Italian, Northern Italy
Two Chairs with Pietre dure (Sedie da parata con pietre dure), mid 19th century
Painted and gilded pear wood, with lapis lazuli and various jaspers, 111.8 x 47 x 39 cm (44 x 18 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)
This pair of chairs is made of painted and gilded pear wood with lapis lazuli and various jaspers set into the splats and front aprons. The beveling around the stones is gilded. The center backs have carved arched crests that end in volutes. The stiles, legs and stretchers are all turned. The seats are upholstered in a burgundy and gold damask fabric.
Titian Room
Commentary
Examples of eclectic furniture made in the mid-nineteenth century, these chairs are based on northern European models of the seventeenth century. Their severity, reinforced by the ebonized pear wood, sets off the plaques of beautiful and semiprecious stones. Set into the splats and front aprons are pieces of lapis lazuli and red, green, and yellow jasper. The beveling around the stones is gilded to simulate metal mounts often given such stones in the Renaissance. Indeed, the chairs were probably made to display the pietre dure. The backs have arched crests that end in volutes. The stiles, legs, and stretchers are all turned.
Acquiring these chairs may have been an attempt on Isabella Gardner's part to represent, if only in token fashion, an important category of Italian art, pietre dure. There is only one other object in the museum inlaid in this fashion, a small ebony frame made in northern Europe in the seventeenth century (F25n11).
Acquiring these chairs may have been an attempt on Isabella Gardner's part to represent, if only in token fashion, an important category of Italian art, pietre dure. There is only one other object in the museum inlaid in this fashion, a small ebony frame made in northern Europe in the seventeenth century (F25n11).