is significant that one of the latter, a certain Francisque Seibecq, called De Carpi, received the highest salary of them all. It is, however, permissible, as much of all this is pure hypothesis, to suggest that it is possible that this De Carpi was a kind of architect or director of the works, in the execution of which he took no actual share, especially as we know for certain that a great part of the wood-work was produced at Tours by Masters Aman and Antoine Les Bruns, who sent it to Fontainebleau in 1530. This hypothesis would apply equally well to the work in the Louvre and St. Germain-en-Laye royal chdteaux, to which the cabinet-maker-in- ordinary of the King, Francisque de Carpi, was undoubtedly summoned, and perhaps also to that in the charming retreat of Anet, a few fragments of which are preserved in the Ecole S8 Plate VIII MISERERE STALL Beginning of XVI Century. Abbey of S. Denis THE RENAISSANCE des Beaux Arts of Paris, and retain the im- press of a double influence, for the best artisan in the employment of the King is sure to have been sent to his favourite Diana of Poitiers^ Chitelaine of that gem of architecture. If, however, in spite of the reasons we have urged against it, the belief is still retained that the remarkable decorations of these palaces were to a great extent the work of Italians who were living in France, no one will be disposed to deny the simple character of the chest in the Carnavalet Museum, see Plate XVIII. , page 74. The boldness of the carving recalls the broad treatment of the best Gothic period, and there is no doubt that it was designed by a Frenchman of good taste. Of the armoire, too, of which we also give an illustration, the same thing may be affirmed^ enriched as it is with groups of goddesses in landscape scenery, foliage and flowers, eagles and sirens set in a background of graceful, well - proportioned architecture, resembling Lombard damascening on Parisian armour. Lastly, as a final and clinching argument, have we not the fine doorway of the Cathedral of Beauvais ? all the ornamentation of which is in the antique style, and the author of which we know to have been a true Frenchman, Jean le Pot, who has actually stamped his work with a souvenir of the old masters he would 59 FRENCH FURNITURE have been the last to disown, by representing Jerusalem as a Gothic church in one of his bas-reliefs. The national art of France, then, con- tinued its development without a break, like a strong chain some of the links of which were of gold whilst others were of alloy. The century we have just been considering is one of the latter, but if the metal was not quite pure, never was its workmanship more delicately skilful. The costly expeditions to Italy had as happy results for the cultivation of French taste and the refinement of French manners as had the Crusades in a more barbarous age. It was in the reign of Charles VIII., that the word ''courtesy,'* derived from ** court," first came into use, and that the nobles, back again from their warlike expeditions on the other side of the Alps, began to look upon military virtue, not, as did Charles the Rash, as skill in fleecing others, but as a pledge to keep the word once given, to be true to king and flag, to merit the title of a loyal servant, of a knight without fear and without reproach, won by Bayard under Louis XII. and Francis I. The moral progress of the aristocracy was reflected amongst the people, and resulted in the springing up of the dlite cultivated class of the bourgeoisie. Mixing with Italian society to THE RENAISSANCE had taught the lesson that talent should be honoured, however lowly the position of its owner. Francis I., a highly educated king, of artistic tastes, visited Leonardo da Vinci on his deathbed, delighted in the conversa- tion of Guillaume Bud6, provost of the mer- chants, who advised him to found, the College of the Three Languages, out of which grew the College of France, encouraged Robert Estienne to develop the art of printing, then recently discovered by Gutenberg, enriched Amyot, the translator of Plutarch, and pro- tected with his powerful friendship the admirable audacity of Rabelais. However foreign to our subject these considerations may appear, they are, in our opinion, indispensable to its complete com- prehension, for they explain the promptitude with which the nation, flooded with so many new revelations, accepted an art suggestive of a refinement hitherto unknown. On the other hand, lavish display seemed to be more than ever a necessity even to commoners. In the reign of Louis XH. Charles Seyssel wrote : '* Throughout the kingdom great buildings are being erected on every side, public as well as private, covered with gilding, not only on the wainscotting and the walls of the interior, but also on the outside, the roofs, the towers, and the statues ; the houses are 6i FRENCH FURNITURE furnished, too, with all mannerof costly things^ such as were never seen before. Moreover,, silver dishes are used by all classes to such an extent that it has been necessary to issue an order to check this superfluity" — it was annulled two years later on account of its uselessness — ** for there is a certain set of people who will not be content unless their cups, goblets, ewers, and spoons are of silver at least/' What would the historian of Louis XII. have said if he could have seen what the luxury of France became under that monarch's successor I The Field of the Cloth of Gold, a city, enduring but for a day, on which the treasury of the kingdom was squandered ; the Court of Fontainebleau, where the young Catherine of Medici, the daughter-in-law of the King, at the head of fifty ladies chosen for their beauty, organised incredibly Isivish/^fes ; and those other almost as luxurious courts such as that of the Marshal of St. Andr6, who on his estate of Vallery surpassed even his sovereigns in the magnificence and beauty of his rare and exquisite furniture, or that of Bonnivet who had the weapons of all the soldiers of his army engraved and gilded ! 62 Plate IX firHfi»»viiiiiiw%nff.|iiinn^ CHEST. Beginning of XVI Century. Cluny Museum, Paris THE FIFTH CHAPTER HENRI II. AND THE SECOND HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY HE style which it has become cus- tomary to call that of Henri II., because it was inaugurated in the reign of that monarch, who was the son of Francis I., lasted imtil the beginning of the seventeenth century — that is to say, during the successive occupa- tion of the throne by the four last princes of the house of Valois. It was but the final nationalisation of principles brought from Italy, the outcome of the genius of the great sculptors, and still more of the great architects, of the Renaissance. Rarely in the history of art did so sudden a change take place, or at least appear to take place. As we have already seen, scarcely had the Italian style attained the dominating position in which it often was difficult to distinguish between French and foreign work, before it was in its turn driven out by the springing up of a new growth full of sap, which took root and bore fruit upon the dying beauty of its predecessor, much as does a rose upon the wild briar on to which it is grafted. 63 FRENCH FURNITURE The men who rose up in response to the great thought movement of the Renaissance, encouraged by the royal patronage now ac- corded to art and to all intellectual work, were not likely to be content with servilely copying models originated by a people whose traditions and aesthetic requirements were quite unlike their own. The literary treasures of the antique world, dispersed after the fall of Constantinople and vulgarized by their repro- duction through the newly discovered art of printing, would, of course, make a very dif- ferent impression upon the creative imagina- tion of Jean Cousin or Jean Goujon than they did on that of Donatello, Michael Angelo, Dello Delli or Andrea di Cosimo. With their chisel, these men created figures in stone which they presumed to be as classic as those shown them by Roman and Floren- tine artists, but which really, without re- sembling the old Latin models, were the expression of a truly French spirit. On the other hand, the architects of the first half of the sixteenth century — when the virile force of mediaeval times was, as it were, becoming deteriorated by anaemia and a predilection for the excessive elegance borrowed from across the frontier — also looked upon antique art from a different point of view than that of the Italians. They meant to copy, but they really 64 P^ATE X CARVED WOOD CHAIR. XVI Century. Belonging to M. Chabriere- Aries THE HENRI H. STYLE interpreted, and their hereditary sense of harmony and fitness led them to seek in the remembrance of long-banished buildings for models of furniture better adapted to the imagined surroundings of pagan emperors than were those of the Gothic period. The result of what may be called this great latent activity was the successive appearance of a series of albums containing engravings of designs for monuments, furniture, and decorative sculpture, all inspired by antique work, but for all that marked by a curious originality. It was to these the craftsmen of every part of France simultaneously resorted, to gather together the elements of the new style known as that of Henri II. To encourage each designer whilst retaining his own individuality, to modify the drawings given to suit his special needs, was indeed the chief aim of those who issued these pub- lications — an aim frankly stated on the covers of some of them. The authors of these collections of en- gravings were a Parisian named Jacques Androuet du Cerceau and a Burgundian called Hugues Sambin, and as they pub- lished the results of their researches in the towns in which they lived, Paris and Dijon, it is easy to divide the immense quantities of furniture produced in France in the second half I 65 FRENCH FURNITURE of the sixteenth century into two schools, that of the He de France, and that of Burgundy, inspired by those two artists. This will obviate the necessity of attempting to describe the work of the various provinces, the classifica- tion of which would be of very doubtful value, as the books of engravings circulated every- where, were used by everybody, and give an almost identical appearance to the products of widely separated districts. Little is known of the life of Andronet du Cerceau, except that he was born about 1510, and travelled as a young man in Italy, as is proved by some drawings preserved at Munich representing designs for St. Peter's at Rome and the Palazzo Cancelleria, copies of antique architecture, such as the Thermae of Diocletian, and reproductions of sketches by Bramante or his competitors, for that great architect was very much the fashion in Italy at that time. Du Cerceau did not hesitate later to issue to the public designs that were very evidently inspired by Bramante, giving to them antique titles, and thus leading his ignorant fellow countrymen to adopt them. His laud- able intentions, however, go far to condone this piece of trickery, for, says his most appreciative biographer M. de Geymiiller, it had a double purpose, '* to make known the principles and forms of Italian art to 66 Plate XI BED OF DUKE ANTOINE DE LORRAINE. XVI Century. Nancy Museum THE HENRI H. STYLE all who adopted professions in France con- nected with the fine arts, or industrial art, as we should say nowadays, and to set his country free from the necessity of having recourse to foreign artists." He himself practised architecture, and amongst other buildings designed the Chateau of Montargis, belonging to Ren^e of Ferrara, and rebuilt the choir of the Church of the Madeleine in the same town. After publishing a collection of engravings — the titles of which indicate clearly enough the professions of those for whom they were intended, such as the ** Book of Mathematical Implements," ** The Book of Architecture, with Fifty Designs for Different Buildings," '* The Book of Designs for Country Houses," *' The Most Excellent Buildings of France," Boundary Statues, Orders, Escutcheons, Designs for Trophies, Arabesques, &c. — he had an album printed containing 7 1 designs for furniture, including 21 cabinets or dressers, 24 tables, a choir-stall, 2 doors, 8 beds, 2 brackets, i panel, i over- mantel, 3 terminals, and 8 socles or pedestals. The complicated prodigality of lines and orna- ments in these designs is perfectly astonish- ing, and arouses a doubt as to whether it would be possible to reproduce them exactly ; but this was evidently not the intention of the author, as proved by the works executed 67 FRENCH FURNITURE during and after his time. All he wished was that his book should be, so to speak, a mine of ideas, from which craftsmen might borrow architectural combinations and decorative motives, to be arranged according to their own individual taste. Hence the overloading of every engraving with superfluous detail, which no one, we should imagine, would be so unreasonable as to attempt to copy servilely. The examples we give of engravings by Du Cerceau, and the reproductions of designs for furniture inspired by him, will do more to enlighten the reader than pages of descrip- tion of those ornate works. We will, therefore, content ourselves with naming some of the general principles of the master — principles adopted by his followers, and characteristic of the Henri H. style. Tht armoires gtnersilly have four folding-doors, two above and two be- low, separated from each other by pilasters sur- mounted with figures and greatly resembling an architectural facade, an effect sometimes increased by the addition of niches containing statuettes. The dressers are of three kinds — the first, a chest with folding-doors, is set up as in the old French style on a hollow base and finished off at the top with some archi- tectural ornamentation ; the second is divided into two compartments, both open at the back, 68 Plate XII DRESSER. After an engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau Plate XIU BED. After an engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau THE HENRI H. STYLE so that all the decoration there is is on the columns or the frieze ; the third has three such open compartments. The beds are in two styles — some, of rectangular shape, have a so-called dossier, four balusters supporting a dais, and feet carved to represent griffins or chimaerae ; others, shaped like flat-bottomed boats, are narrower at the feet than at the head, they have a dossier and three balusters to up- hold the dais, two at the head and one at the foot, representing a man or woman standing upright, the whole resting on a very lofty pedestal resembling the letter T. The tables are round or rectangular, but no examples of the former have come down to us ; engravings in the *' Album," however, represent them as upheld by two fan-shaped feet, the rays of the fans forming a star, the centre of the point of intersection being hollowed out to receive an ornament in relief, such as a vase or a palmette. A unique example of a round table is one with one foot only, carved into a succession of bulbs one above the other, which open out into coiling serpents, running beneath the top of the table so as to support it, whilst at the base is a symmetrical row of tortoises. Angular tables after Du Cerceau's designs are often met with. They generally have two fan- shaped supports upholding the two ends of the table, or, to be more correct, of the inlaid 69 FRENCH FURNITURE or beaded cincture that leads up to it, and the narrow bases of the feet rest upon patens con- nected by traverses, from which spring pillars and arches, or intersecting rails, which add to the strength of the table — the lavishness of the decoration culminating in the supports, in which the designer gave the rein to his imagination. Hugues Sambin, some ten years younger than Du Cerceau, was the son of a carpenter, and became a member of the Corporation in 1549. That he rose rapidly through his skill as an engineer and grip of the art of architec- ture, is proved by reliable documents stating that in 1558 he had charge of the ** artillery" at Dijon, where he resided, that in 1560 he regulated the course of the river Suzon, was concerned in the supply of water for the public fountains of that town, was employed in 1572 by Ldonor Chabot, Grand Equerry of France, to decorate his chdteau at Pagny, superintended from 1574 to 1582 the works of the most important buildings of Dijon, the Palais de Justice, and Chambre des Requites, the walls of the fortifications and a communal building, returning at the latter date to his original profession, for he was the author of the exquisite sculptures of the choir- screen of the chapel of the Palais de Justice, those of the door of the Archives, and also 70 Plate XIII CUPBOARD. By Hugues Sambin. Arconati-Visconti Collection Middle of XVI Century THE HENRI H. STYLE probably of the outer entrance. Before his death, in 1602, this indefatigable and gifted artist designed the rood-loft of the Church of Dole, and superintended the works of defence at Salins. Between whiles he produced an album of designs for Caryatides, published a series of engravings under the title of *'GEuvre de la diversity des termes dont on use en archi- tecture," and executed a number of pieces of furniture, whilst he superintended the pro- duction of many others. In these minor works the Burgundian artist gave proof of a very prolific and power- ful imagination. He lavished carvings of figures, fruit, and foliage on the surface of the wood with a view to giving a general impres- sion of richness, whilst Du Cerceau gave more attention to grace of line, and relied for effect chiefly upon the wealth of beautiful, but often minute detail. The former de- lighted in carving lions' heads, eagles with mighty wings, voluptuous women, and muscular satyrs with merry faces. The latter was a fervent admirer of the long-limbed, elegant-looking goddesses which Jean Goujon borrowed from the Italian artists who worked at Fontainebleau, and which became widely popular through the work of the school that took its name from this favourite residence of Francis I. and Henri II. Moreover, 71 FRENCH FURNITURE whereas the Parisian master set the ex- ample of a French modification of Italian motives, to the Burgundian is due the credit of encouraging his disciples in a frank audacity and bold interpretation of those motives which really resulted in a revival of the beautiful craft of the cabinet-makers of the great mediaeval period. In the dressers made in the reign of Henri IV. we see the final collapse of the school of Du Cerceau but a few years after the death of the founder of the He de France school, whereas in the so-called Louis XIV. style can be traced its derivation from the true Gallic art originated by the architect-craftsman of Dijon. The Museum of Besan^on owns two pieces of furniture that are supposed to be the actual work of Hugues Sambin — a table and an armoire. Although the design is far more complicated than that of the door of the Archives or the choir-screen of the chapel of the Palais de Justice at Dijon, the authenticity of which is fully established, these works were certainly either executed by him, or at least, which is much the same thing, produced after his designs under his superintendence, so that we feel justified in briefly describing them as typical examples of the Burgundian style. The master was, it is well known, at Besan^on in 1 58 1, and took up his residence with a 72 Plate XIV y5t^ CUPBOARD. Middle of XVI Century Plate XV SIDEBOARD. Epoch Francis I. Cluny Museum Plate XVI PANEL OF CUPBOARD School of Hugues Sambin. Middle of XVI Century. Boy Collection THE HENRI H. STYLE carpenter and painter belonging to the Gauthiot d'Ancier family. Indeed, the two pieces of furniture in question figure in the inventory of that house, and the armoire bears the date 1581. The table is upheld by two fan-shaped supports, the central portion of which is a terminal ending in the head of a grinning satyr, whilst the sides are two volutes ending at the bottom in lion's claws and at the top in rams' heads, rather clumsy for the size of the table, but well carved ; the massive rests are decorated with foliage, and the edge of the table with carved ornamenta- tion. The armoire is, perhaps, unique amongst the furniture of the second half of the Renais- sance, on account of its complicated structure, although simplicity was never a characteristic of that time. It bears some resemblance to a dresser by a pediment upholding the central portion, which is of semi-circular form, and is further supported by brackets jutting out from a single console, the base of which now represents a chimaera that replaces a *' satyr holding a cow-herd's horn," referred to in the old inventory ; on either side is a two- storied wardrobe, separated by a drawer. Architectural motives are carved along the top, and on a pediment upheld by female figures are the arms of the Gauthiot family, and a bas-relief of various trophies. To wind K 73 FRENCH FURNITURE up a description that may serve to give some idea of the lavishness of Burgundian orna- ment we may add that on the front, which is divided by columns, and along the top of the armoire eight mythological figures, represent- ing Lucretia, Mercury, Flora, Ceres, Pan, Envy, Apollo, and Orpheus, are painted in cameo picked out with gold. As we have had occasion to refer to paint- ings on the work of Sambin, we must warn our readers that the impression produced at the present day by furniture of earlier date than the seventeenth century with what may be called the beautiful patina of the old wood, polished by the action of time till it looks like antique bronze, is quite unlike what it was in mediaeval and Renaissance times. There is no doubt that all these pieces of furniture were originally covered with paintings which would have seemed garish in modern rooms. But before we criticise this vanished fashion we must bear in mind that the way of looking at things differs very much at different periods — a fact that should never be lost sight of in dealing with the art of the past. The Greeks, for instance, to quote but one example, painted the marbles of Phidias, and indeed all their sculptures, with purely conventional colours. Moreover, it must be remembered that in old France, rooms were verv large and 74 Plate XVII TABLE. Second half of XVI Century. School of Hugues Sambin r^'??^®^^^^^''' Plate XVIII CHEST. Middle of XVI Century. Carnavalet Museum, Paris THE HENRI H. STYLE scantily furnished, whilst the walls were hung with tapestries of gorgeous colouring, so that if the natural colour of the wood of the sideboards, wardrobes, and tables, the dark shining tones of which we now admire so much, had been left untouched, the effect would have been cold and gloomy. We give a reproduction of an armoire belonging to Mme. la Comtesse Arconati-Visconti, which is specially valuable because it retains traces of painting and gilding that leave no doubt as to the brilliancy of the colours used to embellish the work of cabinet-makers. We will not pause long over the remark- able personalities of Du Cerceau and Sambin, who were really great enough to dominate half a century. The illustrations accompany- ing our remarks will do more to bring out the strength of their influence than the de- scriptions we have felt bound to give, and our necessarily arbitrary classification of a subject that has already been treated by many others. Simultaneously with the engravings of these two masters, many drawings, some of which have been preserved, were circulated in the ateliers and elsewhere throughout the whole of France. Some few, and those by no means the least artistic, were the work of their disciples. The name of one only has 75 FRENCH FURNITURE come down to us, that of Etienne de FAuln, who worked chiefly in the reign of Henri IV. ; but now and then part of some good design happened to fall into the hands of a clever artist with little imagination, who would simply content himself with reproducing it exactly on all the panels of some piece of furniture. This was the case with one of the best decorated armoires of the end of the sixteenth century which passed from the Spitzer to the Salting collection, and has on each of its folding-doors a carving of the antique Laocoon, the pose being simply reversed. In some few examples that have been pre- served it is very evident that the artists responsible took their decorative motives from the Dijon and Paris drawings they chanced to come across, combining sometimes, for instance, the Dianas of Jean Goujon with grinning satyrs. It was inevitable that this fusion of the two schools should take place, and the fact does not militate in the least against the classification we have adopted. A good example of this composite style is a dresser that belonged to the Soulages collection, and is now in the South Kensing- ton Museum. It dates from the very end of the sixteenth century, and in it will be recog- nised chimaerae copied from Du Cerceau, 76 Plate XIX DRESSER. Second half of XVI Century. School of Du Cerceau Plate XX TABLE. Second half of XVI Century. School of Hugues Samb in. Dijon Museum LATE XXI CHEST. Second half of XVI Century. Louvre Museum THE HENRI H. STYLE female forms borrowed from Hugues Sambin combined with a figure of Justice inspired by some German medal. It was this combi- nation of motives in a single work, the reason for which was not at first detected by provincial scholars, that led to the illusion of there having been some great schools in Southern France that flourished independ- ently of those in the North. This very dresser at South Kensington is indeed quoted as one of the proofs of the ingenuity of the school of Languedoc, or rather of Toulouse, where a certain talented cabinet-maker, Nicolas Bache- lier, rose into notice, who, like Du Cerceau, travelled in Italy as a young man, and like Sambin, was an engineer, architect, sculptor, and designer of furniture. He made the plans of the chdteaux of Assier and Montal, now destroyed, began the bridge of Saint Subra at Toulouse, designed and executed the tomb of Galiot de Genouilhac, Governor of Languedoc, and is credited with having been the sculptor of the main doorway of the church of Saint Saturnin at Toulouse, of the choir-screen of the Cathedral of Rodez, of an open-work stone screen in the chapel of Saint Sepulcre, and with having built several private houses in his native city, and produced also a quantity of furniture. Amongst the last were the choir-stalls of St. Saturnin, specially 77 FRENCH FURNITURE celebrated because one of the misereres represents Calvin — who has a pig's head — preaching. We have already shown that the originality of this master, and of the Langue- doc artisans who followed him, will not stand the test of serious examination. It is, how- ever, only fair to add that they were inspired by other artists as well as those of the North, for they knew the work of the Spanish, and also of the Flemish masters. The latter were the subjects of "• the most Catholic King," and were especially in repute and much copied in the beginning of the seventeenth century — that is to say, at a time when not only Languedoc but the whole of France were more or less impregnated by the taste of their neighbours in the North, on whose influence we shall dwell more at length in our next chapter. The impression resulting from an exami- nation of all this furniture of complicated structure and inordinate decoration, dating from the second part of the sixteenth century, is very much the same as that produced through studying the history of the manners of the time. French life under Henri II., Charles IX., and Henri III., all semi-Italian princes, dominated by their talented mother the Florentine Catherine de Medici, was an extraordinary mixture of terror and luxury, 78 Plate XXII DRESSER. Second half of XVI Century. Garde Meuble National, Paris THE HENRI H. STYLE for in the midst of the horrible butchery of the religious wars, when such notorious crimes as the assassination of Condd at Jarnac, of Guise at Blois, and Coligny at Paris, were committed, luxury of the most effeminate type prevailed at the court of the last kings of the house of Valois. In this connection should be read Pierre del'Estoile's description of the wedding of the Due de Joyeuse, the festivities at the celebration of which cost the King twelve hundred thousand crowns, and Michel de Castelnau's account of the fites held by Catherine de Medici, at which sirens haunted the water-channels of Fontainebleau,and a wooded island was impro- vised to receive the Queen of Spain, who was escorted to it by the French Court on a fleet of magnificent boats followed by musicians and singers dressed as Tritons ! Private individuals followed the noble example set by these prodigal gallants. Cardinal du Bellay, Ambassador at Rome, gave his guests at a banquet their choice of one thousand dishes of fish, and fifteen hundred of baked meats, and this was but a poor feast compared with the collation spread by the municipality of Paris for the wife of Charles IX., at which the entremet consisted of a presentation in sugar of the whole history of Minerva, from the moment when she issued in complete armour 79 FRENCH FURNITURE from the brain of Jupiter to that when she brought Perseus, slayer of the Gorgon, mounted on Pegasus, back to Athens, thus symbolising '' the discomfiture of the enemies, past and future, of the King, overwhelmed by his magnificence and by his success in every enterprise through following the counsels of his Minerva." This extravagant spirit was reflected in the domestic furniture of the home by the excess of ornamentation lavished upon it, such as volutes, flowers, and foliage, nymphs, dryads, and fauns. Everything must be alike costly and distorted, and for the sake of this an amount of constraint and discomfort was endured, very significant of a robustness of physique of which there is plenty of proof in the sanguinary exploits of Montluc, the Baron des Adrets, Francois de Guise, and the Valois princes themselves. If we are appalled at the martyrdom endured by the wearers of the huge, though dainty starched ruffs enclosing the throat as in a vice, the bodices with steel braces for drawing back the shoulders so as to give prominence to the bust, and the weight of the robes stretched at the hips over regular armour made by the blacksmith, we are no less astonished at the idea of any rest being obtained on chairs, the straw cushions of which did little to lessen 80 Plate XXIII DRESSER. Second half of XVI Century. Louvre Museum Plate XXIV CHEST. End of XVI Century. Louvre Museum THE HENRI H. STYLE their hardness, or in beds that could only be climbed into with difficulty, and bristled with balusters and posts, or caryatides, as provoca- tive of night-mare as were the monsters that served as their pedestals. 8i THE SIXTH CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BEFORE THE ACCESSION OF LOUIS XIV PEAKING generally, two-thirds of the seventeenth century may be said to have been taken up in a laborious effort on the part of French artists to assimilate all the foreign decorative styles of the time, and to evolve from them a definitely national style, which won for Louis XIV. more truly than did any historical event, the honour of giving his name to the whole epoch. During the reigns of Henri IV. and Louis XIII. it seemed as if the aesthetic feeling of the whole country was becoming ever more and more tainted by the influence of the foreign products that crossed the frontier, and that the effeminate mannerism of the Court of Henri III. had finally dis- couraged original effort on the part of French craftsmen. Italian work was in special favour, as was but natural, in view of the marriage of the new King to a Medici, who, of course, attracted her fellow countrymen to her Court ; but vSpanish artists were also thought highly 82 Plate XXV CHAIR. Louis XIII. Cluny Museum FOREIGN INFLUENCE of, and the Ambassador from Spain exercised a very powerful influence over the narrow- minded Queen, whilst under pretext of aiding the Catholics in the religious wars Spanish troops were poured into the country. Nor were Flanders, Germany — whence came the piece of furniture presented by the City of Paris in 1619 to Talon, the first Avocat- Gdndral of the Parlement- — Portugal, or the Low Countries neglected. The last-named were themselves already imbued with Italian ideas, and, almost simultaneously with France, they had endeavoured to stamp them with their own individuality — but, it must be added, without the genius of a Du Cerceau or a Sambin to aid them. In a word, France seemed in danger of drifting into a decadence of the worst type, no longer drawing her inspiration direct from Italy, but aimlessly vacillating between this style and that, becoming ever more and more anaemic and emasculated. Henri IV., a man of no little intelligence, could not fail to notice the discouragement under which the artists of his country laboured, and he set to work to find a remedy for it, hitting on one which seemed likely to hasten the final catastrophe, for he sent craftsmen to Holland to study the pro- cess of carving in ebony, and on their return installed them in the Grand Gallery of the 83 FRENCH FURNITURE Louvre, side by side with foreigners. This example was followed by his son, for the accounts of Louis XIIL reveal the fact that even in his palace the art of decoration was taught by masters — such as the German Hanemann, the Fleming Stabre, and the Swiss Pierre Boulle — of every nationality except Italian. Beforeproving that, in spite of this invasion of France by foreign styles, she did succeed in bringing about a new manifestation of her own individual genius, secretly, as it were, turning to account the superabundant models at her disposal by her recognition of their defects, it is necessary for us to define the characteristics of those styles and of those models. We repeat that for more than a centur)'' and a half Italy had never ceased to exercise an influence upon her neighbour, and the accession of a second Medici had certainly not tended to weaken that influence. More- over, in 1603 certain allies, even more im- portant than the Queen herself and her Florentine Court, came to its support, for in that year the Jesuits, who had been expelled from France in 1595, were recalled. Their religious zeal led them to begin at once to build colleges and churches on every side, and they chose as director-general of these 84 Plate XXVI ARMCHAIR. Epoch Louis XIII. Cluny Museum L^ Plate XXVII CHAIR. Epoch Louis XIII. Palace of Elysee FOREIGN INFLUENCE works the so-called ** temporal coadjutor," Etienne Martellange, who had passed the time of the exile of the Congregation at Rome, where he had acquired a remarkable knowledge of the science of architecture, which made up to some extent for his want of imagination and very inferior taste. For thirty years he was engaged in raising up all over France pretentious structures, cold and correct, but uninteresting, in the pseudo-classic Roman style, inaugurating in building as in furniture the kind of thing too well known under the name of the Jesuit style. Another incidental and less accidental reason for the persistence of Italianism in domestic furniture was the rage for cabinets which first set in during the reign of Henri III. Strictly speaking, a cabinet is nothing more than an ordinary chest placed upon a stand, opening, not, as at first, at the top, but with one or more folding-doors on one side, with drawers inside. It may really be called an armoire de htxe for keeping valuable articles, and for this reason the makers delighted in decorating it as lavishly as possible. There is no doubt that the cabinet is of Oriental origin, but it is difficult to decide whether it was first used in Europe in Spain or in Venice. However that may be, it was Italian artists who chiefly excelled in the con- 85 FRENCH FURNITURE struction, and still more in the decoration, of cabinets, with the result that from the end of the sixteenth century the demand for those exported from the Peninsula became immense. Italian manufacturers used for them costly exotic woods, which they inlaid with coloured marqueterie, ivory, shells, mother-of-pearl, &c., all enriched with jewellery. The new impulse given by such delicate decorative work to artisans and craftsmen will be recog- nised at once. The use of bronze in the ornamentation of French furniture, of which so many examples exist, was without doubt suggested by the delightful combinations of gold and silver designed by cabinet-makers on the other side of the Alps. The use of tortoise- shell plaques, in which the Boulles excelled, was also evidently suggested by the mosaics which Florentine artists began in the middle of the sixteenth century to work into their little cabinets and the tops of their tables. Strange to say, at the beginning of the century an incomprehensible and melancholy whim led Northern craftsmen to use ebony, originally a mere accessory of marqueterie, as the material for the whole of the cabinets made by them without anything to relieve it, and it was to study this kind of work that Henri IV. sent some carefully selected workmen to Holland, assigning to them quarters in the 86 Plate XXVIII EBONY CHEST. Epoch Louis XIII. Palace of Fontainebleau FOREIGN INFLUENCE Louvre on their return, and dubbing them menuisiers en ^bdne, which is the origin of the name of ''ebenistes," given to-day to makers of furniture of every kind. A great many Italian cabinets have been preserved in France, one of which in the Cluny Museum may be quoted as a typical example. It is supposed to have belonged to Maria Gonzaga, Queen of Poland, and is of very complicated structure, so overladen with all manner of ornamentation, inlaid and appliqu^ in metal and other materials, that it is really less like a work of art than a masterpiece in the sense understood by municipal juries — that is to say, an accumulation of tricks of various trades. It is easy to imagine what kind of technical lessons such pieces of work would give to the artisans of other countries ! The French got from it not only the idea to which we have already referred of using gilded bronze, but also of inlaying gold and silver in iron — a process known as damas- cening, such as was employed, for instance, in a large pier glass in the South Kensington Museum. Spain, which ever since the fifteenth cen- tury had supplied France with quantities of the painted and gilded leather hangings for rooms known zs guadamacillaSy now began to export also numerous cabinets, that can easily 87 FRENCH FURNITURE be identified by their cubic shape and the open-work metal plaques with which they were decorated in accordance with Moorish traditions. These pieces of furniture, of which the best existing examples are at South Kensington, were formerly known as var- guenos, for the chief place of manufacture was Varguo, in the province of Toledo. In- laid wood, ivory, or painted bone are the only decorations employed. These cabinets do not really seem to have had any direct share in the evolution of the Louis XIV. style, in spite of the favour they enjoyed for a time. It was, indeed, rather through their tributary province of Flanders, which had, however, already been brought under Italian influence, that Spanish craftsmen produced any effect upon those of France. Moreover, the ex- ports from Portugal on the other side of the Pyrenees were looked upon as costly curiosities rather than models to be imitated ; the variety of choice woods brought to Lisbon for the manufacture of furniture, the suitability of Asiatic materials, such as tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl, for inlaid work, were, of course, at first extremely attractive to Italian craftsmen, enamoured as they were of the mosaic marquetry, known as tarsia, and it is possible that it was through these latter that a few indications of the Portuguese style 88 FOREIGN INFLUENCE may have become incorporated in that which we are about to study. Cabinets of German fabrication were cele- brated in Europe in the first years of the seven- teenth century. We have already noted how the municipality of Paris, rich though it was in good craftsmen of its own, chose to purchase a famous German piece of furniture for a ceremonial gift. The merit of these works did not, however, consist in the originality of their structure, which was simply copied from the Italian style, nor in the novelty of the processes of decoration employed, for the use of amber in certain examples was the only innovation, but in the minute and scrupulous care with which every detail was executed. This unwearying patience, alike the dis- tinctive merit and defect of the Teutonic character, which makes Germany the home par excellence of archaeologists and theo- retical philosophers, is displayed in the enormous output of work by an immense number of craftsmen, working chiefly at Nuremberg and Augsburg. In 1616 the ebenist Ulrich Baumgartet was commanded by the Duke of Pomerania to make a cabinet which it took him five years to produce — with the aid of the. architect-painter Philippe Hainofer, and three other painters, a sculptor, an enamellist, six jewellers, two clock-makers. M 89 FRENCH FURNITURE an organ-maker, a mechanician, a modeller in wax, a specialist in making cabinets, an engraver in metal, a chaser of precious stones, a turner, a binder, two scabbard-makers, and two locksmiths. The work is now in the Museum of Industrial Art at Berlin ; the execution is perfect, but no one will be surprised when we add that it is also too complicated and heavy, and as a whole far from artistic. Our only reason for dwelling on it at length is to give an idea of the technical and intellectual characteristics con- tributed to the revival of the French school by the numerous German craftsmen who crossed the Rhine. Holland, especially what were then its Flemish provinces, sent to France very nearly as many skilled craftsmen as Germany. Prosperity had returned to the districts long terrorised by the government of the Duke of Alba, and Antwerp became the headquarters of the manufactures of the country. In many cases it was impossible to distinguish between the works exported from the North and those produced in the South, so great was the skill with which Flemish artisans assimilated Italian processes. It was, however, of course im- possible for a land owning so many artists of talent — indeed of genius, for Rubens was then flourishing — to be content with plagia- 90 Plate XXIX EBONY CHEST. Beginning of XVII Century. Cluny Museum FOREIGN INFLUENCE risms of foreign designs for furniture. As a matter of fact, we find in cabinets executed under the influence of such men as De Vriendt, surnamed Floris, the Francks, the Breughels, and De Vos not only mosaics in the Florentine style, and decorations copied from Correggio's designs, but paintings by native artists, marquetry, in which the tulip, cultivated with such loving care in the North, is the prevailing motive, and lastly, represen- tations engraved in ebony of contemporaries of the craftsmen. After this rapid review of the extraordi- narily prolific foreign output, and the raids made on France by it from every side, the danger of being swamped run by French individuality will readily be understood. Those, indeed, whose talent or preponderating influence ought to have made them the right persons to defend it were the first un- consciously to betray it. Martellange of Lyons, endowed alike with talent and with wealth, devoted all his energies, as we have seen, to disseminating yet more widely depraved Italian taste. Henri IV. was, it is true, inspired with the noble and fitting ambition of protecting art at his own Court, for, as he wrote in 1608, ** amongst the in- finite blessings resulting from peace, that of the cultivation of the arts, which always 91 FRENCH FURNITURE flourish through its influence, is by no means the least." But who was the first to whom he offered hospitality ? A Fleming, Laurent Stabre. Louis XI IL inherited the ideas and tastes of his father. During his reign a kind of Babel prevailed in the long galerie of the Louvre, in which were to be heard all the dialects of Europe, and where French artists were permeated with foreign influence. Richelieu, keen-sighted though he generally was, shared the ideas of his sovereign, and had a mosaic table made at Florence, which is now in the Louvre Museum, was valued by La Fontaine at the exaggerated price of nine hundred thousand livres, and in which the revolutionary delegate Guitton- Morvaux pretended in 1794 that he recognised the precious stones filched from the shrines of the Abbey of St. Denis. Under Richelieu, and, subsequently, under Mazarin, the palace was filled with Italian productions. The latter installed in it the Dutch ebenist Pieter Golle, or Goller, and got the King to take into his service his own fellow countrymen Domenico Gucci, Filippo Gaffieri, Francesco Bordoni, Fernando and Horatio Migliorini, Luigi Giacetti, Branchi, and others. It really seemed at this moment as if the fire of French art, lit perhaps a thousand years before, were about to be extinguished a 92 ABRAHAM BOSSE second time by the Latin genius ! But this was not to be. National taste survived ; slowly but rationally it was re-evolved, modi- fying without any sudden or inharmonious transitions the fashions of ancestral times, and at the same time selecting and assimi- lating the best of the novel ideas presented to it. It is modest, but irresistible, for it has the majority on its side. It reflects the feel- ings of millions of humble souls, bound by family ties, who honour the memory of their fathers, and who, owning few things of value, give all the more affection to their unpretend- ing furniture. A certain man who lived at this time con- stituted himself the recorder of the fashions that prevailed in French homes, and that in a style most interesting from our point of view, for he chose engraving instead of writing as his medium of expression. His name was Abraham Bosse ; he was the son of a merchant of Tours, and he was a member of the Calvinist sect, practising his religion, however, without prudery, if we may judge him by the Gallic humour characterising his engravings in the style of Jacques Callot and his pupil Jean de Saint-Igny. The earliest of these engravings were published in 1622, and were succeeded during some forty years by numerous series, under various titles, such as the **Jardin de la 93 FRENCH FURNITURE noblesse fran^aise/' *' Figures au naturel tant des vStements que des postures des gardes frangaises du Roi tr6s Chrdtien/' '' Mariage k la Ville," '* Mariage k la Campagne," ** L'enfant prodigue/* '* h^zart et le mauvais riche/' *'Les vi6rges sages et les vi^rges folles/' ** Cris de Paris, Metiers/' *' Galeries du Palais," '^ GEuvres de Charity," &c. Even the plates illustrating Biblical scenes are little pictures of life in the seventeenth century, taken direct from nature with a truthfulness and simplicity recalling the work of the Dutchmen Vermeer, Terborch, or Van Ostade. The men are seen going about in doublets, with shoulder knots and full trunk hose, the women in very wide petticoats and low bodices, even in the gardens adorned with summer-houses, rock -work grottoes, and trees trimmed into pyramids, as well as in rooms betraying more or less clearly a certain reminiscence of the Henri H. style. Although we see that this sort of decoration became more complicated in those specimens of aristocratic furniture — now preserved in museums — which were made under Louis XIIL, it was, on the contrary, greatly simplified by the taste of the bourgeoisie. The ever-increasing rarity of those good carvers on wood who had been supplanted by workers in mosaic and mar- 94 ABRAHAM BOSSE quetry in the Italian manner made it the more necessary, if the old forms were not to be given up, to have recourse to turners. The complicated system of columns uphold- ing the square tables of Du Cerceau were replaced by spiral supports. It was much the same with ordinary chairs and arm- chairs, the chisel was only used on the top and posts of the dossier and on the most im- portant of the rails, sometimes not even on them. Now for the first time the seat is to a certain extent comfortable, the beautiful carvings in relief that made it impossible to rest the shoulders have disappeared, as have also the movable cushions, which were quite insufficient to mitigate the hardness of the wood. Henceforth the seats are covered with cane, cloth, or stuffed leather, firmly fastened on to the structure. Moreover, the whole room is draped and the new woodwork disguised, as it has no longer a decorative object, with curtains and carpets. Some of Bosse's engravings represent comfortable rooms in which the bed and the table appear merely as two irregular cubes, so closely are they covered over down to the very ground. The bed from the Chdteau of Effiat in the Cluny Museum gives something of the im- pression of a miniature apartment within a room. This fancy led to the evolution of the 95 FRENCH FURNITURE alcove, a regular wardrobe-like room, the only open side of which was sometimes provided with actual doors, traces of which remain in most French houses that are more than a hundred years old. It was in such alcoves that, in accordance with the most singular of all the strange fashions we have so far passed in review, ladies — imitating the so- called Prdcieuses of the H6tel Rambouillet — used to hold receptions as well as to sleep. Lying full length outside, or even sometimes inside, the bed in elegant deshabille, and with the light filtering through skilfully adjusted curtains, they would make their friends sit down in the ruelle, or narrow passage between the bed and the wall. This fashion pre- vailed throughout the whole of the reign of Louis XIV. Furniture, as we have seen, became greatly simplified amongst the middle classes, and the loss so far as art was concerned was made up for by increase of comfort. It appears to us quite easy to account for this double evolution, which reached its fullest develop- ment in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. It cannot be denied that the influ- ence of Calvinism had something to do with it ; the formality and coldness of domestic decoration in the reign of Henri IV. suc- ceeded too rapidly the brilliant and affected 96 INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANTISM style that prevailed under his predecessor, for it to be possible to fail to recognise how important was the influence over popular customs of the triumph of a prince who remained a Huguenot behind the Catholicism he assumed, because *' a kingdom is worth more than a Mass/* The Bearnais monarch was popular, he was beloved, and as a result he was imitated. Now, like his comrades in the religious wars, he carried contempt for show to such an extent as to take a positive pride in exaggerated simplicity. The lower classes liked to recall the fact that on his entry into Paris the sovereign only had five pocket- handkerchiefs and a dozen shirts in very bad condition, and that his best costume consisted of a doublet of white satin, a black cloak, and a plumed hat which he wore both on the occasion of his solemn recantation of Protestanism, as well as for the ceremony of coronation, and, indeed, a hundred other familiar anecdotes, such as that of his having received the Spanish Ambassador on all fours with his children riding on his back. All this is very much in the reformist spirit of the time, and explains the taste for the severe style of Protestant Holland, and also the fact that Henri IV.'s first act as an art patron was to send his best artisans to the Dutch school. The very evident resemblance in interior decoration in the two countries, Holland and N 97 FRENCH FURNITURE France, which can easily be illustrated by a comparison between the work of Gerard Terborch and Abraham Bosse, is the result, it appears to us, of the impulse given by a king whom all his subjects took for their example. It has been said that the fashion of entirely covering furniture with drapery was but a revival and development of an Italian custom of the fifteenth century. This is going very far afield to seek an explanation, and needlessly to exaggerate the artistic domination of Italy, that was already great enough. She may be credited with the first use of bed draperies, at the same time as the introduction, during the Renaissance, of bedsteads with canopies upheld by columns, but certainly not with that of table-covers, which, as we have already pointed out elsewhere, were a natural contrivance for hiding an economy the owners did not wish to betray, which had led to their employment of turners instead of carvers in wood. There were now quantities of costly materials to be had in France, and there is no cause for surprise at the fact that the middle classes loved to show off pieces of stuff such as but recently the nobility alone were privileged to use. The cultivation of the mulberry-tree having been successful in the South, Lyons 98 FOREIGN INFLUENCE had begun to manufacture silk which rivalled even that of Florence and Genoa, Tours became celebrated for her coarse taffetas, workmen invited to come over from Ana- tolia and the islands of the Archipelago produced in Paris itself embroideries in the Oriental style, and numerous artisans work- ing in the Louvre and in the Rue de la Tixerandrie decorated textile fabrics with de- signs founded on exotic plants which they copied in the Royal gardens recently laid out for that very purpose, and which were later to develop into the extensive Jardin des Plantes. On the other hand, the Italians are to be credited with the introduction into quite humble rooms of certain minor decorative features which add greatly to their charm and comfort, such as crystal or glass chandeliers, sconces in the shape of an arm fixed on to the wall, the closed fist holding a wax candle, and above all the great mirrors framed in carved and gilded wood or in undecorated ebony, varied by the fertile imagination of the French with appliqud work cut out and chased in copper or silver. This mirror was the natural supplement of the cabinet, or of the bureau founded on it — bureau being the old name used in mediaeval times for the counter covered with a coarse brownish stuff 99 FRENCH FURNITURE called drap de bure,"^ and later given to a novelty introduced towards the end of the reign of Louis XIII. It is scarcely necessary to describe the well-known shape of this familiar little piece of furniture. It is a chest set on a table, not so deep as the top of the latter, and pushed back a little so as to afford a rest for the hand of a writer seated at it. About the beginning of the eighteenth century it became customary to call this variety of the cabinet by the name of commode, the lower part of which consisted of nothing more than a table provided with drawers, distinguished at the same period as the bas darmoire, or the lower armoire. It is as well to make a point of giving these names, which we shall have to use constantly in dealing with suc- ceeding reigns. * The nearest English equivalent to drap de hure is drugget. — Trans. 100 THE SEVENTH CHAPTER THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV N the history of art the reign of Louis XIV. does not begin in the year 1643, when he actually ascended the throne at the age of five years, but at the foundation in 1663 of the so-called Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne, better known under the name of the Gobelins, which pre- serves the memory of the former possessor of the Parisian mansion in which it was installed four years later. This institution, founded by the great minister Colbert, the pupil and successor of Mazarin, was really the develop- ment of an idea conceived by Henri IV. at the beginning of the century, of collecting in the Louvre artisans and experts in different handicrafts, to encourage art all over the country and to give a healthy impulse to the manufacture of all manner of beautiful work, the sale of which might augment the wealth of the country. It was, in fact, intended to promote the minor arts, such as the making of tapestry and jewellery, and those in which the materials were wood, metals, and precious stones of every variety, just as the Academy lOI FRENCH FURNITURE of Painting and Sculpture, which had received its letters patent in 1655, encouraged the more important branches of art-production. The two establishments soon became great art centres, thanks to the Royal protection, which raised their members above all the petty rules of corporations and kept them supplied with an unbroken succession of commissions, lavishing on them larger sums of money than any sovereign had ever before spent on luxuries. For the twenty years during which the prosperity of the Grand Roi lasted, the Mat of these two establish- ments was so great throughout the whole of Europe as to eclipse all other schools or to convert them into mere reflections of them- selves. It is from this moment that the world-wide supremacy of French art really dates, and if at the present day it has been compelled to give way before the ever-in- creasing strength of its adversaries, it is because the democratic principles now ap- plied to art are in direct contravention to those of Colbert s conception. That great man recognised with remarkable acuteness that the French character, with its rare aesthetic gifts, needed, if it were to reach its highest development, a lofty ideal on which to concentrate its efforts and a liberality that gave full play to its imagination. It 102 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV was thus that the wonderful artists of the Middle Ages may be said to have been the outcome of the religious enthusiasm of their time, and to have turned to account the inex- haustible treasures of the Church. The great minister of the seventeenth century in his turn set before his contemporaries the ambi- tion to emulate the splendour of the sovereign who said Ldtat c'est tnoi, and lavished upon them half the revenues of the kingdom in a constant stream. '*Sire," he wrote to Louis XIV., ** a useless meal costing three thousand livres afflicts on me incredible suffering, for I consider it essential to refrain from all un- necessary expense so as to have millions to lavish whenever it is a question of promoting your glory and that of France." He therefore grudged nothing to the artists of the Academy, still less to the army of men of talent collected in the Gobelins manufactory or who still lived in rooms in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre. The double result of this wise prodigality was that the artistic dclat of the reign remains to this day its highest title to glory, and that money flowed in in immense quantities from without, to enrich what was then called the '* magnificent " nation which supplied all civilised races with beautiful things. Louis XIV. was fortunate in that Colbert 103 FRENCH FURNITURE was in power from the very beginning of his reign, for that minister was the man best fitted to assure his greatness ; whilst Colbert himself was no less happy in having placed almost at once at his disposal a talented, industrious, and prolific artist, gifted in the highest degree with the genius for organisation necessary to carry out the lavish designs of his master, as well as to develop the industrial system he himself had in view. This was Le Brun, whom Colbert had seen at work in the celebrated Chateau of Vaux, the all too royal luxury of which had aroused the jealousy of the sovereign, and caused the fall of its owner, Fouquet, then Minister of Finance. Colbert knew that the painter, who was already very well known, had contended zealously for the privileges of the Academy, and that he had had considerable practice in the administra- tion of affairs, not only at Vaux, but also as director of the tapestry manufactory that the minister had founded at Maincy. In 1660 Le Brun received the commission to paint for Fontainebleau the picture known as the '* Clemency of Alexander" ; in 1662 he was appointed Chief Court Painter to Louis XIV., immediately after which he designed and partly executed the decorations of the Apollo Gallery, receiving a little later the appoint- ment of Director of the new Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne. 104 Plate XXX CHEST OF DRAWERS of Louis XIV at Versailles ; attributed to Charles Boulle. Bibliotheque Mazarin Plate XXXI CHEST. Epoch Louis XIV. Palace of Versailles THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV The influence exercised by Le Brun over the art of his time, thanks to the power given him by the constant favour of Colbert and of Louis XIV., was without doubt immense. Certain critics, especially at the present time when naturalism is very much in vogue, choose to look only on the pernicious side of the sort of academic tyranny which was the result of the artist's inordinate admiration for classic style after the Bolognese manner. This is, however, unjust, for Le Brun did but share the universal convictions of a period still impregnated with the results of two centuries of exclusive infatuation for Italian work ; and, without having any special predilection either for his composition or his colouring, we know how to recognise that he had the really sterling merit of giving to the works he issued from the Gobelins manufactory, in spite of their want of grace, a decided grandeur and dignity of style, quite unlike the involved and incon- gruous confusion of Italianism, or the some- what heavy simplicity borrowed by second-rate designers from the North. This is, perhaps a less obvious though more natural cause than is generally supposed for those French imi- tations of Roman models, which were first generally disseminated by the Jesuit Martel- lange, under Henri IV. But the artistic o 105 FRENCH FURNITURE breadth of view of a Le Brun was needed to give to the style a genuine beauty and thus enable it to triumph over foreign rivalry. Those who are disposed to dispute this have but to run through the incredibly long lists of works for which he himself made the designs or which he executed entirely. Without enumerating them here we may mention that between 1663 and 1690 he drew the cartoons after which were woven nineteen hangings, that is to say, 8400 ells of tapestry, and that at the same time he was executing or directing the decorations at Versailles, Saint-Germain and Marly, making designs for the royal plate, architectural plans, such as those for the church of Saint Eus- tache, the Gates of Paris, the Fountains of Versailles, making suggestions for the decora- tion of ships, and collaborating with numerous sculptors in the erection of various monuments. All this personal work was got through in addition to the daily official duties of the superintendent of the manufactory, in which lived not only a whole population of artists and workmen, but also sixty poor children apprenticed to the trade by the Treasury. It is greatly to the credit of Le Brun that he knew how to gather about him to aid him in carrying out the vast commissions of Louis XIV. all the most eminent artists of the 106 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV day ; in fact we may almost say that he was instrumental in their rise, and when we see the list of their names it is impossible to help admiring the liberal-mindedness of this great man and his skill in associating with each other men of the most varied gifts, and of leading them by the force of his own example to collaborate in works of a most diverse character. Unfortunately, the artists of the present day fail to emulate them, and the thorough mediocrity that has for a long time characterised industrial art, especially the making of furniture, is only too easily ex- plained by the ridiculous pride which leads artists to think it degrading to devote them- selves to any work but that of making pictures and statues or of adorning the facades of houses. At the Gobelins manufactory, Le Brun induced the painters Van der Meulen, Monnoyer, Yvart, the two Boullognes, Noel and Antoine Coypel, with the sculptors Coysevox, Anguier, Tuby and Caffieri, and the engravers Le Clerc, Audran and Rousselet, to work side by side with the ebenists Gucci, Pierre Poitou, the jewellers Alexis Loir, Claude de Villers and Dutel, the lapidaries Giacetti, Branchi, Horatio and Ferdinando Migliorini, and the tapestry-makers Jans and his son. These are but a few amongst the many employees of the manufactory, and to 107 FRENCH FURNITURE them must be added the artists who lodged in the Louvre and were under the control of the chief superintendent, such as the jeweller Bellin, the ebenist Charles Andrd Boulle, and the engraver Varin, whilst beyond his direct authority, though within the sphere of his activity, were yet other workers, men of special interest in connection with our subject, whom we must not neglect to notice, such as Marot, Le Pautre and Bdrain. To avoid having to recur to them again, we will speak here of those artists who, even when associated with Le Brun, showed a certain originality of design. The architect and engraver Jean Marot, who died in 1679, and his son Daniel, who died about 171 2, published a great number of engravings, representing everything connected with the furnishing of a house and the decoration of its exterior; they also aided greatly in the dif- fusion of the style named after Louis XIV. not only in France but elsewhere, especially when Daniel Marot, who after the issue of the Edict of Nantes was in danger of arrest for his Huguenot opinions, went to Holland, where he became architect to the Prince of Orange. The designs of Jean le Pautre, who died in 1682, and of his brother Antoine, who died in 1691, inspired many wood-carvers who still adhered to some extent 108 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV to the Louis XIII. style with its ornate Italianism. The former issued engravings of some two thousand designs, which he probably also executed himself, for, the son of an artisan, he had begun life as a cabinet-maker. To him and to his brother, who was architect to the King, are attributed, amongst other works, certain consoles in the Palace of Versailles, upholding on strong and dignified supports slabs of fine marble. Jean B^rain, who in 1674 was appointed Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi,* also published a great number of engravings of decorative motives, with the aid of his brother Claude, who was an engraver by profession. Although his talent was really akin to that of Le Brun, whose pupil he is even supposed to have been, his work is strangely suggestive of the traditions of Du Cerceau — a fact which has led some critics to regret that Bdrain was not chosen rather than the painter of the Gallery of Apollo to direct the costly works com- missioned by the royal patron, for his taste, more essentially French as it was, would have been very effective in them. In a comparison of their aesthetic qualities the preference might be given to Bdrain, but it must not be forgotten that to carry out * It was the duty of the holder of this office to design the scenery and costumes for Court festivities. — ^Trans. 109 FRENCH FURNITURE the work accomplished at the Gobelins manu- factory a great administrator was needed as well as a great artist. There is nothing to show that the Dessinateur du Roi combined these qualities, so rarely found together, in anything like the same degree as Le Brun. We might add many names to this list of the masterswho followed the pathso clearly marked out by the director of the royal manufactory, a path which led, as has been well said by an old chronicler, *' to the absorption into French taste of a long accumulation of foreign lessons." To do so would, however, be to specialise too much for a general history such as this. Our task is to deal with the essential characteristics of the Louis XIV. style — that is to say, of the work of the collaborators of Le Brun. As may have been noticed in the list just given of the chief artists who worked in the Gobelins manufactory, Italian names alternate with French. Indeed, under Le Brun's direc- tion foreigners were never excluded, and these foreigners were all naturalised, most of them having been attracted to France by Mazarin. It must, moreover, be remembered that in spite of the hatred of the people for the nationality of this clever minister, whom they chose to look upon as a rogue, the taste for Italian imports did not decline until much later. To prove this it is only necessary to no THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV glance over the titles that French designers gave to their inventions, with a view to recommending them to the public, and to which are generally added the significant words, a lltaliemie or a la Romaine, The most highly thought of amongst the Italians who worked for the King were Domenico Cucci and Filippo Caffieri ; and although the latter alone is now famous, they seem to have been looked upon as equals by their contemporaries, as is shown by four lines of bad poetry, written by the Abbd de Marolles : " Pour la sculpture en bois, la sont venus de Rome D'entre les bons sculpteurs, Philippe Caffieri, Et du mesme pays Dominique Cucci, Que partout en leur art, justement on renomme." The royal accounts prove that the com- missions given to Cucci were extremely numerous, although he is only alluded to as ''ebenisf'or '* founder." Unfortunately, nothing now remains but descriptions of the important pieces of furniture produced by him, from which we gather that he had not given up the decorative methods of his native country. Noteworthy examples are the two large cabinets intended for the Gallery of Apollo, famous at the time of their production under the names of the Temples of Glory and Virtue, one of which was surmounted by a III FRENCH FURNITURE figure of Louis XIV. as Apollo, leading four horses, and the other by a figure of Queen Maria Theresa of Austria as Diana, leading four stags. All that now remains of these sumptuous cabinets, which appear to have cost the treasury the enormous sum for that time of 30,500 livres, is three miniatures by Werner, which formed part of their decora- tion, and are now in the Louvre Museum. The actual cabinets were given to the naturalist Buffon for his museum in 1747, evidently because the mosaics let into them were con- sidered by contemporary opinion to be in- teresting only from the mineralogist's point of view. Cucci produced other cabinets that seem to. have been no less costly and compli- cated, called of ^* War," of '' Peace," of '' The Sun," and of *' The Kings." The descriptions in the Inventory show how redundant was the ornamentation with its mythological motives indulged in by the Italian ebenist, who in this respect rivalled even Golle, once the favourite of Mazarin. It would be unjust to leave this now too much neglected artist, without mentioning that his work was not limited to the ornate compositions we have enumerated. The * * Comptes des Batiments du Roi " prove that he did not disdain to employ his talent in making locks and window-bolts for the palaces, in which the Grand Monarque 112 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV insisted on having the very smallest details magnificent ; and in addition to these, lists are given of small items sent out from his foundry for more worthy usage, such as lintels of doors, frames for looking-glasses, balustrades, pedestals, borders for marble basins, &c. Filippo Caffieri came to France towards the close of Mazarin's life, and was more of a wood-carver than a founder ; he married, in 1665, a cousin - german of Le Brun, and became the father of eleven children, three of whom followed his profession. His chief occupation was to make furniture and picture-frames for the royal palaces. A few extracts from the " Comptes des Batiments " will give an idea of his ordinary avocations ; in 1665 he received 267 livres for three arm-chairs carved in the antique style (that is to say, in the Henri IV. or Louis XIII. style) and twelve folding-seats of a similar kind ; in 1666 he was paid 72 livres for a border eight feet long by six broad, 34 livres for a pedestal, 741 for ten picture-frames of carved wood intended for the cabinet du Roi, 400 for certain other frames, 100 for work for the petits appartements du Roi, and 400 for the carvings of the cornice of the Chapel of Versailles. As collaborators at the Gobelins manufactory he had his fellow countryman p 113 FRENCH FURNITURE Tuby, the sculptor Lespagnandel, and some gilders such as Paul Gougeon de la Baron- ni^re. The chief interest of his work from our point of view, justifying the space we have given to him, is not so much in his capacity as Sculpteur Ordinaire des Meubles de la Couronne as in the transition he marks between the Italian style of which Cucci was an obstinate adherent to that which was evolved under the powerful influence of Le Brun. No doubt Cafifieri was not able en- tirely to throw off the Southern love of glitter which was in his blood, for he overloaded his work with gilding, silver-plating, and trans- parent-blue appliqud metal, but beneath all this unnecessary ornament the lines of his designs are essentially graceful, and of taste so truly French that they involuntarily betray the preponderating influence of the master chosen by Colbert. Amongst the works attri- buted to Caffieri still remaining in French palaces it is alone necessary, in order to trace the curious movement we are considering, to study certain undoubtedly authentic examples, such as the carved folding-doors of the great staircase of Versailles, with the sun, helmets, chimaerae, laurel-leaves, and the royal mono- gram, no longer in the Italian style, though the outcome of it, the style of Louis XIV. Leaving the Italian colony of the Gobelins 114 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV manufactory, the tendencies of which are sufficiently indicated by the accounts we have given of its two most gifted members, we will pass to the master who under Le Brun typifies French furniture — Andr^ Charles Boulle. First of all, it is important to correct a widely spread and long-persistent mistake. Not only has it been supposed that the great ebenist in question invented tortoiseshell and brass mar- queterie as a decoration for furniture, but that he practised nothing else — every work of the kind being attributed to him. Nothing could be more inexact. The making of marqueterie in which copper, tin, tortoiseshell and horn were used was practised by Italians residing in France long before the time of Boulle, and he cannot have been more than ten years old when in 1653 the inventory of Mazarin was drawn up in which are described several examples of the kind. Secondly, as proved by a number of documents relating to him, our ebenist was the author of quite as much marqueterie-work in which wood was the only material as of that in which other substances were employed. It is even probable that there remain a greater number of examples of the former, though they are not attributed to Boulle, than of the latter, on account of their greater durability. Lastly, if Boulle was not the author of the first works in tortoiseshell IIS FRENCH FURNITURE attributed to him, neither is he to be credited with all those produced in the reign of Louis XIV., still less of those that appeared in the eighteenth century, though his life was pro- longed to 1732. He had four sons, who con- tinued to practise his art for some years after his death, and, moreover, he also had many imitators who kept up the fashion of the use of tortoiseshell in furniture during the second half of the eighteenth century, their work being so good that it is impossible to fix its date without a very careful examination of the copper-plates. The great talent of Father Boulle, as he is styled in the inventory drawn up in 1720 of the commissions destroyed when his workshops were burnt, was really displayed chiefly in the care with which he superintended the construction of the cabinets, tables, and armoires that left his manufactory, but it would be a great exaggeration to credit him with all the actual execution and with all the designing. His drawings are now extremely rare, and there is no doubt that he very often borrowed from those of his more illustrious contemporaries, especially Bdrain, Le Pautre, and Le Brun. The decorative figures in copper that he wrought and cast in a broad and masterly manner were designed by specially chosen artists, such as Cucci. As for ebony- and marqueterie-work properly 116 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV so called, neither was so difificult of execution for it to be necessary to do more than secure good workmen, such as Percheron, surnamed Lochon, Louis Denis, Sommord, Poitou, and Armand, who are all mentioned in the royal accounts as having worked in the same places as the master himself at commissions of a less important kind. Lastly, it must be remembered that the King paid high wages at the same rate as to Boulle, to a Flemish artist, Alexandre Jean Oppenordt, a cabinet- maker in ebony, from whom he ordered furni- ture exactly like that he entrusted to his chief inlayer — twelve cabinets for medals, for in- stance, in 1683, a bureau for the ** Cabinet des Curiosit^s," and some designs for cham- branles, as the borders of doors and windows were called, a parquet floor of different-coloured woods in 1686 for the small gallery of Ver- sailles, and in 1688 some works in marqueterie and gilded copper for the Duke of Burgundy. For all that, however, the public has for- gotten Oppenordt, and is even more oblivious of his imitators, attributing everything to Andrd Charles Boulle. This injustice, for which there is really no cause, does not detract at all from the superior merit of the last-named, who was the author of some of the most costly pieces that bear witness at the present day to the artistic culture of 117 FRENCH FURNITURE the reign of Louis XIV. under the influential direction of Le Brun. The accompanying illustrations will do more to prove this than any amount of wearisome description, and we will content ourselves with naming the cabinets which chance has collected in the Gallery of Apollo in the Louvre, the commode of the Mazarin Library, the Bavarian cabinet of the Duke of Buccleuch, the one formerly in the Hamilton collection, with many other works which certainly at least came out of Boulle's workshops, such as the armoires of Windsor Castle, with the bronze figures of Apollo and Daphne, Apollo and Marsyas, The Rape of Helen, and the history of Louis XIV., engraved on medallions supplementing alle- gorical figures of religion and wisdom, and those in the Wallace Collection with the figures of the four seasons. But in addition to the evidence of these fine pieces of furniture, which have survived in spite of their sensitive- ness to changes of temperature, three reasons seem to us to explain the appropriation by Andr6 Charles Boulle, or rather by his name, of all the glory of his contemporaries. To begin with, there was his great longevity, for he was ninety years old when he died, whilst his traditions were carried on by his sons, who inherited his skill ; secondly, he did not, like most of those employed by the Treasury, ii8 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV work exclusively for the King, but also for many wealthy private patrons, such as the- financier Samuel Bernard, and Crozat, as well as for such princes as the Duke of Savoy, the Duke of Lorraine, the Elector of Cologne, and even for the King of Siam ; and thirdly, most convincing reason of all, he was the chief author of the furniture of the rooms of the Dauphin, which were for a long time looked upon as the most luxurious in the world, and to which Louis XIV. delighted in taking all his guests of importance. The praises were sung by the poets of the day of this grand cabinet si riche en ornemens, Car le moindre d'entre eux au poids de Tor ce pfeze.* F^libien in his " Description Sommaire de Versailles," published in 1703, calls up a picture which it is worth while to quote, for it gives a far better idea than could any words of ours of what was looked upon as the ideal way of furnishing a royal apartment in the time of Louis XIV. " In the home of Mon- seigneur," he says, *' in the two large rooms of his apartments may be seen an exquisite collection of everything that can be imagined of the most rare and costly, not only in the * Vast apartment with its wealth of ornaments. The very least of them worth its weight in gold. 119 FRENCH FURNITURE actual furniture, such as tables, cabinets, porcelain, chandeliers, and candelabra, but also masterpieces by the greatest painters, bronzes, vases of agate, cameos, and other works of art, jewellery made of the most precious stones, and the finest examples of Oriental blue. The larger of these two apart- ments now occupies the place of the three compartments which were formerly next to the bed-chamber; Mignard le Romain* painted the ceiling, introducing the portrait of Mon- seigneur, and in the third compartment, which has an entrance into the lower gallery in the centre of the chdteau, looking-glasses, as already stated, are let into the ceiling and the walls framed in gilded borders on a ground of ebony marqueterie. The parquet floor is also made of inlaid wood [marquetage] and enriched with various ornaments, such as, amongst others, the monograms of Mon- seigneur and Madame la Dauphine." By way of contrast, and to make our record complete, we will now quote, with all the dry minuteness of the original document, which we have before our eyes, the inventory made after the death of its owner of the furniture in the bedroom of a wealthy Parisian citizen of the middle of the reign of Louis XIV. The * So called to distinguish him from his brother Pierre M ignard. — Trans. 1 20 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV citizen we have chosen is Moli^re, with whose name every one is familiar. One arnioire in German wood with two folding-doors, ornamented with iron and copper, and with shelves in front 52 livres [Here follows a list of the books in the armoire,'] Item, Twelve cushions of Venetian brocade stuffed with feathers and provided with tassels, and two square doors of wood varnished in the Chinese style. Of the twelve cushions [intended to sit upon], eight have large red flowers on them, and four green 60 livres Item. Twelve more cushions of Indian cloth, painted, and two pure sorte-carreaux of varnished wood . 36 livres Item, Six chairs of varnished and gilded wood with their cushions of taffeta striped with satteen . .35 livres Item, A Turkish table-cover . . . .15 livres Item. A large Turkey carpet , . . ,60 livres Item, Another Turkey carpet . . . .30 livres Item, A green Flemish tapestry curtain . 800 livres Item, A small piece of green tapestry . . 30 livres Item, A curtain of Auvergne tapestry (very old) 60 livres Item, A wooden table with a parquet top, representing flowers [marquetee'jj and two small round tables of similar wood 18 livres Item, A little table with pillars of turned wood 30 livres Item. Another little table of blackened wood with a drawer, a small curtain of woollen material from a little cabinet, and two arm-chairs covered with similar tapestry 10 livres Item, A horizontal glass mirror with a frame made of walnut-wood 4 livres Item, Two stitched coverlets or counterpanes with a satin border lined with carnation-coloured taffeta, the other of carnation taffeta with a flesh-coloured border 20 livres Q 121 FRENCH FURNITURE Item, A little couch of joiner's wood with a border of gilded wood and feet representing eaglet's claws ; two mattresses, one covered with green satin with a floral design ; and a bolster covered with similar satin 100 livres Item, Another couch of joiner's wood carved and gilded like the above, with two bolsters, two mattresses, and two pillows covered with satin . . 140 livres Item. Two arm-chairs of gilded wood covered with green satin 40 livres Item. Two window curtains of white taffeta with silk cords 45 livres Item, A tapestry hanging of satin with a green ground and borders of white satin with gold flowers 70 livres Item. A door-screen and chimney-board with valances of green and greenish white, finished off with fringes 12 livres Item. A couch with feet representing eaglet's claws, painted a bronze green, with a painted and gilded head- board [here follows a detailed description of the orna- mentation], a canopy with an azure blue background, carved and gilded, with four eagles in relief, on gilded wood, four knobs shaped like vases, also of gilded wood ; the canopy draped inside with gold and green taffeta, the valances of the bed of the same material, all finished off with gold and green fringes. A smaller canopy within the larger one of gilded wood, carved to represent a bell, draped outside with grey taffeta, embroidered with gold twist, finished off with gold silk fringe, and lined with Avignon taffeta. Inside hangings, of the same taffeta with fringe [here follows a description of the brocade curtains] 2000 livres Item, Two small carved loo-tables of gilded wood with three eaglet's claws for feet, painted bronze colour, top hexagonal 80 livres Item. Six arm-chairs with Sphinx figures completely gilded, and provided with cushions for the seat and 122 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV back of flowered satin with a violet ground, finished off with green and gold silk fringe . 200 livres Item. Six alcove curtains, two door curtains, and nine valances for the same, these valances and the cover for the overmantel of crimson taffeta, and all finished off with fringes and tassels. Item, Two window curtains with their silk cords and valances for the top 45 livres This biographical document is not only, as will be seen, interesting to the admirers of Moli^re, but also of importance to our subject, which must be our excuse for quoting it at length. It illustrates the taste for luxury which the Grand Monarque spread amongst the middle class, and at the same time gives the actual prices of the beautiful pieces of furniture manufactured by private firms. Moreover, it reveals to us in a manner the more striking for its very simplicity, the strife that was then going on between the Louis XIII. and the Italian styles, as well as between the latter and that inaugurated at the Gobelins. The bed described above, magnificent and costly though it was, is draped entirely in the old style, some of the tables have turned feet, in the fashion in vogue under Henri II., but simplified, as seen in the engravings of Abraham Bosse, whilst the gilded, painted, and varnished chairs, arm-chairs, and small round tables reflect more or less clearly the influence of 123 FRENCH FURNITURE the Italian style. On the other hand, there is none of the tortoiseshell marqueterie which Boulle was beginning to make popular, a fact tending to prove that it was then very costly, and reserved for royalty. Lastly, the bed- room of this period reveals the first introduc- tion of a new piece of furniture — the couch, also known as the lit a la duchesse, which is much the same thing as the modern sofa, with one or two pillows — that is to say, a lounge, with a support for the back at one or both ends. If we had given the whole of the inventory we should have come to two other new inventions : the screen to place in front of the hearth, and the folding-screen, introduced from the East at the same time as the lacquer or varnished work in the Chinese style, of which, as we have seen, the famous comedian had a few examples. It would, no doubt, be interesting before closing this chapter on furniture in the time of Louis XIV. to dwell on the extraordinary influence exercised over the manners of all the intellectual classes by the arrogant person- ality of the King ; to comment, for instance, on the way in which the furniture of private homes directly reflects the luxury of the monarch, and to quote the profound reflection of La Bruy^re, *' II n y a point de patrie dans le despotique ; d'autres choses y suppldent 124 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV I'int^ret, la gloire, le service du prince ; " but the history of those days is so well known, and they are so near to our own time, that we may well leave to our readers the task of drawing deductions which would greatly widen the scope of the subject to which our present work is limited. 125 THE EIGHTH CHAPTER THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV OTHING checked the evolution of French decorative art in the direction so vigorously given to it by the artists patronised by the munificence of Louis XIV. and the wise judgment of Colbert ; not even the death of the great minister, which occurred in 1683, nor that of Le Brun, who died seven years later ; not the ruinous wars which occupied the whole of the closing years of the reign, and necessitated the closing for a long time of the royal Gobelins manufactory, nor the religious zeal with which the King was inspired, through his love for Madame de Maintenon, and which introduced at Court at least a semblance of simplicity and economy. All that occurred was the logical modification of public taste in a manner scarcely perceptible to contemporary observers until the decadence and final extinc- tion which resulted from the introduction into society of ideas and interests absolutely novel. By this we mean less the crisis of the Revo- lution than the military despotism of Napo- leon I., which turned the thoughts of the 126 Plate XXXII CUPBOARD. By Charles Cressent. Epoch Regence. Chappey Collection Plate XXXIII COMMODE OF THE REGENCY PERIOD. By Charles Cressent. Wallace Collection Plate XXXIV GILDED REGENCE TABLE. Collection of Mme Brach Plate XXXV LARGE REGENCE DESK. Louvre Museum Plate XXXVI CHEST OF DRAWERS. Epoch Regence. In the Bishop's residence at Meaux Plate XXXVII TABLE. Epoch Regence Period. Retrospective Exhibition, Paris THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV nation completely away from matters artistic, that had seemed of such vital importance in the society of the eighteenth century, and concentrated all eyes upon the enthralling and terrible drama of the conquest of Europe on which depended the very life of France. We shall be able to prove beyond a doubt, by the examples we give in this closing section of our work, that what is known as the Empire style was due to the last surviv- ing artists of the Monarchy, and that the so-called style of the Restoration represents but the final anguish of their traditions, as interpreted by pupils who were in no sense artists, but ignorant artisans without so much as any manual skill. These preliminary remarks are necessary to show that in our opinion the French school to which Louis XIV. had the honour of giving his name is one and the same with that we are now about to study, though it is not possible to divide it into distinct and well- defined periods, still less to give to arbitrary sections the deceptive titles in general use of the Regency style, Louis XV. style, Louis XVI., Directory, Empire, or Restora- tion styles. It is easy to quote examples of much earlier date than the death of the Grand Monarque, which took place in 17 15, which 127 FRENCH FURNITURE have all the peculiarities supposed to char- acterise the new reign inaugurated under the regency of Philip of Orleans. These peculi- arities consist in a greater suppleness of the general design of furniture, the more constant use of sculptures in metal in its decoration, and the introduction of the shell and of lines derived from it in ornamentation. When we consider the graceful arabesques of B^rain, the drawings left behind him by Oppenordt, by the architect Robert de Cotte, who was already fifty years old when Louis XIV. ascended the throne, the so-called singeries of Gillot, who was the master of Watteau, it is easy to see that the quaint whims, supposed to be the exclusive characteristic of the subjects of the great-grandson of Louis XIV., were already indulged in during the best time of the artistic domination of Le Brun, and that they were by no means confined to the works produced in the royal manufactories. The modification of style that was really accentuated during the greater part of the reign of Louis XV. was the use of inharmonious decoration, to which the name of rocaille was given. Two considera- tions readily explain this — the first, a purely moral one, illustrating an historical law,namely, the increasing need of some reaction for minds weary of academic rules in the sense in which they were then understood, which governed 128 Plate XXXVIII CONSOLE. Epoch Louis XV. Carnavalet Museum, Paris THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV all art production, and took it for granted that symmetry was the leading principle of all noble form, that of the human figure not excepted. The second explanation is more definite and scientific, being merely the growing taste for certain forms of Chinese art, appreciation for which was first started by Mazarin, who owned a good many examples of Chinese lacquer-work and porcelain, as proved by his Inventory. There is no need here to dwell on the caprices indulged in by designers of the remote Orient, on the care- lessness with which they repeat the same motives side by side, and the habit they have of constantly breaking off the curved line instead of rounding it off. These are funda- mental peculiarities recognised in the most cursory examination ; and, on the other hand, in studying the most rococco examples of the furniture of the Louis XV. period, such as some of the works of Meissonnier or Jacques Cafiieri, for instance, there will be no difficulty in discovering quite similar decorative ideas. It remains to point out how the taste for Chinese work spread amongst the people after the death of Mazarin, but we can only do so briefly within the limits of this book, which prevent us from quoting examples of this taste in painting, ceramic ware, tapestry, and embroidery. Collectors of foreign art work R 129 FRENCH FURNITURE such as Mazarin, would naturally try to get manufacturers to imitate works, the acquisition of which proved their own good taste and had cost them so much money. The Dutch began this imitation, the Parisians followed suit. The latter at first gave their whole at- tention to trying to reproduce Chinese lacquer and varnish, as may be seen from one of the items of the Inventory of Moli^re's posses- sions quoted above. Under the date 1692, Pradel's '* Livre Commode " notes that there were three manufactories of lacquer-work and furniture in the Chinese style, flourishing in Paris, one in the Faubourg St. Antoine, one in the Grande Rue St. Antoine, and one in the Rue de la Tixeranderie, but their proprietors had been anticipated by others long before, for, according to the *' Comptes des Bitiments du Roi," a certain Louis le Hongre was actually at work in 1655 at decorations in lacquer in the King's palace at Versailles. At first French workmen were content to imitate Chinese designs and colours, then they tried to produce equivalents of them, but it was not, it would seem, until the first quarter of the eighteenth century that they had the audacity to introduce in their decora- tive carvings dragons exactly like the Oriental type, such as, to quote but one example, those on the handles of a fine commode by 130 Plate XXXIX CONSOLE. Epoch Louis XV. Collection of M. de le Breteche Plate XL SOFA. Louis XV. Palace of Versailles THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV Charles Cressent in the Wallace Collection. This was the important step, and as soon as French ebenists had taken it, they never left off turning for inspiration to examples brought from China, not only for details of ornamentation, but also for the general scheme of decoration, which completely modified the structure of the furniture they produced. Before resuming the chronological course of our review, it appears to us fitting to speak of the Martins, a family famous for having evolved out of the lacquer- work imported from China, a very distinctively French style of decorating furniture that was one of the chief charms of French homes in the eighteenth century. The most celebrated member of this family was Robert Martin, who was born in 1706. In his marriage certificate, dated 1733, he is already styled a vernisseur du rot. One of his brothers held a patent for manufacturing all sorts of works in relief in the Japanese and Chinese styles, and he had three sons, two of whom followed his profession. In documents of this period it is often difficult to decide to which of these artists, all designated by their family name only, this or that work should be attributed. In 1748 the title of Royal Manufactories was given to their three establishments in the 131 FRENCH FURNITURE Faubourg St. Martin, Faubourg St. Denis, and Rue St. Magloire. Between 1749 and 1756 the name of Martin constantly occurs in the royal accounts for works executed at Versailles, especially whilst the apartments of the Dauphin were being re-decorated, their grand ornamentation in the antique style having ceased to please ; now and then, also, Madame de Pompadour employed one or more of them in the embellishment of her chdteau at Belleville, paying in 1752 for work done by them the sum, very large for the time, of 58,000 livres ; the fame of the so- called Martin-lacquer work was then at its height, and Voltaire sings its praise in the following lines : Ces cabinets ou Martin A surpass^ I'art de la Chine. The King of Prussia took one of the sons of Martin into his service, and there were pupils enough of the Martin family to flood Europe with the fashionable lacquer-work with which were covered not only the furni- ture and panels of reception-rooms, but also instruments of music, sedan-chairs, coaches and sledges. It was indeed this very excess which ended in bringing the style into dis- repute. Even before the death of Louis XV. people began to turn against what were called 132 THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV pagodas, which were mere copies of foreign models in imitation lacquer with a black, red, white, or reddish brown ground, as well as against the singeries and chinoiseries in the production of which lacquer-makers collab- orated with painters such as Watteau, Gillot, Huet, Boucher, Leprince, and Gravelot. Examples of furniture varnished in the Martin style are too numerous, even at the present day, for it to be necessary to mention any par- ticular ones — moreover, those who wish to get a thorough idea of the brilliant yet delicate charm of the process, should go and see the pretty little boudoirs decorated by real masters of the style, such as those in the Chiteau of Chantilly, and in the National Printing Estab- lishment in what was once the H6tel de Rohan. Wemustnowclose this parenthesis devoted to the Martins and return to the Regency. It would doubtless not have become customary to designate by that title the short period of insensible transition between the style of Louis XIV. and that of Louis XV., but for the fact that the man who was perhaps the very best decorative artist of the century, Charles Cressent, flourished in it. Born in 1685, this grandson of an ebenist and son of a sculptor, this master whose taste and skill were alike remarkable, lived until 1768, keeping up the 133 FRENCH FURNITURE true traditions of the art of making furniture at a time when the reaction in favour of the light and graceful might have led to degeneration. His grand talent as a sculptor led him to give dignity to certain new motives, which if pro- duced during the time of the Grand Monarque would probably have been quite lacking in that quality, and would have even become vulgar if the old French traditions had been for one moment abandoned. We allude especially to the exquisite figures of women placed at the corners of furniture, chiefly on tables to which the name of espagnolettes was given, and which are suggestive of the delicate type of female beauty evolved by Watteau. But although Cressent was first of all a master of works of art in bronze, he never neglected the general style of the furniture made in his workshops, without which his sculptures would have been of no value, and he followed the style of Oppenordt and Robert de Cotte. To get a good idea of the talent of Cressent, it is desirable to examine the beauti- ful furniture enriching the Louvre and Wallace collections: the latter indeed contains what is perhaps his most highly finished master- piece — the commode already mentioned with handles representing Chinese dragons. It is, moreover, easy to determine the works of this ebenist of the Regent, who was the author of 134 Plate XLI CORNER CUPBOARD. Epoch Louis XV. Greffuhle Collection THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV the greater number of the best pieces of fur- niture of his time, for he has himself described many of them in the lists for three sales held during his life, in terms of proud apprecia- tion, for which his undoubted superiority is an excuse. He speaks, for instance, of a bookcase '* in the best taste," a ** clock worthy to be placed in the very finest cabinets," a bureau ''ornamented with the most dis- tinguished bronzes," commodes '* of the most elegant form, adorned with bronzes of extra- ordinary richness." To attempt to describe, or even enumerate them here would be to fill the remaining pages of this book ; many are in tortoiseshell marqueterie after the style of BouUe, whose pupil Cressent certainly was, others are in marqueterie of different coloured woods, violet, pink or purple, a kind of work the latter is wrongly credited with having invented. As a rule, however, his decorative designs in brass are so wonderfully beautiful that the attention is drawn away from the furniture they adorn, and the critics who look upon this as a fault, do not sufficiently re- member that in the golden age of French cabinet-making more attention was given to the carving of furniture than to any other detail. Now we repeat that Charles Cressent was a true and also a very great sculptor, as capable of turning out a good bust to 135 FRENCH FURNITURE order, such as the one of Philip of Orleans, originally in the fine cabinet of medals of the Abbey of St. Genevieve, now in the Biblio- th^que Nationale, as with boasting-tool and burin to improvise garlands of flowers, singeries after Gillot, and espagnolettes after Watteau. It has been said, and with justice, that until the reaction set in in favour of the straight line — known as the Louis XVI. style — all designers of furniture were but the pupils of Cressent. Unfortunately, as often happens, these pupils exaggerated into faults what were the distinctive qualities! of the master. One of them was Juste Aur61e Meissonnier, born at Turin in 1695, who brought with him to Paris, in addition to his Italian cleverness, the decadent taste of his fellow countrymen for lavish and distorted decoration. As designer to the King he used his extraordinary gift of invention to produce a great variety of works, often pleasing enough in spite of the confusion of curves and convolutions, the principle of which, if principle there be, it is difficult to make out, and it is of him and of his imitators that we generally think when the term rocaille is used ; that style was, however, originated in Italy long before the birth of Meissonnier and passed into France with the masters of the seventeenth century, such as Bernini, but it 136 Plate XLII WRITING-TABLE AND CABINET. Louis XV. Mahogany, inlaid with Sevres Plaques THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV was not until the end of the Regency that, to use a common but expressive term, it really " took on.'* Rocaille-wovk was everywhere in great demand, and Meissonnier was ready enough to supply it, as proved by his engrav- ings of designs. He not only designed furni- ture for the King, but woodwork of all kinds for the general public, especially tables, can- delabra, sheaths for swords, snuff-boxes, handles of walking-sticks, scissors, inkstands, tombs, altars, sledges, fireworks, &c. After his death, in 1750, the post of Dessinateur de la Chambre et Cabinet du Rot w2iS held successively until 1764 by the three brothers Slodtz, the sons of a sculptor of Antwerp and the daughter of Cucci. It is quite as impossible to discriminate the share taken by each of these brothers in the work left behind them, as it was in the case of the Martins. They may, indeed, have collaborated — an hypo- thesis of great probability. True followers of Cressent in the ornamentation of furniture, carrying truth of draughtsmanship almost to the point of frigidity, they indulged in their designs for jewellery in a complicated intricacy greater even than that of Meissonnier, and exceeded only by the style of Thomas Germain, a sculptor and chaser who, like themselves, was in the employ of the Court. We need not dwell now upon their works. We will content s 137 FRENCH FURNITURE ourselves with noting that the brothers were gifted with a refined imagination, that they skilfully wielded the chisel of the sculptor and were thoroughly imbued with the French tradi- tions of the preceding century, to which they often turned for inspiration. Their masterpiece is unquestionably a large cabinet for medals, once a treasure of the Palace of Versailles, and now, with the corner-cupboards supple- menting it, in the Bibliotheque Nationale. The reproduction we give here makes it unnecessary to dwell either upon the graceful floral arabesques combined with medallions, or upon the general charm of the composition, which, if compared with the commode of Cressent figured above, cannot fail to show that a reaction in favour of simplicity was about to set in. We shall recur to this in our next chapter. To complete the list of the great sculptors m bronze for the decoration of furniture of the Rocaille period, we have still to speak of the most fantastic and also the cleverest of them all — Jacques Caffieri, fifth son of the Caffieri who worked for Louis XIV. and father of Philippe, the third of that name of this great family of artists, who collaborated with him in all his work until his own death in 1755. Some critics, struck with the comparative 138 Plate XLIII LOUIS XV COMMODE. By Jacques Caffieri, in the Wallace Collection THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV soberness of the earlier works of Jacques Caffieri, in which he seems to be an admirer of Robert de Cotte, and with the unbridled imagination of his later productions, in which he greatly exceeds the audacity even of Meissonnier, have conceived the idea that the latter may be attributed to Philippe, and may have been produced during the seven years he survived his father. It is perhaps unnecessary to go so far for an explana- tion that is founded on no document. The Italian birth of the ebenist of Louis XIV. is quite enough to account for the eagerness with which Jacques Caffieri took up the Rocaille style, which gave full scope to his extraordinary dexterity. It was said of his second son Jean Jacques, author of the admirable bust of Rotrou at the Comddie- Fran^aise, that he kneaded marble, and of him it might equally well be asserted that he kneaded bronze. In the end he used com- pletely to cover over the furniture he produced with brass decorations; his beautiful commode in the Wallace Collection is of an almost austere simplicity compared with the bureau in black lacquer of the Minist^re de la Justice, the drawers of which are disguised in a com- plicated casing of copper, whilst the supports down to the very feet, are nothing but droop- ing masses of flowers ; or still more compared 139 FRENCH FURNITURE with the famous table with a set of pigeon- holes owned by the Metternich family of Vienna, surmounted by a perfect pyramid of rocks and figures, and with complicated sup- ports without any wood in them at all. It would be impossible to go further in this direction ; the art of Caffieri was the cul- minating effect, the final flare-up, of the lavish style of decoration encouraged by the patron- age of Louis XIV. and Madame de Pompa- dour, which charms in spite of its complicated extravagance. Nor is it, after all, quite fair to criticise this furniture, which would, of course, be out of place in modern rooms, but was quite appropriate in the lofty salons of the time, with their carved wainscots and richly decorated ceilings. The designers of decorative sculpture so dominated the Louis XV. period that the names of the ebenists who collaborated with them are no longer known to the public. It is really unjust not to remember Gaudreaux, who not only made the cabinet for medals designed by the Slodtzs, but also a great number of pieces of furniture for the Court of the chief favourite of the King ; Joubert, who was the author of the corner-cupboard supple- menting it ; Migeon, who showed so much ^ taste in the toilette furniture of Madame de [ Pompadour that she rewarded him with a pen- 140 Plate XLIV CHEST OF DRAWERS. Epoch Louis XV. In the Prefecture of Indre-et-Loire Plate XLV MEDAL CABINET. By Slodtz. From the private apartments of Louis XV at Versailles Plate XLVI LOUIS XV SECRETAIRE. With Marqueterie inlaid with Sevres panels. South Kensington Museum Plate XLVI LOUIS XV WRITING TABLE. Mahogany inlaid with Sevres Plaques. South Kensington Museum THE REGENCY AND LOUIS XV sion of a thousand crowns ; Sulpice, Arnoult and Loriot, who devoted themselves to making the mechanical tables which obviated the necessity of having servants to wait at meals, arm-chairs that could be taken to pieces, and tables with springs, all proofs of the attention then given to comfort. Already, however, all documents relating to these men are lost, and even less is known of a large number of artists who have left nothing but their signatures, or sometimes only their initials, to tantalise in vain the curiosity of the amateur, on pieces of furniture of undoubted charm. The following are a few of such names : I. P. Latz, L. Boudin, J. Dubois, Gillet, Bernard, Pierre Pionnier, Etienne Levasseur, Nicolas Petit, Francois Bayer, Claude Choquet, Guesnon, Pierre Denizot, J. B. Hddouin, Pierre Gamier, Jean Pierre Lathuile, Jacques Dautriche, Filleul, C. L. de la Roue, Le Blanc, Voisin, Jabodot, Hdbert, Delorme, Lazare, Duvaux, Pleney, Robert Victor la Croix, and Pineau. Every one will recognise better than we can describe in our brief space the appro- priateness of the Regency style, succeeded by the Rocaille.io the manners of the half-century during which reigned the thoughtless but artistic prince, to whom his people too hastily gave the name of the Well-Beloved. The hi; FRENCH FURNITURE literature of the time is still widely read, and paintings and engravings representing the life of the aristocracy and middle classes are every- where disseminated. Watteau, whose lovers in theatrical costumes wander about in melan- choly-looking, conventional landscapes, caught the very spirit of the society, which delighted in combining jesting with philosophy, and was willing to allow the very greatest artists to spend their whole lives in designing such trifles as furniture of various kinds. 142 THE NINTH CHAPTER LOUIS XVL, THE REVOLUTION AND THE EMPIRE N the preceding chapter we have described only that branch of the Louis XIV. style which cul- minated and came to an end in the wild efflorescence of the Rocaille phase, which, however, had also dominated the reign of Louis XV. We have now to study another style, evolved side by side with it, at first comparatively humble, but which gradually became its equal in importance, and eventually superseded it. We allude to the decorative style most inappropriately called that of Louis XVL, seeing that its finest period was when Madame du Barry was in favour. There was, indeed, no revolution in public taste — there are never any sudden changes in the history of art— not even a return to the old simplicity which would have been explained by the weariness of excessive complication of design, but simply the success of a school that had remained more in touch with academic traditions, a success brought about to some extent by the lack of men of preponderating talent (for where there is no 143 FRENCH FURNITURE particular method there are no disciples), and also the result of certain accidental circum- stances which we will mention without any attempt at classifying in order of their import- ance. In 17 19 Herculaneum was discovered beneath the ashes of Mount Vesuvius ; in 1748 important excavations were begun on its site as well as on that of Pompeii, and the antiquities brought to light aroused great enthusiasm amongst artists, especially archi- tects. In 1746 Madame de Pompadour suc- ceeded in obtaining for her brother, then nineteen years old, the reversion of the post of Direct eur-General des Bdtiments du Rot, but at the same time she took the wise precaution of preparing him for that important position by making him travel in Italy for three years — from 1749 to 1 75 1 — under the guidance of the architect Soufflot, the engraver Charles Nicolas Cochin, and the Abb^ Leblanc. We know too well the aversion of Cochin to the exponents of the Rocaille style to doubt that he urged his pupil Francois Poussin to follow the path of nature and simplicity. About the same time an impulse was given to the study of archaeology, for the Comte de Caylus set to work to describe the en- graved stones in the cabinet du roi, whilst Bouchardon made drawings of them. The '* Recueil d'Antiquitds " of De Caylus was 144 • Plate XLVIII SMALL DESK. By Riesner. Reign of Louis XVI LOUIS XVI. STYLE published between 1752 and 1767; the Abbd Barthdlemy, keeper of the Cabmet cies M6dailles, became known through his essays on coins and medals, and began to collect the materials for his celebrated '* Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis en Grece" ; in 1754 Winck- elmann gave to the world his ''Gedanken uber die Nachahmung der Griecheschen Wer- ken" (Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Art), succeeded in 1764 by his '' Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums " (History of Antique Art), and in 1766 by his " Monu- mente Antichi Inediti." This is enough to prove that the spirit of what is called the Louis XVI. style was in the air long before the accession of that monarch, and we will now show that the taste for that phase of decoration really preceded it. In certain works of Charles Andrd Boulle, for instance, the distinctive curve is entirely absent, except in certain details of appliqud copper work, which are, however, of a very sober character, so that the clearly defined outlines of the woodwork at first sight recall compositions half a century older. A typical example of this is the low marqueterie bookcase in the posses- sion of M. le Comte de Castellane. A faith- ful follower of Boulle, Cressent produced some pieces of furniture, notably his cabinet T 145 FRENCH FURNITURE of medals of the Biblioth^que Nationale, which only need to have a few of the lines straightened to become true specimens of the Louis XVI. style, and some of his best armoires are of a very simple angular design. When we come to Slodtz, who was equally enamouredof Italian exuberance of fancy andof severity of style, not even the slightest effort of imagination is necessary, and some designs for woodwork, such as those preserved in the cabinet des estafnpes, intended for furniture for the Ministfere de la Marine, cannot fail at once to call up a vision of the final evolution of the century. The ebenists of the day were among the first to adopt the new fashion, the cabinet for medals of Joubert in the Biblio- th^que Nationale has the thick-set structure characteristic of so much of the work pro- duced in the time of Louis XVI., although it was made but the year after the birth of that prince, and many tables and small bureaux dispersed in various collections, which were made during the same period, might easily be attributed to a later date. Lastly, it is interesting to remember that when Louis XVI. ascended the throne many of the buildings in what is called his style had already been erected in Paris, notably the Garde-Meuble and Ecole Militaire of the architect Gabriel and the Monnaie of Antoine. 146 Plate XLIX ARMCHAIR covered with Beauvais tapestry. Louis XVI. South Kensington Museum Plate L I •" f ■ 'j 1" LOUIS XVI SOFA. Palace of the Petit Trianon, Versailles Plate LI SOFA. Epoch Louis XVI. Palace of the Elysee, Paris LOUIS XVI. STYLE It is, however, the furniture collected at Versailles and at Louveciennes by Madame du Barry in the five last years of the reign of Louis XV. which is most interesting from our particular point of view ; for it can be looked at as a whole, and with its aid we can prove, as suggested above, that it consisted almost entirely of examples that were the glory of the Louis XVI. style. The celebrated favourite, who has been calumniated by all manner of unfounded stories, had the faults and good points of the child of the people she was. She was extravagant, fond of show, and ignorant. It must also be admitted that in the arrangement of her houses she adopted the latest fashion in vogue amongst the most advanced artists and amateurs of the Court, which brings us to the logical conclusion that when, in 1769, Louveciennes was given to her, furniture of simple structure had dis- placed that in the Rococo style. At that par- ticular moment there was a kind of eclipse of great decorative artists ; Jacques Cafifieri, Meissonnier, and the Slodtzs had long been dead: Philippe Caffieri, though greatly ad- vanced in years, continued to work according to the traditions of his father, but without his fame; and Riesener had but just signed his first work. When Jeanne Becu became Com- tesse du Barry she wished to find an artist H7 FRENCH FURNITURE who would work exclusively for her, and she was advised to choose Gouthi^re as designer and decorator. There is nothing to show that he was known to the public before, but we may reasonably suppose that it was Gabriel, the first manager of Louveciennes, or Le Doux, who rebuilt the pavilion, both great admirers of the pseudo-antique style, who recommended their young collaborator, Gouthifere, who was then but thirty years old, as the best person to decorate the interior of the building in the style they had chosen for its architecture. This is, of course, but a mere suggestion, for scarcely anything is known of the life of this artist, who was said by his contempo- raries to have acquired such extraordinary skill as a chaser as to have been able to make bronze look like gold. Between 1771 and 1773 he executed all, even the most minute, decorations in metal after the designs probably of Le Doux, Jean Denis Dugourc, architect to Monsieur, brother of the King, combined with some of his own, in this exquisite retreat of the last mistress of the King. Unfortunately, the royal accounts enu- merate them at too great length for us to quote the lists here, for it would have been full of interest to a history of costly furniture to give the descriptions of such things as 148 Plate LI I APPLIQUE. By Gouthiere. Epoch Louis XVL Grandjean Collection LOUIS XVI. STYLE candelabra or sconces, wreathed with roses in flower and bud and myrtle foliage, that were probably modelled, to begin with, in wax and finished off separately with the greatest possible care ; of door-handles decorated with a wreath of roses, the monograph of the Comtesse, a rosary, and a sunflower ; of win- dow fastenings shaped like a lyre or a flowering branch of lilies. All this leaves little doubt that Gouthi^re was also the chief designer of many furniture decorations in brass that are now lost. We have indeed a list of such designs in the proc^s-verda/ dr3.wn up in 1794 by the so-called Commissaires artistes chez la no7nm^e Dubarry, For instance, amongst paintings by Watteau, Vanloo, Fragonard, Greuze, and Boucher, sculptures by Pajou, Falconnet, and Coysevox, and all manner of costly trinkets, we find mentioned a round table in Sevres porcelain, divided into six pastoral subjects, and having in the centre a picture in enamel representing a concert in a seraglio, the whole upheld by a single bulbous support of Chinese wood decorated with gilded bronze ; a commode enriched with paintings in enamel and finely chased gilded bronze on a table of white marble ; a piano with a marqueterie top, &c. The memoirs of various furniture-dealers add many other items to this legal list, any 149 FRENCH FURNITURE one of which if it came into the market now would be bid for at very high sums — an armoire and secretaires in one, of French porcelain, with a green ground strewn with flowers and sea pieces in miniature ; a com- mode of antique lacquer, the central panel decorated with grotesque figures very richly dressed, with friezes inlaid with ebony and enriched with bronze, chased and gilded with dull gold, the whole surmounted by white marble ; a French porcelain table with shelves, with a green ground and floral cartouches richly decorated with gilded bronze, the top covered with green velvet, on which stood gilded inkstands; with many, other master- pieces of the ebenist and chaser, the descrip- tion of which, however brief, gives us an oppor- tunity of classifying an immense number of works in museums and private collections as imitations of the dainty, delicate, fairy-like creations that made up the furniture of the Chatelaine of Louveciennes. It will now be understood how impossible it was in a history of French furniture to dismiss hastily the short-lived but wonderful luxury that sur- rounded the beautiful Madame du Barry. It must not, however, be supposed that Gouthi^re was the most celebrated of the makers of furniture of the latter part of the eighteenth century. He had one rival, who 150 Plate LI 1 1 CONSOLE. Beginning of Louis XVI Epoch. Garde Meuble National, Paris Plate LIV CONSOLE. Epoch Louis XVL Ministry of the Interior, Paris REIGN OF LOUIS XVI in all histories of French decorative art under Louis XVI. is spoken of as chief amongst his contemporaries, and whose life is fortunately well known, proving him to have been equally skilful as an ebenist and a chaser. This was Riesener, whose career is, moreover, of special interest, in that it makes it possible to trace accurately the transition between the rocaille and so-called Classic styles, as well as the decadence of the Louis XVI. style when France was verging on imperialism. Born at Gladbach in Germany, in 1735, Riesener went to Paris when still quite young, and became apprenticed to an ebenist named Oeben, whose career presents one of the problems such as we have met with again and again in the course of this study. This Oeben was, there is every reason to suppose, of German extraction, though his Christian names were Jean Francois and he enjoyed all the advantages of French nationality. He had a namesake, Simon Oeben or Hobenne, who was also ebenist to the King, and after the deaths of both of them their widows carried on their businesses, so that it would not be surprising to hear of two widows Oeben living at the same time, if we did not happen to know that one of them married again, becoming the wife of Riesener. There is yet another puzzle — the works signed with the name of Oeben, 151 FRENCH FURNITURE such as the corner-cupboards of the great bureau of the Jones Collection at South Kensington, are of very simple construction, recalling the manner of Boulle, as modified by that of Cressent, but with decorative bronzes greatly influenced by the Italian Rococo style. There is nothing to explain the favour shown by the Marquise de Pompadour to the master of Riesener, and second rank alone would be accorded to him if the inventory of the work- shops of Jean Francois Oeben did not happen to reveal his share in the completion of what was perhaps the most remarkable piece of furniture produced in the eighteenth century, the so-called Grand Bureau du Rot, Exactly what part was done by young Riesener, and what by Oeben himself, as well as by the excellent sculptors who collaborated with thern, Duplessis, Winant, and Hervieux, can never now be determined. That Riesener's work was very important must, however, be admitted, for the widow of the master married the pupil in 1767, whilst the bureau begun in 1760 was not delivered until 1769, when it bore the signature of Riesener only. The artist repeated this great work — which a few years ago passed into the Louvre Collec- tion — no less than four times. A mere cursory glance at it is enough for recognition of its simple grace of outline and the beauty 152 Plate LV SMALL DESK. By Weisweiler. Louis XVI Epoch REIGN OF LOUIS XVI of its decorative bronzes, which culminate at the upper angles in two recumbent nymphs holding up girandoles, whilst in the centre is a fine clock framed in a wealth of flowers above which are two sportive Cupids. The marqueterie representing various emblems is worthy of the rest of the design, and inside the woodwork is a clever mechanical contri- vance for making all the drawers come out at once. It may indeed be said that this master- piece of the cabinet-maker is more perfect and more thoroughly French in taste, in spite of the German origin of its two chief creators, than anything of the kind ever produced. It is typical of the transitional moment when craftsmen were still enjoying the heritage bequeathed by the masters of the Louis XIV. period, and the enthusiasm of the exponents of the Rocaille craze was beginning to be tem- pered by the wisdom that came from the study of the antique. The Grand Bureau du Rot must not, however, be looked upon as an example of the new departure. The first work signed by Riesener unmistakably betrays his faithful- ness to the traditions of Cressent and Jacques Caffieri, which he was, however, very soon to abandon, for the style patronised by Madame du Barry. In 1777, as proved by a cylindrical bureau in the Mobilier National, he aimed u 153 FRENCH FURNITURE merely at simple yet accurate grace of line — that is to say, with him the groping after a combination of the antique with the style of Oeben lasted only long enough for him to produce a beautiful table at Trianon, with the symbols of geography and astronomy in marqueterie, his indecision being revealed only in the over-ornate foliage finishing off the fluted and too slender supports. From that time until his death in 1806 he never faltered in his chosen path which Marie Antoinette and the people of France con- tinued to prefer long after the fall of the favourite who had been his patron so long. He was able to lay aside the burin of the chaser that he could wield so skilfully, to devote himself entirely to the humbler work of the ebenist, in which he was equally able to excel, supplying the Court with quantities of costly furniture, and less wealthy purchasers with works of comparatively little cost, but highly valued on account of their unique grace of form. This, of course, led to his having many imitators, so that it is often difficult to know whether to attribute to the master certain pieces not bearing his mark ; the exact re- semblance between the decorative metal-work of signed and anonymous furniture is not sufficient proof of authorship, for, as is well known, ebenists often bought metal ornaments 154 Plate LVI EMPIRE ARMCHAIR. Palace of Fontainebleau REIGN OF LOUIS XVI already chased after the designs of such masters as Duplessis, to add to the furniture they had made. Riesener himself certainly sometimes did this even for costly pieces of work. We cannot undertake to enumerate still less to describe his uncontested work, but we may add that he often adopted the chess-board style of marqueterie, the squares being filled in with rose-tracery, and that he combined mahogany with Sevres porcelain. During the Revolution he produced such works as the Tricoteuse de la Reine, belonging to the Comte de Camondo, the slender grace of which was already prophetic of the Empire. He never foresaw the overthrow of society, nor did he understand it when it came — he wanted to keep in his workshop the costly pieces of furniture he still retained when the monarchy was overthrown, and even bought back some of his own work at the sales of the Royal effects, always hoping that the good old times would return. His fortune, which during the ten years of his prosperity had risen to a million, dwindled away, and he — whose first masterpiece had been welcomed with acclama- tion throughout France at the depraved and effeminate time when the youthful Countess du Barry, with her little negro Zamor and the canary Fifi, was beginning her reign — died in 155 FRENCH FURNITURE comparative poverty the year of the Battle of Jena. What we have said about Riesener borrow- ing copper ornaments of which he was not the author, to decorate his furniture, ought not really to detract from his merit. Collaboration between artists was a constant practice in all the best periods of French furniture — indeed, we may even say that it was the cause of their grandeur. It is a great mistake on the part of modern artists, and one much to be re- gretted, to suppose that; working together diminishes the glory of each individual. The result is most good designers restrict them- selves to the production of paintings, statues, plans of houses, &c., and look upon it almost as a disgrace to work side by side with some clever ebenist or expert chaser, to whom they will accord no rank but that of a craftsman. As long as artists hold out for this senseless idea of an aristocracy of art, the public will have to be content with reproductions of old styles or characterless innovations, and if this vanity, like all other feelings of the kind, is the result of ignorance of history and of the principles that govern it, books such as this one may serve a further purpose than merely to guide those interested in their subjects. Not only did the great Reisener borrow, as we have seen, from contemporary metal founders 156 Plate LVIF CHEST OF DRAWERS. First Empire. Garde Meuble National^ Paris FRENCH FURNITURE Marie Antoinette in 1785. Fortunately, a good many examples of his skill are pre- served in the Louvre and the Wallace collec- tion, proving by their charming delicacy of execution how fitted was their author to cater for the caprices of the graceful and beautiful Queen. Pages would be filled with the mere list of the names of the ebenists and sculptors who flourished during the last years of the glories of the monarchy, and brought the Louis XVL style into high repute. We must, however, content ourselves with naming Montigny, Levasseur, and S^verin, who imitated the old motives of Boulle with a skill that has led to mistakes ; Guillaume Beneman, who was one of the first to make the use of mahogany fashionable, and who is chiefly famous for his collaboration with such rare masters of decoration as the sculptors Haurd and Martin ; the inlayers Girard, Kemp, and Bertrand ; the chasers Bardin and Thomire ; and the gilder Galle. The mention of Beneman indicates that the task of tracing the evolution of French taste is nearing its conclusion. No doubt we might note en passant certain clumsy architectural ornaments designed of recent years, certain affected freaks in copper, in which the scrupulous attention to trifles of Gouthidre is mimicked without being under- 158 Plate LVIII CHEVAL-GLASS. First Empire. Garde Meuble National, Paris FOREIGN INFLUENCES stood, certain lifeless and naive imitations of antique Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian motives imperfectly comprehended; but these are mere mistakes of little importance which should herald a revival, not a rapid decadence, such as that now about to take place. The necessary men were there, most of them in the prime of their age and of their powers, and it is the men who are the real factors, in spite of fashion, in all the great art periods. All we have hitherto written goes to prove this, and that to bring about the artistic catastrophe with which we shall end this study, the extraordinary coincidence of three historical fatalities — which we will name before we comment upon them — was needed. The first and least important was the in- vasion during the last eight years of the reign of Louis XVI. of the workshops of the ebenists of the Faubourg St. Antoine by Germans, who came, not, like Oeben and Riesener, to learn their art in Paris, but to turn their national skill and taste to account, by sharing in the high prices paid in France for articles of luxury. Unfortunately, the French Court was attracted by the foreign novelties introduced ; a kind of art paralysis ensued, and the political events which super- vened led to the mischief having become irre- parable by the time a new and luxurious court 159 FRENCH FURNITURE gathered about the Emperor Napoleon I. The second fatality was the suddenness with which the Revolution, in its zeal for universal enfranchisement, destroyed the corporations with their protective privileges, their stringent rules for the careful execu- tion of commissions, and their regulations as to serving a long and obligatory apprentice- ship to a trade, before the right could be won of selling the work done. By the suppression in a single sentence of an institution which, we admit, had its tyrannical and unjust side, the competition and rivalry so prolific of good re- sults were arrested, and the salutary collabora- tion of artists of different gifts was put an end to, with the result that the door was opened for the manufacture of cheap objects of luxury, and an element of demoralisation was intro- duced from which the whole civilised world is still suffering, far more than is generally supposed. The case would not, however, perhaps have been so desperate but for the rise of the Empire, which with the absorbing interest of its magnificent campaigns, with- drew public attention from the creations of artists, and brought all the vitiated talent which had survived the ancient monarchy, under the control of a single man of iron will, who was educated during those years of Republican supremacy, when to own beauty i6o Plate LIX JEWEL CABINET OF QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE. Designed by Schwerdfeger, Degault, Roentgen and Thomire. Palace of Versailles EMPIRE STYLE as well as wealth was to fall under the suspicion of being an aristocrat. After Beneman, then, the decline set in rapidly. His mahogany coffers would be nothing but clumsy chests were it not for the decoration added to them by his French collaborators. The fellow countrymen who gathered about did little more than crudely emphasise his peculiar interpretation of the pseudo-antique style, their aim being rigidly to suppress the affected but charming naturalism of the French school. Joseph Stoekel, Birkl6, Charles Richter, Feuer- stein, Peter Schmitz, Gaspard Schneider, Frost, Bergeman, Blucheidner, and many others were favoured by the Queen because they spoke her native language, but the most celebrated of the foreigners were Weis- weiler, who worked chiefly at furniture for ladies' boudoirs, Schwerdfeger, the chief author of the famous Jewel Cabinet of Marie Antoinette, which we reproduce here, and which would be at once assigned to the Empire period, without the lifelike caryatides with which it was decorated by Thomire, and Roentgen, better known by his Christian name of David, or as David of Luneville, although he really came from Neuwied, near Coblentz. The last-named merits special notice, not so much on account X i6i FRENCH FURNITURE of his art talent, as the position he and his fellow countryman Beneman managed to obtain at Court. It is impossible to help admiring the audacity with which he com- peted with French artists of commercial acumen inferior to his own, for he managed to be manufacturer of furniture to the Queen, and a member of the Municipality of Paris, without giving up his workshops at Neuwied, where, moreover, he spent most of his time. The Revolution put an almost complete stop to the production of articles of luxury. Deprived of commissions from the royal family and the aristocracy, many artists were reduced to complete inactivity and poverty ; others went abroad to seek new employers elsewhere and the protection France no longer accorded to skill and experience. The destruction or dispersion of the fine examples of art-work produced under the monarchy still further aggravated the situation. It is true that some few members of the govern- ment made laudable efforts to have the masterpieces which were taken from the churches and palaces preserved as the most valuable heirlooms of the nation. It was for this reason that at the public sale of the effects of Madame du Barry two pieces of furniture were kept back ; and Alexandre Lenoir filled the Musde des Petits Augtistins with 162 EMPIRE STYLE treasures, but nothing could long prevail against the need of money to raise armies with which to resist the European coalition. It was an ominous sign of the times when a large number of valuable works of art passed into foreign possession under pretext of their being exchanged for arms and ammunition without any profit accruing to the Republic. Napoleon found but a small group of decorators who had come safely through the terrible times of the Revolution, most of whom, though they had not lost the skill of brilliant days gone by, had ceased to turn to nature for inspiration, surrounded as they were by an artificial society, which aped the manners of the ancient Romans and judged art entirely by the standard of the painter David. Those who tried to remain faithful to the traditions of their youth died, as did Riesener, in obscurity. The rest had to adapt themselves to the taste of the new Caesar, who cared nought for the ideal or the symbolic, but only for matter-of-fact, his- torical records. Prud'hon laid aside his facile brush to make feeble designs for furniture, and to keep Thomire supplied with motives for reproduction in bronze. The brothers Jacob, who had learnt cabinet-making from their father under Louis XVI., and had worked for the Convention in 1793, now gavethem- 163 FRENCH FURNITURE selves up to the manufacture of massive mahogany furniture, that Thomire decorated with slim antique gods and goddesses, or with palm- and laurel-leaves. The younger of the brothers retired in 1804, leaving Jacob Desmalter to inundate France and Europe with productions which, however perfect from a technical point of view, were alto- gether unpleasing and unsatisfactory as works of art. Nearly all the drawings for this furniture were supplied by the architect Percier and his inseparable collaborator Fon- taine. Many fine works bear witness to the talent and refined taste of these two masters, leaving no doubt that they did violence to their own convictions in order to meet the re- quirements of a public and a ruler, whose taste was perverted in an extraordinary manner by the revolution of ideas that had recently taken place. There is no doubt that in more peaceful times, under a prince less economical in his personal luxuries, they would have been able to rescue French furniture from sinking below the level of that produced by Germans in the best time of the monarchy ; indeed, one may even imagine that their own predilection for the best features of the Renaissance might have led to a healthy and essentially French revival, for there was a tendency amongst the general public to revert 164 GOTHIC REVIVAL to the old national sources of inspiration. This is proved by the so-called Romantic, that is to say, the Gothic, movement which took place soon after the fall of Napoleon, but which, so far at least as decorative art was concerned, did not result in a style with any vitality, chiefly because of the increasing in- capacity of the craftsmen, who had now sunk to the position of mere workmen, and also because of the general want of taste amongst a people whose artistic education had been completely neglected for a quarter of a century. France still retains the traditions — strangely degenerate and unprogressive, it is true — of the furniture designed in the Louis XIV. period. It is impossible to predict when a decisive movement will take place which will reform, from an artistic point of view, the decoration of the home. It is, however, certain that such a movement will arise, for history teaches us that a renaissance invariably follows a decadence, but she teaches us also that great reactions only come about under the inspiration of some grand idea dominating the national spirit, combined with a general conjunction of all forms of talent. This is a lesson all might well take to heart. 165 USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE Adams, G. L. Decorations, Interieures et Meubles des Epoques Louis XIII. et Louis XIV. loo plates. Fol. Paris, 1861. Alvin, L. J. Les Grandes Armoiries du Due Charles de Bourgogne, gravees vers. 1467 plates. 8vo. Bruxelles, 1859. Androuet Du Cerceau, J. (Euvre de Jacques Androuet, dit Du Cerceau, coupes, vases, trophees, cartouches, fleurons, balustrades, ferronnerie (134 planches, 254 sujets). Reproduction by Baldus. 2 vols. Fol. Paris. Armaille, L. d', Count. Catalogue des Objets d'Art et de Riche Ameublement, composent la Collection du Comte d' Armaille. 8vo. Paris, i8go. AuBERT. Ameublement Parisien (Designs for Furniture). 54 coloured plates. 4to. Paris, 1840-50. Berain, J. Omements inventez par J. B. 137 plates. Fol. Paris, c. 1670-1700. Bertin, L., and Compagnon, L. Ameublements Complets de Tous Styles. 2 Tom. Fol. Dourdon, 1902. Beurdeley. Bibliotheque de 1' Ameublement. 2 Tom. Fol. Dourdon, 1902. Beurdeley. Catalogues des Bois Sculptes des XVP, XVIP et XVIIP Siecles. Fol. Paris, 1898. Blanc, A. A. P. C. Decoration Interieure de la Maison. 8vo. Paris, 1882. BoNAFF]^, E. Collection de M. Spitzer. Meubles et Bois Sculptes. "Gazette des Beaux- Arts," vol. xxv. p. 246. Paris, 1882. BoNAFF^, E. Histoire du Mobilier par A. Jacqucmart. " Gazette des Beaux-Arts," vol. xv. 2nd ser. p. 51. Paris, 1877. 167 FRENCH FURNITURE BoNAFF]^, E. L'Art du Bois. " L'Art," vol. xix. p. 265. Fol. Paris, 1879. BoNAFFjg, E. Le Meuble en France au XVP Siecle. 4to. Paris, 1887. BoNAFF]^, E. Inventaire des Meubles de Catherine de Medicis en 1598, Mobilier, Sec. 8vo. Paris, 1874. Garnet. Collection de Sieges, Meubles, Tentures. 80 plates, Obi. 4to. Paris, 1885. Champeaux, a. de. Le Meuble. 2 Tom. i8mo. Paris, 1885. Champeaux, a. de. Le Bois applique au Mobilier. Paris, 1883. Champier, V. Le Mobilier Moderne. 8vo. Paris, 1883. Chancellor, A. E. Examples of Old Furniture, English and Foreign. London, 1898. Davillier, C. Baron. La vente du Mobilier du Chateau de Versailles, Sec. Paris, 1877. Destailleur, F. H. Recueil d'Estampes relatives a I'Ome- mentation des Appartements au XVI«, XVII% et XVIII« Siecles. Gravees en facsimile d'apres les compositions de Du Gerceau, Lepautre, Berain, &c. Fol. Paris, 1863. Dilke, Lady E. F. S. French Furniture in the Eighteenth Century. 4to. London, 1901. Erculei, R. Catalogo delle Opere Antiche d'Intaglio e In- tarsio in Legno esposte nel 1885 a Roma. 8vo. Roma, 1885. Edinburgh. Museum of Science and Art. List of Books relating to Architecture and Furniture. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1888. FouRNiER, E. Le Vieux-Neuf. Histoire ancienne des Inven- tions et Decouvertes modernes. ('* Furniture," vol. ii. p. 19.) 2 vols. i2mo. Paris, 1859. French Decorative Furniture. Twenty Photographs. Pub- hshed under the sanction of the Science and Art Department. 4to. London, 1871. Garde Meuble, Le. (Periodical Publication.) Coloured plates. 4to. 1872 et seq. 168 USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE Gauthier, J. La Sculpture sur Bois en Franche Comte du XV« au XVIIP Si^cle. 8vo. Paris, 1895. OuiFFREY, J. J. Inventairc du Mobilier de la Couronne sous Louis XIV. 2 pts. 8vo. Paris, 1885. Hackett, W. H. Decorative Furniture (English and French) of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. 8vo. London, 1902. Havard, a. L'Art k travers les Moeurs. Imp. 8vo. Paris, 1882. Havard, H. Dictionnaire de rAmeublement. 4 Tom. 4to. Paris, 1887-90. Havard, H. L'Art dans la Maison. 8vo. Paris, 1884. Havard, H. Les Arts de I'Ameublement. L'Ebenisterie, 8vo. Pa^is, 1897. Havard, H. Les Arts de TAmeublement. Les Styles. Paris, 1897. Havard, H. Histoire des Styles, Ameublement, &c. 2 vols. Fol. Paris, 1899. Havard, H. Les BouUes (Muntz, E. : Les Artistes Celebres). 8vo. Paris, 1903. Hayden, a. Chats on Old Furniture. A Guide for Collectors. London, 1905. Inventaire des Meubles du Chateau du Pau. Societe des Bibliophiles. 4to. Paris, 1892. Jackson, F. H. Intarsia and Marquetry. Handbooks for the Designer and Craftsman. 8vo. London, 1903. Jacquemart, a. a History of Furniture. Edited by Mrs. Bury Palliser. London, 1878. Lacroix, p. English translation, " The Arts of the Middle Ages," &c. 8vo. London, 1870. Lacroix, P. Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance (vol. iv. Ameublement Civil et ReUgieux). 5 vols. 4to. Paris, 1848-51. Lacroix, P. Un MobiUer Historique des XVIP et XVIIP Siecles. 8vo. Paris, 1865. Y 169 FRENCH FURNITURE Lafond, p. Une Famille d'Ebenistes Franfais. Les Jacob 8vo. Paris, 1894. Lafond, P. L'Art Decoratif et le Mobilier sous la Republiquc et I'Empire. 4to. Paris, 1900. Le Pautre, J . Les Cabinets ; et Livre de Miroirs, Tables et Gueridons. Sm. Fol. Amsterdam, 1675 (?) and 1672 (?). Litchfield, F. How to Collect Old Furniture. 8vo. London, 1904. Louis XIV., XV. and XVI. Furniture. Photographs. Port- folios 602, 624, 628 (South Kensington Museum). Maigne, W. Manuel du Menuisier en Batiments. Encyclo- pedie-Roret. i8mo. Paris, 1822. MoLiNiER, E. Le Mobilier Royal Fran^ais aux XVIP et XVIIP Siecles. Fol. Paris, 1902. MoLiNiER, E. Musee du Louvre. Le Mobilier Franfais du XVIP et du XVIII^ Siecle. 4to. Paris, 1903. MuLLER, W. Sketches of the Age of Francis I. Fol. London, 1841. NoRMAND, C. P. J. Les Arts Decoratifs. Chambres et Decora- tions, interieures en styles anciens (Album de I'Ami des Monuments). Fol. 1895. NosBAN. Manuel de I'Ebeniste et du Tabletier. Encylopedie- Roret. i8mo. Paris, 1887. NosBAN. Nouveau Manuel Complet du Menuisier, de I'Ebc- niste, et du Layetier, du Marqueteur, &c. (Manuels-Roret). 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1857. OsLET, G., and Jeannin, J. Traite de Menuiserie. Encyclo- pedie des Connaissances Civiles et Militaires. Partie Civile 1898. PouTiERS, A. La Menuiserie. i8mo. Paris, 1896. Ris-Paquot, O. E. Le Mobilier et les Objets qui s'y rattachent, 8vo. Paris, 1893. Robinson, J. C. Catalogue of the Soulages Collection exhibited 1856 (including Italian and French Renaissance Furniture), with Photos. 8vo. London, 1856. 170 USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE Robinson, V. J. Ancient Furniture and other Works of Art. A Collection by V. J. Robinson. 4to. London, 1902. Roe, F. Ancient Coffers and Cupboards, their History and Description. 4to. London, 1902. RoNDOT, N. L'Art du Bois a Lyon au XV° et au XVI* Si^cle. 8vo. Paris, 1889. RouBO, A. J. L'Art de Menuiserie. 8vo. Paris, 1902. RouBO, A. J. Traite theorique et pratique de I'Ebenisterie. Text and Atlas. Paris, 1884. RowE, E. French Wood-Carvings from the National Museums. 3 ser. Fol. London, 1896. Singleton, E. French and English Furniture. 8vo. London^ 1904. South Kensington Museum. Handbook of Jones' Collection (French Eighteenth-Century Furniture). 8vo. London, 1883. South Kensington Museum. List of Books on Furniture in the National Art Library. London, 1885. Strange, F. A. Historical Guide to French Interiors. Furniture and Allied Arts, Seventeenth-early Nineteenth Centuries. 4to. London, 1903. Talleyrand-Perigord, N. L. de (Duke of Talleyrand). Cata- logue de Tableaux, Objets d'Art et d'Ameublement,. dependant de la succession de Due de Talleyrand. Fol. Paris, 1899. Teissier, O. Meubles et Costumes, XVP-XVIII«^ Siecles. 8vo. Paris, 1904. Verchere, J. L'Art du Mobilier, Renaissance, Louis XIII^ Louis XIV., Louis XV., Louis XVI. Fol. Paris, 1881. Versailles. Albums des Vues interieures et exterieures du Palais de Versailles (Furniture). Obi. 8vo. Paris, n.d. ViOLLET-LE-Duc, E. E. Dictiounaire Raisonne du Mobilier Fran9ais de I'Epoque Carlovingienne a la Renaissance* 6 Tom. Paris, 1858-75. Vitr£. Inventaire du Mobilier du Chateau de Vitre. 8vo. Vitre, 1902. 171 FRENCH FURNITURE Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Decorative Furniture, &c., lent to Bethnal Green Museum by Sir R. Wallace, Bt. (Louis XIV. to Louis XVL). London, 1872. Wallace Collection. Catalogue of the Furniture in Hertford House. 8vo. London, 1905. Wallace, La Collection. Meubles et Objets d'Art Fran9ais des XVIP et XVIIP Si^cles. Par E. Molinier. Fol. Paris, 1902. Williamson, E. Les Meubles d'Art du Mobilier National. 2 Tom. Fol. Paris, 1883. Wytsman, P. Recueil de Meubles anciens en Belgique. Fol. Bruxelles, 1899. 172 INDEX Academy of Painting and Sculp- ture, reference, 102 Adrets, the Baron des, reference, 80 Agnes Sorel, reference, 46 Aix, wood-carving at St. Sauveur, embodying Gothic and Italian styles, 51 Aix-la-Chapelle, in time of Charle- magne, the home of Italian artists, 12 Alba, or Alva, Duke of, reference, 90 Alcove, the seventeenth-century, its evolution and uses, 96 Alcove curtains, reference, 123 Aldus Manutius, Venice, trade- mark imitated on tomb in Chapelle d'Oiron, 54 Amber, a novelty in seventeenth- century decoration, 89 Amboise, Chdteau of, reference, 52 Am6 le Picard, huchier, figures at Brou, executed by, 37 Amiens, carvings exhibiting Nor- man influence on Gothic art at, 36 Amiens Cathedral, reference, 49 Amyot, Jacques, classic writer, reference, 61 Anatolia, or Asia Minor, em- broideries utilised during seven- teenth century, 99 Ancier, Gauthiot d', family alluded to, 73 Andelys, Church of, early transi- tion work at, 37 Anet, fragments from, in Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 58 Anguier, sculptor at Gobelins manufactory, reference, 107 Antoine, architect of the MonnaU, reference, 146 Antony of Burgundy (le Grand Bdtard), Dressers in Dijon Museum, 39 Antwerp, reference, 90 " Apollo and Daphne," and " Ap- ollo and Marsyas," bronze figures from Boulle's workshops, 118 Apollo Gallery. See Louvre Applique copper-work, reference, 145 ; ornamentation on Italian Cabinet, 87 ; plate lii, 148 Arconati-Visconti collection, ex- ample from, plate xiii, 70, 75 Argentelles, Lit de Justice at, 41 Armand, seventeenth - century workman, 117 Arm-chair of copper made for Clemence of Hungary, 31 Arm-chairs, 29, 42 ; plates iv, 50 ; XXVI, 84; XLix, 146; Lvi, 154 Armoire : of the Church of Oba- zine, 13, 14 ; of Cathedral of Noyon, 14 ; rules with regard to feet, 27 ; fifteenth-century, 43 ; at Treasury of St. Germain I'Auxerrois, 43 ; in Basilewski collection, 45 ; at Carnavalet Museum,/>/a^£XViii, 59; descrip- tion of Du Cerceau's, 68 ; ex- ample in Arconati-Visconti col- lection, plate XIII, 70, 75 ; sup- posed example by Sambin at Besangon, 72-74 ; sixteenth-cen- tury example in Salting collec- tion, 76; example at Windsor Castle, 118: of Cressent, 146. See Chest, Bahut. A rmoire de luxe, synonymous with Henri III. Cabinets, 85 Armoire and Secretaire combined, of Mme. du Barry, 150 Arnoult,ebenist, Louis XV. period, reference, 141 173 FRENCH FURNITURE Arras, Synod of, its allusions to paintings in consecrated build- ings, 21 Assier, Chdteau of, reference, 77 Attila, references, 8, 9 Aubriot, Hugues, defines duties of huchiers, 26 Audran, engraver at Gobelins Manufactory, 107 Augsberg, reference, 89 Avars, their ideas of luxury, 8 Avignon, schism of, reference, 24 Bachelier, Nicolas, cabinet- maker of Toulouse, 77 Baerze, Jacques de, Flemish de- signer of Dijon reredoses, 36, 38 Bahut, huche or armoire, description and uses, 15 ; sole piece of furni- ture in fourteenth century, 27 ; used at coronation of Philip V., 29 ; gorgeous in fourteenth cen- tury, 31. See Armoire, Chest Baldachino, evolution from fif- teenth-century canopy, 35 Ball, John, quoted, 40 Bancs-de-taille, fourteenth -century benches, 32 Bardac collection, fifteenth-cen- tury table in, 41 Bardin, chaser, reference, 158 Baronniere, Paul Gougeon de la, gilder, reference, 114 Barthelemy, Abbe Jean Jacques, reference, 145 Bas d'armoire, lower portion of commode, 100 Basilewski collection, fifteenth- century dresser in, 45 Baumgartner, Ulrich, ebenist, his cabinet at Berlin, 89 Bayard, the Chevalier, reference, 60 Bayer, Frangois, artist, Louis XV. period, 141 Beaulieu les Loches, panels ex- emplifying development of Re- naissance style, at, 52 174 Beauvais Cathedral, doorway of, 59 Becu, Jeanne. See Du Barry Beds : Lit de Justice at Argentelles, 41 ; description of Du Cerceau's, 69, plate XII A, 68; example in Cluny Museum, 95 ; Bed of Duke Antoine de Lorraine, plate xi, 66 Bed - draperies introduced by Italians, 98 Bellin, jeweller. Gobelins Manu- factory, 108 Belleville, Madame de Pompa- dour's chateau at, reference, 132 Beneman, Guillaume, introduces mahogany, 158 ; his mahogany coffers, 161 ; his commercial acumen, 162 Berain, Claude, engraver, refer- ence, log Jean, designer at Gobelins Manufactory, references, 108, 109, 116, 128 Bergeman, follower of Beneman, 161 Berlin Museum of Industrial Art, cabinet of Baumgartner at, 90 Bernard, Samuel, financier, patron of Boulle, 119 artist, Louis XV. period, 141 Bernini, Italian artist, 136 Berri, Due de, leather " room " described, 31 ; splendour of his court, 39 Bertrand, inlayer, reference, 158 Besangon Museum, table and ar- moire at, 72 Biblioth^que Mazarin, Chest of Drawers by Boulle,^/^^^ xxx,i04 Bibliotheque Nationale, examples at, II, 136, 138, 146 Blanche of Bourbon, her throne, 32 Blanche de Mortain, Abbey of, examples to be dated with caution, 37 INDEX Blois, Chateau of, reference, 39 Loir-et-Cher, reference, 79 Blucheidner, follower of Beneman, 161 Boizot, Louis Simon, sculptor, 157 Boniface VIII., Pope, reference, 24 Bonnivet, G. G., French admiral, reference, 62 " Book of Architecture," designs by Du Cerceau, reference, 67 ** Book of Mathematical Imple- ments," by Du Cerceau, reter- ence, 67 Bookcase in the possession of Comte de Castellane, typical example, Louis XVI. style, 145 Bordoni, Francesco, Italian crafts- man, 92 Bosse, Abraham, engravings by, 93-95 ; references, 98, 123 Bouchardon, Edme, sculptor, re- ference, 144 Boucher, Frangois, references, 133, 149 Boudin, L., artist, Louis XV. period, 141 BouUe, Andr6 Charles, ebenist. Gobelins Manufactory, noted for use 6f tortoise-shell plaques, 86 ; misconceptions with regard to his work, 115,116; his superior merit, 117 ; some examples, 118; references, 108, 124, 135, 145, 152, 158 ; Chest of Drawers by, plate XXX, 104 Boulle, Pierre, decorator, Louis XIII. period, 84 BouUognes, the two, painters, Gobelins Manufactory, 107 Bourges, seat of Dukes of Berri, 39 Boy Collection, example of school of Sambin in, plate xvi, 72 Brach, Mme., R^gence table in collection, plate xxxiv, 126 Bramante, d'Urbino, Italian painter, 66 Branchi, Italian craftsman, 92, 107 Bret^che Collection, Louis XV. Console, plate xxxix, 130 Breughels, Flemish craftsmen, their cabinets, 91 Bronze, its use suggested by Italian cabinets, 86 Brou, Church of, late example of Gothic style, 36 Buccleuch, Duke of, his Bavarian Cabinet by Boulle, 118 Bud6, Guillaume, French scholar, reference, 61 Buffets, recorded in fourteenth century, 32 Buffon, Comte de, presented with two cabinets by Cucci, 112 Bureau fits origin and development, 99 ; example by Oppenordt, 117; example by Cressent, 135 ; ex- ample by Caffieri, 139 ; many Louis XVI. examples really of earlier inspiration, 146; example in Jones collection, 152 ; Grand Bureau du Roi by Riesener and Oeben, 152 : Riesener's cylin- drical Bureau, 153 Burgundii, Gaul invaded by, 8 Burgundy, references, 38, 66 Duchesses of, Ivory Caskets in Dijon Museum, 39 Duke of, references, 31, 36, 38,48, 60, 117 Cabinets: BouUe's Bavarian, 118; Medal Cabinet by Slodtz, plate xLv, 138; 140; Cabinet of Medal, by Cressent, 146 ; Cabinet for Medals by Joubert, 146 ; Cabinet des Estampes for the Minist^re de la Marine, by Slodtz, 146 ; their lavish decoration, 85; of Spanish origin at South Ken- sington, 88 ; of German fabrica- tion, 89 ; of Flemish origin, 91 ; rage for, during reign of Henri III., 85; by Oppenordt, 117; 175 FRENCH FURNITURE Cabinets — contd. Louis XIV. period in Louvre and Wallace collections, ii8 ; of Cucci, Louis XIV., 112 Caboche, the revolutionary butcher, reference, 40 Cadot, Jacques, carpenter, em- ployed by Louis XL, 47 Caffieri, Filippo, introduced by Mazarin to Louis XIII., 92; some account of his avocations, 113; references, 107, iii, 114, 138 Caffieri, Jacques, takes up the Rocaille style, 139; references, 129, 138, 147, 153; Louis XV. Commode by, plate xliii, 138 Caifieri, Jean Jacques, second son of Jacques, author of bust of Rotrou, 139 ; reference, 140 Caffieri, Philippe, third son of Jacques, 138, 139, 147 Callot, Jacques, engraver, 93 Calvin, represented on miserere, 78 Camondo, Comte de, reference, 155 Canopy, replaced by Baldichino in fifteenth century, 35 ; in in- ventory of MoHere's effects, 122 Carlin, Martin, worker in lacquer, 157, 158 Carnavalet Museum, Chest, six- teenth century, 59 ; plate xviii, 74 ; Louis XV. CohsoIq, plat6 xxxviii, 128 Carpi, De. See Seibecq Carreaux, hassocks used instead of chairs in fourteenth century, 28 Castellane, Comte de, his book- case characteristic of Louis XVI. style, 145 Castelnau, Michel de, records f^tes of Catherine de Medici, 79 Castile, King of (Peter the Cruel), reference, 32 Caylus, Comte de, reference, 144 Certosina, Italian paste moulding process, 51 176 Chabot, Leonor, employs Hugues Sambin, 70 Chabriere- Aries, M., sixteenth-cen- tury chair, plate x, 64 Chairs : fourteenth century, 29 ; fifteenth century, 38 ; seventeenth century, 95 ; plates iv, 50 ; v, 52 ; VI, 53 ; X, 64 : XXV, 82 ; xxvi, 84 ; XXVII, 84 ; xLix, 146 ; lvi, 154 Chaise Dieu, choir-stalls of, 25 Chambranles, by Oppenordt, 117 Chantilly : panels at, 57 ; examples of Martin lacquer- work at, 133 Chappey collection, Regence Cup- board, plate xxxii, 126 Charlemagne, his three wonderful tables, 12 ; reference, 19 Charles IV., his thrones, 32 Charles V., inclined to luxury and display, 29 ; employs cabinet- makers at the Louvre, 32 Charles VI., his love of luxury, 29 ; his gorgeous robe, 33 ; references, 36, 38, 39, 46 Charles VII., references, 39, 46 CharlesVIII., luxury characteristic of his period, 48 ; effects of war with Italy on Gothic art, 49; employs carpenters, 52; effects of his reign, 60 Charles IX., French life during his reign, 78 ; references, 79, 80 Charles the Bald, reference, 19 Charles the Rash, Duke of Bur- gundy, references, 48, 60 Charlieu (Loire), Church of, ex- amples of transition period to be classified with caution, 37 Charolais, Madame de, her " dres- ser " less magnificent than that of her daughter the Duchess, 44 Chartres Cathedral : its relation to Gothic art, 49 Chdteaudun, Church of the Made- leine, examples of transition period, 37 Chests: fourteenth century, 29; fifteenth century, 43; renais- INDEX Chests — contd, sance period, 59; Empire style of Beneman, 161 ; plates i, 36; IX, 6a ; XVIII, 74 ; xxi, y6 ; xxiv, 80; XXVIII, 86; XXIX, 90; xxxi, 104. See Armoire Chests of Drawers, plates xxx, 104 ; XXXVI, 126 ; XLiv, 140 ; lvii, 156 Cheval-Glass, First Empire, plate Lviii, 158 Chinese style, due to Mazarin,i29 ; its capricious methods, 129 ; Regency ebenists inspired by, 130 ; lacquer-work, 124, 130, 132 Choir-stalls, originality of early examples, 16; examples in Poi- tiers Cathedral, 17; in Notre Dame de la Roche, ib. ; in Lisieux Cathedral, 25; at Chaise Dieu, 25; at St. Saturnin, Toulouse, 77 ; references, 35, 67 Choquet, Claude, artist, Louis XV. period, 141 Church furniture, its remarkable development in early periods, 16 Cicero, TuUius, reference, 10 Clemence of Hungary, her arm- chair, 31 "Clemency of Alexander," by Le Brun, reference, 104 Clotaire, King, at Soissons, receives silver dish from Thierry of Metz, 10 Clotaire II. chooses St. Eloi to make his throne, 1 1 Clovis, reference, 10 Cluny Museum, examples at, 28, 42, 43» 53. 54. 87, 95; plates, frontispiece ; i, 36 ; ix, 62 ; xv, 72 ; XXV, 82 ; xxvi, 84 ; xxix, 90 Coblentz, reference, 161 Cochin, Charles Nicolas, engraver, opponent of rocaille style, 144 Coffers, fifteenth-century, their number suggestive of plebeian origin, 42 Colbert, Jean B., founds Gobelins Manufactory loi ; adverse to application of democratic prin- ciples to art, 102 ; his lofty ideals, 103 ; fortunate in collaborating with Le Brun, 103, 104 ; refer- ences, 105, 114, 126 Coligny, Admiral, his assassina- tion, reference, 79 College of France, an offshoot of College of the Three Languages, 61 College of the Three Languages, its foundation by Francis I., 61 Cologne, Elector of, a patron of BouUe, 119 Colonna, Francesco, his " Strife of Love as seen in a Dream by Poliphilo," reference, 54 Comedie-Fran9aise, Rotrou's bust at, 139 Commode^ a development of the bureau, 100 ; example by BouUe in Mazarin Library, 118 ; ex- ample by Cressent in Wallace Collection, 131, 134, 138 ; plate xxxiii, 126 ; description of Cres- sent's Commodes,* 1 35 ; example by Jacques Caffieri in Wallace Collection, /i/a^^ xliii, 138; 139; lost example belonging to Du Barry, 149, 150 Compiegne, Palace of, examples a.i, plates v. 52; vi, 53 *' Comptes de I'Argenterie," refer- ences, 28, 31 " Comptes des Bdtiments du Roi," references, 58, 112, 113, 130 Conde, Louis, Prince de, assassina- tion at Jarnac, reference, 79 Consoles J by J. and A. le Pautre, at Versailles, 109; plates xxxviii, 128; xxxix, 130; Liii, 150 ; LIV, 150 Constantinople, references, 39, 64 Cordovan Chambers, fourteenth- century " rooms " made of leather, 30 177 FRENCH FURNITURE Corner Cupboards of Great Bureau in Jones collection, authorship considered, 152; example by Joubert, 140; plate x-li, 134 Correggio, designs used by Flemish craftsmen, 91 Corr^ze, department of, reference, 13 Cosimo, Andrea di, reference, 64 Cotte, Robert de, architect, Louis XIV. period, 128, 134, 139 Couch, or Lit a la duchesse, intro- duced Louis XIV. period, 124 Cousin, Jean, historical painter, reference, 64 Coypel, Noel and Antoine, painters under Le Brun, 107 Coysevox, Antoine, sculptor, Go- belins Manufactory, 107, 149 Cressent, Charles, his taste, skill and talents, 133, 134, 135 ; faults exaggerated by pupils, 136; Slodtzs inspired by, 137 ; his Commode in Wallace Collection, plate xxxiu, 126; 131, 138; Cup- board by, plate xxxii, 126 ; a fol- lower of Boulle, 145 ; references, 152, 153 " Cris de Paris, Metiers," by Abraham Bosse, reference, 94 Crozat, private patron of Boulle, 119 Crusades, their influence on feudal nobles, 22 ; reference, 60 Cucci, Domenico, Italian ebenist, introduced by Mazarin to Louis XIII., 92 ; at the Gobelins, 107 ; mentioned in lines by MaroUes, III; noteworthy examples of, ib.; makes locks and window bolts, 112; his cabinets, ib.; his daughter, mother of the brothers Slodtz, 137; references, 114, 116 Cupboards, fifteenth -century, plate II, 44; sixteenth-century, /fOM^is- piece; example by Sambin, plate XIII, 70 ; sixteenth-century, plate 178 Cupboards — contd. xiv; 72 ; example by Cressent, plate xxxii, 126; Louis XV. period, /i/a^^ xLi, 134 Dagobert I. befriends St. Eloi, 11; his arm-chair, 13, 18 Dais, mentioned in fourteenth- century accounts, 32 Damascening process, idea sug- gested by Italian cabinets, 87; reference, 59 Dauphin, the (" Monseigneur "), furniture chiefly made by Boulle, 119, 120; luxuriousness of his rooms, ib. ; apartments de- corated by Martin, 132 Dauphine, Madame la, reference, 120 Dautriche, Jacques, artist, Louis XIV. period, 141 David, Jacques Louis, painter, re- ference, 163 David of Luneville, or Roentgen, Empire period, his commercial acumen, 162 ; jewel cabinet partly designed by, plate lix, 160 Decadence at close of eighteenth century, and events which led thereto, 159; suggestive of a future Renaissance, 165 Degault, jewel cabinet partly de- signed by, plate lix, 160 Dello Delli, reference, 64 Delorme, artist. Regency and Louis XV. periods, 141 Denis, Louis, craftsman, Louis XIV. period, 117 Denizot, Pierre, artist. Regency and Louis XV. periods, 141 Desks : Regence, Louvre Museum, plate xxxv, 126; example by Riesener, plate xlviii, 144 ; ex- ample by Weisweiler, plate lv, 152 Desmalter, Jacob, Empire period, productions perfect, but inar- tistic, 164 INDEX Diana of Poitiers, reference, 59 Dijon, residence of Duke of Bur- gundy, 38; name of gifted carvers in the Cathedral, 25 ; works at Chambre des Roqu^tes superintended by Sambin, 70 ; door of Archives by Sambin, 70, 72 ; work by Sambin at Palais de Justice, 70, 72 ; references, 65,76 Dijon Museum, examples at, 36, 38, 39 ; table by Sambin, plate XX, 76 Dinanderie, derivation of term, 31 Dining-tables, made for Jeanne of Burgundy, 31 Directeur- General des Batiments du Roi, post obtained by brother of Madame de Pompadour, 144 Directory style, a deceptive title, 127 Dol Cathedral, fourteenth-cen- tury workers at, 25 Dole, rood-loft of church designed by Sambin, 71 Domestic furniture, fifteenth-cen- tury examples, except beds, numerous, 37; utility exceeded by ornament in sixteenth cen- tury, 80; simplified in seven- teenth century, 96 ; influence of Louis XIV. upon, 124 Donatello, sculptor, reference, 64 Dossier J The, in Henry II. beds, 69 ; reference, 95 Drap de bure, forerunner of the bureau, 100 Drapery, covering furniture with, a fifteenth-century custom, 98 *' Dressers," probably developed from the huche or bahutj 15; four- teenth-century, 32; made for Antony of Burgundy, 39 ; of Mme. de Charolais and her daughter, 44 ; example in Basi- lewski collection, 45 ; examples by Du Cerceau, plate xii, 68; of Henry IV. period, 72 ; ex- " Dressers" — conid. ample in Soulages collection, 76 ; reference, 67 ; plates vii, 54 ; XIX, 76; XXII, 78 ; XXIII, 80 Du Barry, Madame (Jeanne Been), finest period of Louis XVI. style during her lifetime as favourite, 143, 147 ; some of her charac- teristics, 147 ; chooses Gou- thiere as designer and decora- tor, 147; names of some pieces made for her, 149 ; many pieces now lost, 150; some ebenists who worked at her chdteaux, 157; references, 153, 155, 162 Du Bellay, Cardinal, his time characterised by prodigality, 79 Dubois, J., artist. Regency and Louis XVI. periods, 141 Du Cerceau, Jacques Androuet, his engravings, 65, 66 ; dresser and bed, plates xii, xiia, 68 ; his beds and tables, 69 ; com- pared with Sambin, 71 ; his influence manifest in dresser, Soulages collection, 76; his square tables, 95 ; references, 70, 72, 75, 77, 83, 109; cup- board, /w«^J5/>j^c^ ; dresser, plate XIX Duchesse, Madame la, daughter of Madame de Charolais. See Charolais. Dugourc, Jean Denis, architect, reference, 148 Duplessis, sculptor, Louis XVI. period, references, 152, 155 Dutel, jeweller. Gobelins Manu- factory, reference, 107 Duvaux, artist, Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Earliest known examples, pulpit of St. Radegund; Armoire, Church of St. Obazine, 13 EbenisteSj or menuisiers en ebene^ origin of term, 87 ; now applied generally, ib. ; adopt Chinese 179 FRENCH FURNITURE Ebenistes — contd . style in eighteenth century, 131; dominated by decorative sculp- ture during Louis XV. period, 140; Louis XVI. style antici- pated by early workers, 146; very numerous during Louis XVL period, 158; invasion of craft by Germans, 1 59 ; refer- ences, 89,92, 107, 108, III, 112, 115, 133,134, 139, 150, 151, 154, 156, 157 Ebony, carving studied in Hol- land by French workmen, 83 ; used for cabinets beginning of seventeenth century, 86 ; references, 31, 91, 99, n? Ebony and marqueterie work, not necessarily work of special artists, 117; reference, 120 Ecclesiastical influence on art, 19, 24 Ecole des Beaux-Arts, fragments from Anet at, 59 Ecole Militaire, Louis XVL style anticipated by Gabriel, 146 Ecouen, Chateau of, panels pro- bably of Italian origin, 57 Edict of Nantes, reference, 108 Effiat, Ch^eau of, bed in Cluny Museum, 95 Elbow-rests of choir-stalls, sub- jects frequently profane, 25, 35 Elysee, Palace of the, chair, Louis XIII., plate xxvii, 84; sofa, Louis XVL, plate li, 146 Empire, style so-called, the same as that of Louis XIV. period, 127; rise foreshadowed in Rie- sener's "Tricoteuse de la Reine," 155; its effects on the art, 160, 161 ; first Empire examples. Cheval-glass, plate lviii, 158 ; chest of drawers, plate lvii, 156 ; arm-chair, ^/a;<5 lvi, 154; jewel cabinet, plate lix, 160; 161 EspagnoletteSf of Cressent, 134; after Watteau, 136 180 Estienne, Robert (Robert Ste- phens), printer to Francis I., reference, 61 Falconnet, sculpture among Du Barry effects by, 149 Felibien, " Description Sommaire de Versailles," quoted, 119 Feuerstein, artist, Empire period, 161 Field of the Cloth of Gold, re- ference, 62 Fifteenth Century, Gothic tra- ditions preceding, included in term, 34; its demoralisation and love of luxury, 40, 48; Examples, plates I, 36 ; 11, 44; in, 46 "Figures au Naturel tant des Vetements que des Postures des GardesFrangaises," byAbraham Bosse, reference, 94 Filleul, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Flamboyant style, development best studiedby Church carvings, 35 ; example " at Beaulieu les Loches, 52 Flemings, fourteenth - century wood-carvers, 25 Florence, Republic of, reference, 40 Floris, or De Vriendt, his Flemish cabinets, 91 Folding screen, example among Moliere's effects, 124 Fontaine, designer. Empire style, 164 Fontainebleau, panels at, 58 ; its prodigality under Catherine de Medici, 62, 79 ; references, 71, 104 ; examples at, plate xxviii, 86; plate lvi, 154 Footstools, fourteenth - century, 32 Foreign influence, Frankish Kings, 10 ; Romans, 6 ; foreign artists and craftsmen, 82-92, 99, 159 INDEX Foreign styles, their characteris- tics, 84 Fornova, battle of, reference, 52 Foule, Edmond, panels at Argen- telles belonging to, 41 Fouquet, Nicolas, employs Le Brun at Vaux, 104 Fourteenth century, 24 ; articles in use during, 27 ; characterised by ostentation without regard to comfort, 33 Fragonardjjean Honor^, paintings by, among Du Barry effects, 149 France,its early state of barbarism, 19 ; inordinately luxurious in fifteenth century, 48 Francis I., development of Renais- sance style, 55 ; transformation into Henry II. style, 56; Italian style developed, 57 ; his services to art and letters, 61 ; prodi- gality, 62 ; references, 60, 63, 71, plate, XV, 72 Francks, Flemish craftsmen in- fluenced by Italy, 91 Franks, or Franci, their invasion of Gaul, 8 ; love of display, 10 Fredegarius, Scholasticus, alludes to enormous treasure of the Goths, 8 French artistic characteristics, 2, 56,91.93. 102, 127 Frost, artist, Empire period, 161 Gabriel, Jacques, architect, his Garde-Meuble, 146 ; Ecole Mili- taire, ib. ; reference, 148 Gaillon, Chateau of, examples at, 53,54 "Galeries du Palais," by Bosse, reference, 94 Galle, gilder, collaborator with Beneman, 158 GalUc furniture, now untraceable, 5 Gallo-Roman period, 5, 6 Garde-Meuble National, reference, 146; examples at, plates xxii, 78 ; Liii, 150 ; Lvii, 156; Lviii, 158 Gamier, Pierre, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Gassicourt, transition work at, 37 Gaudreaux, ebenist, Louis XV. period, 140 Gaul, state at Roman period, 5 ; transformation of its domestic art, 9 Gauls, effects of subjugation on domestic arts, 5, 6 " Gedanken uber die Nachahmung der Griecheschen Werken," by Abbe Barthdlemy, reference, 145 Genouilhac, Galiot de, his tomb by Bachelier, 77 Germain, Thomas, sculptor and chaser, 137 German cabinets, their chief merit, 89 Germani, Gaul invaded by, 8 " Geschichte der Kunst des Alter- thnms," by Winckelmann, re- ference, 145 Geymuller, M. de, biographer of du Cerceau, quoted, 66 Giacetti, Luigi, ItaUan craftsman, 92, 107 Gilbert le Chasublier, fourteenth- century artisan, 31 Gillet, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Gillot, master of Watteau, re- ferences, 128, 133, 136 Girard of Orleans, some of his commissions, 32 Girard, inlayer. Empire period, 158 Glaber, Raoul, French chronicler, quoted, 20 Gladbach, birthplace of Riesener, 151 GobeHns Manufactory, its founda- tion, loi ; aided by Louis XIV., 103 ; LeBrun appointed director, 181 FRENCH FURNITURE Gobelins Manufactory — contd. 104 ; some painters and ebenists under Le Brun, 107; references, 105, no, 113, 114, 123, 126 Golle, or Goller, Pieter, Dutch ebenist, 92, 112 Gonzaga, Maria, Queen of Poland, reference, 87 Gothic art and architecture, re- ferences, 20, 34, 35, 36, 49, 51, 53> 165 Goths invade Gaul, 8 Goudouin, Jacques, architect, 157 Gouffier, Guillaume, his tomb, 54 Goujon, Jean, sculptor, Francis I. period, 64, 71, 76 Gouthiere, chosen by Du Barry as designer and decorator, 148,149, 150, 157, 158 ; Applique by, plate Lii, 148 Grand Bureau de Roi, by Riesener, 152, 153 *' Grand Monarque " and " Grand Roi." See Louis XIV. Grandjean collection, example from, pla/e lii, 148 Gravelot, H. F. B., artist and en- graver, 133 Greffuhle collection, example in, plnte xLi, 134 Gregory of Tours, St., alludes to Goths, 8 Greuze, Jean Baptiste, painter, reference, 149 Grobois, Jean, cabinet-maker, re- ference, 32 Gtiadamacillas, gilded leather hang- ings from Spain, 87 Guesnon, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Guillaume of Marcilly, fourteenth- century wood-carver, 25 Guise, Francois de, reference, 80 Guise, Henry, Duke of, his assas- sination, 79 Guitton-Morvaux, revolutionary delegate, reference, 92 182 Gutenberg, Johan, printer, refer- ence, 61 Hainofer, Philippe, architect- painter, 89 Hamilton collection, Bavarian Cabinet in, 118 Hanemann, German craftsman, 84 Haure, sculptor, reference, 158 Hebert, artist, Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Hedouin, J. B., artist, reference, 141 Hennequin of Antwerp, carver, re- ference, 26 Henri H., and second half of six- teenth century, 63 ; French life under, 78 ; references, 58,59 Style, its development, 56 ; outcome of Renaissance, 63 ; final nationalisation o£ Italian principles, 63 ; as- sisted by Du Cerceau and Sambin, 65, 68; references, 71.94, 123 Henri HI., French life under, 78 ; predominance of foreigners, 82 ; Italianism encouraged by de- mand for cabinets, 85 ; refer- ence, 26 Henri IV., collapse of Du Cerceau school, 72*, national feeling sub- jected to foreign influence, 82 ; attempts to encourage art ap- parently abortive, 83 ; originates the term ^^menuisiers en ebene" 86 ; remarks on encouragement of art, 91 ; influence of Calvin- ism under, 96 ; his simplicity and contempt for show, 97; Gobelins Manufactory deve- loped from his idea, loi ; refer- ences, 76, 105,113 Herculaneum, effects of discovery, 144 Hervieux, collaborator with Rie- sener, 152 INDEX " History of Louis XIV.," medal- lions from Boulle's workshop, 1 18 Holland, influence of its skilled craftsmen, go Honnecourt, Villard de, his draw- ings, 1 8 Huchier^ term denoting ancient corporation of carpenters, 15 ; aided by clergy, 16 ; commemo- rated by carved figure at Poi- tiers, 18 ; distinguished from ordinary carpenters, 26 ; early rules, ib. ; two celebrated mem- bers, 37; references, 18, 36 Huet, painter, Regency and Louis XV. period, 133 Huns, their invasion of Gaul, 8 Ile de France school, references, 66, 72 Indre-et- Loire Prefecture, ex- ample at, plate xliv, 140 Intarsia pittoric, Italian paste moulding, 51 Isabella of Bavaria, her leather carpets, 31 ; her neglect of ordi- nary comfort, 33 Italian artists and craftsman, at Aix-la-Chapelle, 12 ; invited by King Rene, 50 ; imported by Charles VIII., 52 ; numerous at the Gobelins, 1 10 ; reference, 99 Italian cabinets, many examples preserved in France, 87 ItaUan influence on early French manners and customs, 6 ; in Re- naissance period, 50 ; in seven- teenth century, 82; under Ma- zarin, no Itahan style transformed into national style, 56. See Rocaille. Italy, results of expedition to, on French taste and manners, 60 Ivory caskets in Museum at Dijon, 39 Jabodot, artist, Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Jack Straw, reference, 40 Jacob, The brothers, workers in mahogany, 163 Jans, tapestry maker at Gobelins Factory, 107 "Jardin de la Noblesse," by Bosse, reference, 93 Jardin des Plantes, Paris, refer- ence, 99 Jarnac, battle of, reference, 79 Jean of Li^ge, fourteenth-century craftsman, 25 Jeanne of Burgundy, her *' Coro- nation room" and tables, 31 Jena, battle of, reference, 156 Jerusalem, Gothic treatment of, by Jean Le Pot, 60 Jesuits inaugurate "the Jesuit style," 84, 85 Jewel Cabinet of Marie Antoinette, plate Lix, 160 ; 161 Joan of Arc, reference, 46 John the Fearless, chair of, 38 John the Good, his prodigality, 29 ; reference, 32 Jones collection, Grand Bureau by Riesener, 152 Joubert, ebenist, Louis XV. period, 140, 146 Joyeuse, Due de, magnificence of wedding festivities, 79 Kemp, inlayer, Empire style, 158 Knights Templars, reference, 24 La Batie en Forez, Chdteau of^ panels at, 57 La Bruyere, Jean de, quoted, 124 La Croix, Robert Victor, artist, Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 La Fontaine, valuation of Floren- tine table in Louvre Museum, 92 La Roue, C. L. de, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Languedoc, tomb of Genouilhac, Governor of, 77 ; school of, 77 ; reference, 78 1 8s FRENCH FURNITURE Laocoon, its treatment on example in Spitzer collection, 76 Lathuile, Jean Pierre, artist, Re- gency and Louis XV. period, 141 Latz, artist, reference, 141 L'Auln, Etienne de, follower of Du Cerceau and Sambin, 76 Laurana da Milano, Italian artist, 50 Laurent, or Flamenc, of Ysbres, fourteenth-century craftsman, 26 Lazare, artist, reference, 141 *' Lazare et le Mauvais Riche," by Bosse, reference, 94 Leather, its application to four- teenth-century "rooms," 31; hangings, from Spain, 87 Le Barbier, designer, reference, 157 Le Blanc, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Leblanc, Abbe, travels in Italy with Poussin, 144 Le Brun, Charles, director of Gobelins Manufactory, 104 ; emancipates national style from Italianism, 105; his industry and ability, 106 ; influence on art of the period, 105, 106, 107 ; some artists who worked under him, 107, 108; references, 109, no, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118, 126, 128 Les Bruns, Aman and Antoine, their woodwork at Tours, 58 Le Clerc, engravers at Gobelins Manufactory, 107 Le Doux, Charles Nicolas, archi- tect employed by Du Barry, 148 Leleu, Jean Francois, his Louis XVI., marquetry work, 157 " L'Enfant Prodigue," by Bosse, reference, 94 Lenoir, Alexandre, preserves ar- ticles of value during the Revo- lution, 162 184 Le Pautre, Antoine, architect, re- ference, 108 Le Pautre, Jean, his designs, 108, 116 Le Pot, Jean, author of doorway at Beauvais, 59 ; Gothic treatment of Jerusalem, 60 Leprince, Jean, painter, Regency and Louis XV. period, 133 Lespagnandel, sculptor, at Go- belins Manfactory, 114 L'Estoile, Pierre de, French chronicler, records wedding of Due de Joyeuse, 79 " Les Vierges sage et les Vierges folles," by Bosse, reference, 94 Levasseur, Etienne, artist. Re- gency and Louis XV. period, 141, 158 Limoges, its association with St. Eloi, II ; its enamels, 20 Linen-fold design on fifteenth-cen- tury chests, 43 Lisbon, reference, 88 Liseux Cathedral, choir-stalls at, Lit a la duchesse, or couch, among Moliere's effects, 124 Lit de justice at Argentelles, de- scription, 41 Loir, Alexis, jeweller, at Gobelins Manufactory, 107 Loriot, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Lorraine, Duke of, a patron of BouUe, 119; Bed of Duke Antoine de Lorraine, plate xi, 66 Louis VI., reference, 19 Louis X., reference, 31 Louis XL, modifies statutes of htichiers, 26 ; costly purchases suggestive of new idea concern- ing, 47 ; reference, 48 Louis XII., luxury characteristic of his reign, 61 ; references, 46, 60, 62 INDEX Louis XIII., a period of foreign influence, 82 ; his liking for foreign artists, 84, 92 ; simplifi- cation of bourgeoisie furniture, 94 ; development of the bureau, 100 ; ornate style influenced by Le Pautres, 109 ; references, 113, 123 ; examples, plates xxv, 82 ; XXVI, 84 ; XXVII, 84; XXVIII, 86 Louis XIV., modifies huchiers' statutes, 26 ; receptions in bed- rooms customary, 96 ; munifi- cence aided by Colbert, 103 ; gives Le Brun directorship of Gobelins Factory, 104 ; repre- sented as Apollo on cabinet, 112 ; encourages Oppenordt, 117 ; delights in luxuriousness of Dauphin's rooms, 119; de- velops taste for luxury among middle class, 123 ; references, 82, 105, 106, III, 116, 1x8, 120, 128, 133, 134, 139, 140, 143, 153 Louis XIV. style, its evolution from foreign sources through French artists, 82 ; apparently uninfluenced by Spanish crafts- men, 88 ; 1663 beginning of art history of period, loi ; diffusion in Holland aided by Marot, 108 ; evolved by collaborators of Le Brun, no ; Italian style merged into, 114; identical with those of later periods, 127; traditions still retained by France, 165 ; reference, 72 ; examples, plate XXX, 104 ; plate xxxi, 104 Louis XV. patronises Meis- sonnier's rocaille work, 137 ; re- ferences, 126, 133, 147 Louis XV. style, accentuated by inharmonious rocaille decora- tion, 128 ; influenced by Chinese art, 129; lowered in estimation by excessive lacquer work, 132 ; some ebenists of the period, 140 ; rocaille style suggestive of manners of the period, 141, 143 ; Louis XV. style — contd. references, 127 ; examples, />/a/^s xxxviii, i28;xxxix, 130; XL, 130 ; XLi, 134 ; XLii, 136 ; XLiii, 138 ; XLiv, 140 ; XLV, 140 ; xlvi, i4o;XLvii, 140 Louis XVI. style, continuation of Louis IV. style, 127; its finest period that of Du Barry, 143 ; spirit anticipated by previous ebenists, 145-147; effects of foreign influences and the Revo- lution, 159, 160; references, 136, 143, 151, 158, 163; examples, plates XLViii, 144 ; xlix, 146 ; L, 146; LI, 146; Lii, i48;nii, 150; Liv, 150 ; LV, 152 Louis le Hongre, his lacquer- work, 130 Louveciennes, residence of Mme. Du Barry, references, 147, 148, 150 Louvre, fourteenth-century panel- ling at, 32 ; foreign craftsmen employed at, 84, 87, 92, 99, 10 1 ; Apollo Gallery decorated by Le Brun, 104 ; examples by Cucci at, I II ; cabinets by Boulle, 118; examples by Cressent, 134 ; Rie- sener's grand bureau, 152 ; ex- amples by Carlin, 158 ; refer- ences, 58, 103, 108, 109, 118 Louvre Museum, mosaic table from Florence, 92 ; remains of Cucci's cabinets, 112; examples at, plates 11, 44 ; iv, 50 ; vii, 54 ; XXI, 76 ; xxiii, 80 ; xxiv, 80 ; xxxv, 126 Luneville, David of, reference, 161 Maalot, Martin, makes arm-chairs for Philip v., 29 Mahogany made fashionable by Beneman, 158 Maincy tapestry factory, refer- ence, 104 Mantegna's " Flagellation," refer- ence, 53 A 185 FRENCH FURNITURE MaintenoD, Madame de, reference, 126 Mantes, Seine-et-Oise, reference, 37 Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne. See Gobelins. Maria Theresa of Austria, Queen, reference, 112 "Mariage k la Campagne,'* by Bosse, reference, 94 '' Mariage k la Ville," by Bosse, reference, 94 Marie Antoinette, her jewel cabi- net, plate Lix, 160; 161 ; refer- . ences, 154, 158, 162 Marly, decorations superintended by Le Brun, 106 Marolles, Abbe de, lines on Cucci and Caffieri, in Marot, Daniel, associated with Le Brun, 108 Marot, Jean, architect and en- graver, 108 Marquetage alluded to by Felibien, 120 Marqueferie, coloured, not adopted by early French cabinet makers, 51 ; of Riesener's Grand Bureau du Roi, 153 ; chess-board style adopted by Riesener, 155 Marqueterie, tortoiseshell and brass decoration not invented by BouUe, 115 Martellange, Etienne, inaugurates "Jesuit style," 85; references, 91, 105 Martin, Robert, artist in lacquer- work, 131, 132; family famous for their work, ib. ; references, ^33, 137 Martin, sculptor, Louis XVL period, 158 Mazarin, Cardinal, introduces Italian artists, 92 ; Colbert a pupil of, loi ; attracts foreigners to France, no; his apprecia- tion of Chinese art, 129 ; refer- ences, 112, 113, ns, 130 186 Mazarin Library, reference, iiS Meaux, chest of drawers in bishop's residence at, plate xxxvi, 126 Mechanical tables by Sulpice, Arnold and Loriet, 141 Medal cabinet by Slodtz, plate XLV, 140. See Cabinets. Mediaeval carpentry, knowledge of, essential in judging early work, 45 Medici, Catherine of, at Field of Cloth of Gold, 62 ; her fetes, 79; Italian influence strengthened by, 84 ; references, 78, 82, 83, 84 Meissonnier, Just Aurele, his ro- caille work, 136 ; references, 129, 139, 147 Melun, Bishop Jean de, choir stalls at Poitiers, 17 Metmisiers en Ebene, originated by Henri IV., 87 Metternich family, their table by Caffieri, 140 Michael Angelo, alluded to, 64 Michelozzi, corbels at Milan, by, 53 Migeon, his toilette furniture for Mme. de Pompadour, 140 MigUorini, Fernando and Horatio, introduced to Louis XIII. by Mazarin, 92; reference, 107 Mignard, Nicolas leJRomain, deco- rates apartments of Dauphin, 120 Mignard, Pierre, painter, note, 120 Milan, corbels at, 53 Ministere de la Justice, bureau de- scribed, 139 Ministere de la Marine, Cabinet des Estampes, 146 Ministry of the Interior, Console, Louis XVI., plate liv, 150 Mirrors introduced as decorations by Italians, 99 Misereres, in Notre Dame de la Roche, 17 ; at Lisieux, 25 ; pro- fane subjects frequent, 35 ; Calvin with pig's head, 78 ; example from St. Denis, plate VIII, 58. See Stall INDEX Mobilier National, cylindrical bureau by Riesener, 153 Moliere, inventory of his bedroom furniture, 121-123 ; reference, 130 Molinier, Emile, his reference to Italian influence on French artists, 53 Monnaie, designed by Antoine, reference, 146 Monnoyer, painter, associated with Le Brun, 107 Montal, chateau planned by Ba- chelier, 77 Montargis, chdteau designed by Du Cerceau, 67 ; choir of church of the Madeleine rebuilt by Du Cerceau, ib. Montigny, ebenist, Louis XVI. period, 158 Montluc, Blaise de, French mar- shal, reference, 80 Moorish traces in seventeenth- century Spanish cabinets, 88 Moselmen, Pierre, fourteenth-cen- tury craftsman, 26 " Most excellent buildings of France," designs by Du Cer- ceau, 67 Mulberry-tree, cultivation leads to silk manufacture at Lyons, 98 Munich, reference, 66 Musee des Petits Augustins, filled with treasures at the Revolu- tion, 162 Nancy Museum, example from, plate XI, 66 Napoleon L, evil effects of his rule on the arts, 126, 163 ; foreign influences of his period, 160 ; detrimental results of inartistic nature, 164 ; Gothic revival after his fall without vitality, 165 National printing establishment, formerly Hotel de Rohan, Martin style of decoration at, 133 Neuwied, references, 161, 162 Norman influence on Gothic art shown on carvings at Amiens, 36 Notre Dame, Paris, work of trans- sition period at, 37 ; reference, 49 Notre Dame de la Roche, wood- carving of, 19 Noyon Cathedral, armoirc with painted folding doors at, 14 Nuremberg craftsmen, reference, 89 Obazine, Church of, armoire once belonging to, 13 Oeben, Jean Francois, ebenist, chronological problem concern- ing, 151 ; references, 152, 154, 159 Oeben, or Hobenne, Simon, ebenist to the King, 151 " CEuvres de Charite," by Bosse, reference, 94 " (Euvre de ladiversite destermes dont on use en architecture," by Sambin, reference, 71 Oppenordt, Alexandre Jean, Flem- ish artist, 117, 128, 134 Orange, Prince of, engages Marot as architect, 108 Orleans, Dukes of, reference, 39 Pagny, chateau decorated by Sambin, 70 Painted canvas used for covering seats, 31 Painted marqueterie and Italian plaques assimilated by French craftsmen, 57 Painting used in decorating early examples, 14, 32, 74 ; painting on panels not adopted by early French craftsmen, 51 Pajou, Augustin, sculptor, refer- ence, 149 Palazzo Cancelleria, Rome, de- signs for, by Du Cerceau, 66 187 FRENCH FURNITURE Panels, in tower of Louvre, 32 ; Lit de Justice, Argentelles, 41 ; at Cluny and Abbey of St. Denis from Chateau of Gai- Uon, 53; Chateaux of Ecouen and Chantilly, 57 ; Chateau of La Batie, 57 ; Chateau of Fon- tainebleau, 58 ; Panel of cup- board, school of Sambin, plate xyi, 72 Paris, fifteenth century armoires Sit Treasury of St. Germain I'Auxerrois, 44 ; municipality presents Talon with a German piece of furniture, 83 ; pur- chases famous German piece for ceremonial gift, 89 ; Gates designed by Le Brun, 106 ; examples in Exhibition, plates III, 46 ; XXXVII, 126 Parvis, Jacques de, fourteenth- century panelling in Louvre, 32 Pasquier, ebenist, reference, 157 Paste mouldings, not adopted by early French craftsmen, 51 Penthesilea, subject of fourteenth- century hangings, 30 Perreal, Jean, figures at Brou de- signed by, 37 Percheron, surnamed Lochon, contemporary of BouUe, 117 Percier, Charles, designer, Empire style, 164 Petit, Nicolas, artist, Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Petit Trianon, Versailles, example a.t, plate l, 146 Phidias, cited as a precedent for painting furniture, 74 Philip n. of Spain, reference, 78 Philip IV. the Fair, references, 24, 29 Philip v., his arm-chairs by Maa- lot, 29 Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, references, 36, 39 Philip of Orleans (Regent), refer- ences, 128, 134, 136 188 Picheneau, Pierre and Guillaume fourteenth-century craftsmen,25 Pierre of Neufchdteau, fourteenth- century craftsman, 25 Pietro da Milano, artist, employed by King Rene, 50 Pineau, artist. Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Pionnier, Pierre, artist, reference, 141 Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, re- ference, 10 Pleney, artist, Regency and Louis XV. period, 141 Plessis les Tours, last abode of Louis XL, 47 Plutarch, translation by Amyot, reference, 61 Poitiers, pulpit of St. Radegund, 13 ; choir stalls at, 17 ; refer- ence, 19 Poitou, Pierre, ebenist at Gobelins Factory, 107, 117 Pomerania, Duke of, cabinet made for, 89 Pompadour, Marquise de, employs the Martins, 132 ; rewards Migeon with pension, 140 ; obtains post of Directeur- General des Batimentsdu Roi for her brother, 144; reference, 152 Pompeii, artists influenced by dis- coveries at, 144 Pope. See Boniface VI IL Portability of early furniture essential, i, 28, 30, 50 Portugal, reference, 83 Portuguese style, its influence small, 88 Poussin, Fran9ois, obtains post of Directeur-General des Bati- ments du Roi, 144 Pradel's " Livre Commode," re- cords (1692) three lacquer- works in Paris, 130 Precieuses of Hotel Rambouillet, their use of the seventeenth- century alcove, 96 INDEX Protestantism, influence of, 96, 97 Prud'hon, Pierre Paul, designer, Empire style, 163 Prussia, King of, employs one of Martin's sons, 132 Rabelais, reference, 61 " Rape of Helen,'' bronze, refer- ence, 118 " Recueil d'Antiquit^s " of De Caylus, reference, 144 Regency and its style, 126 ; iden- tical with Louis XIV. style, 127; Cressent's influence during, 133; " rocaille '* not popular until its closing period, 137 ; at the close suggestive of manners of the period, 141 ; examples, plates, XXXII, 126; XXXIII, 126 ; XXXIV, 126; XXXV, 126; XXXVI, 126; XXXVII, 126 Religious sentiment, effects on the arts in early times, 20 Renaissance, its influence felt before 1500, 34; historic data to be noted when studying periods of transition, 45 ; origi- nated in France at a time favour- able for the adoption of Latin models, 50 ; geographical classi- fication of styles difficult or impossible, 55 ; Italian style transformed by French artists into Henri II. style, 56 ; claims of critics as to origin of works of this period, 57 ; prompt acceptance of the new ideas, 61 ; leaders animated by high ideals, 64 ; French sculptors not copyists, but interpreters, 64 ; references, 45, 48, 49, 63, 98 ; examples, plates iv, 50 ; v, 52 ; VI, 53 ; VII, 54 Ren^, King, reference, 50 Ren^e of Ferrara, reference, 67 Reredoses, from Dijon, of Jacques de Baerze, 36, 38 Restoration, style so-called, 127 Revolution, effects disastrous to art, 160, 162 ; references, 126, 143, 163 Rheims Cathedral, reference, 49 Richelieu, favours Italian produc- tions, 92 Richter, Charles, artist. Empire period, 161 Riesener, ebenist, Louis XV. period, birth and apprentice- ship to Oeben, 151; marries Oeben's widow, 152 ; follower of Cressent and Caffieri, 153 ; his borrowing of copper ornaments and designs, 154, 156, 157; loses his fortune and dies in poverty, 155; references, 147, 151, 156, 159, 163 ; example, small desk, Louis XVI., plate XLVIII, 144 Rocaille or Italian Rococo style, in vogue during Louis XV. period, 128 ; of Itahan origin, 136 ; popular at close of Regency period, 137 ; Jacques Caffieri its cleverest exponent, 138, 139; term suggestive of manners of Louis XV. period, 141 ; engraver Cochin adverse to, 144 ; ex- amples, decorative bronzes of Riesener's Great Bureau, 152; references, 143, 147, 151, 153 Rodez, work of transition period at, 37; choir-screen of cathe- dral, 77 Roentgen, David. See David of Luneville. Romanesque style, its absorption of the Gallic style, 10 ; refer- ence, 49 Rome, reference, 85 " Rooms," or leather hangings, description, 30 "Rosier des Guerres," reference, 49 Rotrou, Jean, French dramatic poet, bust by J.J. Caffieri, 139 189 FRENCH FURNITURE Rouen, Archbishop of (George of Amboise), woodwork of Chateau of Gaillon, 53 Rousselet, engraver, Gobelins Manufactory, 107 Rubens, reference, 90 JRtielle, or narrow passage, its use in seventeenth century, 96 St. Andoche de Saulieu, carved seats at, 18 ; carvings influenced by secondary considerations, 25 St. Andre, Marshal, magnificence of his furniture, 62 St. Aure, convent of, founded by St. Eloi, II St. Bavon, reference, 10 St. Benoit-sur-Loire, elbow-rests at, 25 St. Claude, Cathedral, examples of transition period at, 37 St. Cloud, Chateau de, Carlin and Riesener concerned in its furni- ture, 157 St. Denis, Abbey of, Abbot Suger's Latin inscription, quoted, 21 ; wainscot panels at, 53 ; dese- cration of its shrines, 92 ; example from Miserere Stall, plate VIII, 58 St. Eloi, employed by Clotaire to make his throne, 11 ; founds Convent of St. Aure, 1 1 ; tra- ditional arm-chair of Dagobert described, ib.; his artistic labours continued by the monks, 19 St. Eustache, Church of, Le Brun makes plans for, 106 St. Genevieve, Abbey of, cabinet of medals now in Bibliotheque Nationale, 136 St. Germain-en-Laye, reasons for supposing decorations were by French artists, 58 ; Le Brun makes plans for, 106 St. Igny, Jean de, engraver, refer- ence, 93 190 St. Jerome, engravings, reference, 54 St. Ouen, historian, reference, 10 St. Paul des Champs, Church of in the *' Culture Saint Eloi," II St. Peter's, Rome, Du Cerceau's designs for, 66 St. Pol de Leon, wood carvings, late examples of Gothic art, 37 St. Radegund, pulpit of, appa- rently work of sixth century, 13 St. Sauveur, Aix, wood-carving embodying Gothic and Italian styles at, 51 St. Sepulcre, stone screen in chapel of, 77 Salins, near Besangon, defensive works superintended by Sambin, 71 Salting collection, sixteenth-cen- tury armoire from Spitzer col- lection, 76 Sambin, Hugues, engravings by, 65 ; some account of his works and style, 70, 71 ; instrumental in causing revival of mediaeval period, 72 ; table and armoire in Museum of Besan9on, 72 : used painting as decoration, 74 ; fusion of style with that of Du Cerceau, 76 ; references, 75, 77, 83 ; examples, plates xiii, 70 ; XVI, 72 ; XVII, 74 ; xx, 76 Saunier, Claude Charles, artist, Louis XVI. period, 157 Savoy, Duke of, patron of Boulle, 119 Schmitz, Peter, craftsman. Empire period, 161 Schneider, Gaspard, craftsman, continues Empire style, i6i Schwerdfeger, chief author of jewel cabinet of Marie Antoi- nette, 161 ; plate Lix, 160 Screen, example in inventory of Moliere's effects, 124 INDEX Secretaire, Louis XV., South Ken- sington Museum, plaU xlvi, 140 Secular influences of fourteenth century, 24 Seibecq, Francisque, called De Carpi, Italian employed at Fon- tainebleau, 58 Seventeenth century, efforts of French artists in evolving Louis XIV. style during, 82 ; example, plate XXIX, go S6verin, an imitator of Boulle, 158 Sevres porcelain, round table in, formerly among Du Barry effects, 149 ; combined with mahogany by Riesener, 155 ; plates XLii, 136 ; xlvi, 140 ; XLVii, 140 Seyssel, Charles, on the lavishness of Louis XIL period, quoted, 61 Siam, King of, a patron of Boulle, 119 Sideboard, Francis I. opiate xv, 72 Sidonius ApoUinaris, describes fifth-century fete, 7 Simplification of middle class fur- niture during seventeenth cen- tury, 96 Singeries, so-called, of Gillot, 128, 133, 136 Sixteenth century, works with traces of Gothic style to be relegated to first part of, 55 ; Henri IL style, 63; examples, plates VIII, 58; IX, 62 ; X, 64; XI, 66 ; XII, 68 ; xiii, 70 ; xiv, 72 ; XVI, 72 ; XVII, 74 ; xviii, 74 ; XIX, 76 ; XX, 76 ; xxi, 76 ; XXII, 78 ; XXIII, 80 ; XXIV, 80. See Renaissance. Slodtz, The brothers, designers, Louis XV. period, followers of Cressent, 137 ; work suggestive of final evolution of century, 146 ; references, 140, 147 ; ex- ample, medal cabinet, Versailles, plate XLV, 140 Socles^ or pedestals, among Du Cerceau's designs, 67 Sofas, Louis XV., plate XL, 130 ; Louis XVL, plate l, 146 ; plate LI, 146 Soissons, historic vase of Clovis at, 10 Sommord, craftsman, contem- porary of Boulle, 117 Soufflot, Jacques Germain, accom- panies Fran9ois Poussin to Italy, 144 Soulages collection, dresser an example of composite styles of Du Cerceau and Sambin, 76 South Kensington Museum, dresser from Soulages collection, 76, yy ; pier-glass, seventeenth-cen- tury, 87 ; examples of varguenos, cabinets of Spanish origin, 88 ; bureau in Jones collection, 152 ; examples at, Louis XV. secre- taire, plate XLVI, 140 ; Louis XV. writing-table, plate xlvii, 141 ; Louis XVI. arm-chair, plate XLIX, 146 Spain, its painted and gilded leather hangings, 87 ; influence indirect, through Italy, 88 Spain, Isabella, Queen of, enter- tained by Catherine de Medici, 79 Spitzer collection, armoire, late sixteenth century, 76 Stabre, Laurent, Flemish deco- rator, employed by Henri IV. and Louis XIII., 84, 92 Stall, end offifteenth century, Paris Exhibition, 1900, plate iii, 46 Stokel, Joseph, craftsman, Em- pire period, 161 Styles, their evolution the result of great events in national his- tory, 3 Suger, Abbot, his inscription on doorway of St. Denis, 21 Sulpice, his mechanical tables, Louis XV. period, 141 191 FRENCH FURNITURE Sumptuary laws unsuccessful in checking luxury, 40 Sums paid for artistic furniture, 112, 113, 121-3, 132 Suzon river, its course regulated by Sambin, 70 Tables : Charlemagne's three wonderful, 12 ; example in Bardac collection, marvel of lightness and strength, 41 ; tables of Du Cerceau (Henri II.), described, 69 ; example by Sambin in Besangon Museum, 72, 73 ; mosaic, in Louvre, made for Richelieu, 92 ; Du Cerceau's square tables, 95 ; Caifieri's table owned by Metternich family, 140; in Sevres and French porcelain among Du Barry effects, 149, 150; example by Riesener at Trianon, Ver- sailles, 154; plates XVII, 74; XX, 76; xxxiv, 126; xxxvii, 126; XLII, 136; XLVII, 140 Table-covers, their original uses, 98 Taffetas made at Tours, 99 Talon, Avocat-General, presented with piece of German furniture, Tapestry curtains, reference, 42 hangings, fourteenth-century, some of the subjects, 30 Tarsia^ Italian mosaic marquetry, 51,88 Terborch, Gerard, Dutch painter, 94,98 Terrasson, fifteenth century huchier, 37 Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, reference, 9 Thermae of Diocletian, Du Cer- ceau's copies, 66 Thierry, King of the Franks, gives valuable vase to Clotaire, 10 Thomire, pupil of Gouthiere, Empire period, 157, 158, 161, 192 Thomire — contd. 163, 164 ; author of caryatides of Marie Antoinette's Jewel Cabinet, plate lix, i 60 Tixerandrie, Rue de la, Paris, manufacture of work in Chinese style at, 99, 130 Tortoiseshell plaques by BouUe, 86 Toul Cathedral, names of four- teenth-century carvers, 25 Toulouse, Bridge of Saint Subra begun by Bachelier, 77; door- way of Saint Saturnin, Bachelier its reputed sculptor, ib. Tours, part of Fontainebleau woodwork produced at, 58; celebrated for coarse taffetas, 99 ; references, 52, 93 Tours Museum, fifteenth-century chest at, 43 Trianon, table with symbols of geography and astronomy by Riesener at, 154 Tricoteuse de la Reine, by Rie- sener, 155 Troo, Loir-et-Cher, works of transition period at church of,37 Tuby, Giovanni Battista, sculptor, Gobelins Factory, 107, 114 Turners' work introduced into Du Cerceau's square tables, 95 ; reference, 98 Urfe, Claude d', builds Chdteau of La Bdtie en Forez, 57 Vallery, estate of Marshal St. Andre, 62 Valois, House of, references, 63, 79,80 Van der Meulens, Dutch painters. Gobelins Manufactory, 107 Vanloo, painting by, among Du Barry effects, 149 Van Ostade, Dutch painter, refer- ence, 94 Varin, engraver at the Louvre 108 INDEX Varquenos, cabinets from Spain, 88 Varguo, in Toledo, reference, 88 Vaux, Chdteau owned by Fouquet, 104 Vendome, works of transition period at Church of the Holy Trinity, 37 Venice, references, 54, 85 Vermeer, Dutch painter, refer- ence, 94 Vernisseur du Roi, Robert Martin so styled, 131 Versailles, decorations superin- tended by Le Brun, 106 ; con- soles there attributed to Le Pautres, 109 ; carved folding doors of great staircase attri- buted to Caffieri, 114; Oppen- ordt designs parquet floor for small gallery, 117; Slodtz's cabinet for medals formerly there, 138 ; sum paid to Caffieri for work in Chapel, 113; re- ferences, iig, 130, 132, 147; examples at, plates xxxi, 104 ; XL, 130; XLV, 140; L, 146; Lix, 160 Vesuvius, Mount, reference, 144 Viard, Philippot, fourteenth -cen- tury carver, 25 Villefranche, Carthusian monas- tery, work of transition period at, 37 Villers, Claude de, jeweller. Gobe- lins Manufactory, 107 Vinci, Leonardo da, visited by Francis L, 61 Vitry, Jacques, Bishop of, quoted, 40 Voisin, painter. Regency and Louis XV., period, 141 Voltaire, on Martin lacquer-work, quoted, 132 Vos, De, Flemish cabinets by, in Italian style, 91 " Voyage de Jeune Anacharsis en Grece," by Abb6 Barthelemy, reference, 145 Vriendt, De, surnamed Floris, Flemish cabinets by, 91 Wallace collection, Boulle's "four seasons," 118; commode by.Cressent, 131; Cressent's work in, 134; commode by Caffieri, 139 ; Carlin's work in, 158 ; examples. Commode, Regency period, Charles Cressent, plate xxxiii, 126 ; Louis XV. Com- mode, Jacques Caffieri, plate XLiii, 138 Watteau, Jean Antoine, refer- ences, 128, 133, 134, 136, 142, 149 Weisweiler, craftsman, Empire style, i6i ; example, small Desk, Louis XVL period, plate Lv, 152 Werner, Joseph, miniatures by, formerly part of cabinet by Cucci, 112 Winant, sculptor, collaborator with Riesener, 152 Winckelmann, J. J., on the Imita- tion of Greek Art, 145 Windsor Castle, armoires of BouUe at, 118 Writing-tables, plates xlii, 136; XLVii, 140 YvART, painter. Gobelins Manu- factory, 107 Printed by Ballantyne &> Co. Limited Tavistock Street, London 193 ^ 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED This book is 4^!© on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. JAN 6 1262 ■^rr JM 28 1963 MAR 2 fi 1 9 77 MAR 9 1963 DECS A Ml0'ffe$;. tm I? IAN3 0.038 FEB21196B W^R 1 5 1980 1/ (;0V2 8l96G JAN 30 1967 i ;:.-;;;ll 19 ^9 MAR 1 7 1969 MAR 2 1972 ( \PR2 ^9^3 LD 21-50m-8,'57 (,C8481sl0)476 N