Set of Four Armchairs (Poltrone da parata)
furniture maker
Unknown
Dateearly 18th century
Place MadePiedmont or Liguria, Italy, Europe
MediumWalnut
Dimensions119.5 x 66.5 x 46 cm (47 1/16 x 26 3/16 x 18 1/8 in.)
ClassificationsFurniture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberF26w12.1-4
eMuseum ID717849
EmbARK ObjectID16181
TMS Source ID4526
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryThese chairs have fluted baluster legs set between blocks, the lower ones carved and set on turned top, or troupie, feet. They are connected to the simpler rear legs with an H-shaped stretcher carved in an elegant undulating form known as osso di morto (literally translated, the bones of the dead). Curved arms terminate in volutes carved with flowers. The supports are smaller mirror images of the baluster legs. The basic form of the chair was common in the seventeenth century, but the design of the arms indicates that the model was given variations in the early eighteenth century. The left arm of F25w12.3 is a replacement of the original. Both arms on F26w2.2 have been remade in pine.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 218. (Italian)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), p. 254, no. 116.
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), p. 254, no. 116.
ProvenanceNotesPerhaps purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner’s husband, John L. Gardner, Jr. (1837–1898), from the antique dealer Antonio Settini, Venice on 26 September 1897 for 160 lire (for set of four chairs).
