Object details
Accession number
F4w1.3
Primary Creator
Italian, Central Italy
Full title
Sacristy Bench (Panche da sacrestia)
Creation Date
early 17th century
Provenance
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection by 1902.
Dimensions
204 x 383 x 45.7 cm (80 5/16 x 150 13/16 x 18 in.)
Display Media
Walnut
Dimension Notes
Sections in the North Cloister: 204 cm x 383 cm x 45.7 cm (80 5/16 in. x 150 13/16 in. x 18 in.)
Sections on the east wall: 222 cm x 180 cm x 45.7 cm (87 3/8 in. x 70 7/8 in. x 18 in.)
Sections on the west wall: 226 cm x 437 cm x 45.7 cm (89 in. x 172 1/16 in. x 18 in.)
Web Commentary
These high-back benches, carved in walnut, were probably made for a sacristy, the room in a church where the priest prepares for a service. Isabella divided them into five sections and arranged them in the Main Entrance Passage and North Cloister.
Permanent Gallery Location
Main Entrance Passage and Lobby
Bibliography
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 3. (as "Old wooden seats"; Italian)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), pp. 41, 64. (16th century)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston, 2011), pp. 68-69, no. 15. (as Central Italian, early 17th century)
Rights and reproductions
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