Two Chairs with Pietre dure (Sedie da parata con pietre dure)
furniture maker
Unknown
Datemid 19th century
Place MadeNorthern Italy, Italy, Europe
MediumPainted and gilded pear wood, with lapis lazuli and various jaspers
Dimensions111.8 x 47 x 39 cm (44 x 18 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)
ClassificationsFurniture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberF26n8.1-2
eMuseum ID717839
EmbARK ObjectID16184
TMS Source ID4529
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryExamples 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).
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston: 1935), p. 227. (Venetian)
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), p. 264, no. 126.
Fausto Calderai and Alan Chong. Furnishing a Museum: Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection of Italian Furniture (Boston: 2011), p. 264, no. 126.
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the antique dealer Consiglio Richetti, Venice on 13 September 1897 for 160 lire.
