Object details
Accession number
F26w2.1-2
Primary Creator
Italian, Emilia
Full title
Two Armchairs (Poltrone da parata)
Creation Date
mid 18th century
Provenance
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection by 1903.
Display Media
Walnut with embroidered upholstery
Dimension Notes
F26w2.1: 113 x 69 x 56 cm (44 1/2 x 27 3/16 x 22 1/16 in.)
F26w2.2: 114 x 66 x 56.7 cm (44 7/8 x 26 x 22 5/16 in.)
Web Commentary
This type of armchair remains heavily dependent on late-seventeenth-century designs, but the graceful curve of the arm supports and the swelling of the front legs indicate a date in the middle of the eighteenth century. The cabriole legs of the chairs, which expand grandly at the top, are attached to simple stiles by subtly shaped and molded H-stretchers. The padded arms are supported by playful s-shaped supports. Both arms of F26w2.2 were replaced at the end of the nineteeth century, while the other chair has a restored arm.
Permanent Gallery Location
Titian Room
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 214. (Italian)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), p. 258, no. 119. (as possibly from Emilia)
Rights and reproductions
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