These four, open-sided matching Italian chairs are made of gilded wood. The seats and backs are square, padded and upholstered on the back, arms and seat with a rich red damask fabric with a formal floral design. They have sloping curved arms with rounded ends. The vertical apron which joins the seat to the legs is a gilded concave with a repeating fluted motif running vertically around the four sides with each corner meeting in a decorative stamped block. The square straight legs diminish in thickness as they approach the short rounded foot.
Italian, Veneto
Set of Four Armchairs (Poltrone),
late 18th century
Gilded wood
,
88.9 x 61 x 53.3 cm (35 x 24 x 21 in.)
Object details
Accession number
F16n1.1-4
Primary Creator
Italian, Veneto
Full title
Set of Four Armchairs (Poltrone)
Creation Date
late 18th century
Provenance
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection by 1900.
Dimensions
88.9 x 61 x 53.3 cm (35 x 24 x 21 in.)
Display Media
Gilded wood
Web Commentary
This set of four gilded armchairs were made in the Veneto region of Italy in the late 18th century. Originally painted a brilliant robin's egg blue and trimmed in gold, they have been subsequently re-gilded four separate times.
Permanent Gallery Location
Raphael Room
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), pp. 110-11.
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston, 2011), p. 133, no. 47.
Rights and reproductions
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This set of four gilded armchairs were made in the Veneto region of Italy in the late 18th century. Originally painted a brilliant robin's egg blue and trimmed in gold, they have been subsequently re-gilded four separate times.