11: Western European Furniture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

The display of Western European furniture in the open repository begins with items from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. There are several armchairs with high walnut backs and lifting seats. Such chairs were used by the master of a household in the high Middle Ages and were placed either by the bed or in the centre of the table. They were decorated with linenfold ornament and Gothic tracery. Some of the relatively small folding chairs can also be dated to the mediaeval period. Very little furniture has survived from that time. The furniture of the Reniassance period is represented with far greater variety. Changes of lifestyle demanded that the Italian palazzi be luxuriously furnished. Craftsmen developed the curule chair - a folding seat with an X-shape. No less common were small scabello chairs with carved backs and polygonal seats. A particular feature of this period were the chests known as cassoni. They were decorated in various manners - carving, inlay work, painting - and placed along the walls. They were used for storing clothing, utensils and a bride's dowry. A new type of furniture appeared: the cassapanca - a chest with a back turning it into a bench. In the Renaissance seating, chests and caskets were frequently decorated with certosina, inlaid geometrical ornament made with pieces of bone, mother of pearl and ebony. Furniture made in France and Germany in this period has its own highly distinctive features. A French caquetoire chair illustrates the work of the Fontainebleau school, while some small chairs with carved backs that have an opening in their middles are examples of German furniture.