Side chair (sgabello a dorsale)

The wealth of ornamental details applied to this chair type emulated late Mannerist works from the Veneto and Upper Italy that made such sgabelli a decorative statement of the patron’s affluent position. The present models closely follow a pair in the Metropolitan Museum that was formerly in the collection of Count Contini Bonacossi in Florence (see Fig. 184.1).(1) Despite the use of insect-damaged wood, the true age of the objects — from the late nineteenth century — is readily apparent. This conclusion is supported by certain technical details; for example, the back is attached with metal screws, and the seat with modern nails. These methods are sometimes used to restabilize older pieces of furniture but are employed too consistently here to attest to such a function. Authentic sixteenth-century sgabelli, as well as those in the Renaissance style, were greatly desired collector’s items. Moreover, some of the latter were effectively used as stage decor in theaters to evoke the historical period.(2) The firms of Alois U beracher in Bolzano and Fratelli Mora in Milan offered a wide variety of highly attractive objects in this mode.(3)

Catalogue entry from: Wolfram Koeppe. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 246-48.


NOTES:
1. Metropolitan Museum, 63.161.1, 2 (ex coll. Count Contini Bonacossi, Florence, by 1951). This pair of sgabelli documents the tradition of updating the coat of arms when ownership changed. The present arms relate to the marriage of Count Pietro Leopoldo Galli-Tassi to Elisabetta, daughter of Antonio Ganucci, on 19 September 1790 (see the note by Olga Raggio, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts departmental file, The Metropolitan Museum of Art). At that time such “enaissance”chairs were regarded as family heirlooms and were highly appreciated. See Hunter, George Leland. Italian Furniture and Interiors. 2 vols. 2nd ed. New York, 1920, vol. 2, pl. 102 (works in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London); Schottmüller, Frida. Furniture and Interior Decoration of the Italian Renaissance. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1928, pp. 171 –73.
2. Notably, Aesthetic Movement artists such as E. W. Godwin concerned themselves with the importance of Italian Renaissance furniture. See Baldwin, Fanny. 1999 “E. W. Godwin and Design for the Theater.” In E. W. Godwin: Aesthetic Movement Architect and Designer, pp. 313 – 51. Exhibition, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, 17 November 1999 – 27 February 2000. Catalogue edited by Susan Weber Soros. New York, 1999, pp. 317 –18, fig. 12-4, which shows sgabelli, cassone, casket, and table designs in that style.
3. See Renaissance-style furniture of extraordinary quality in Nagel, Gert. Möbel. 2nd ed. Battenberg-Antiquitaten-Kataloge. Munich, 1979, p. 18; Paolini, Claudio, Alessandra Ponte, and Ornella Selvafolta. Il bello “ritrovato”: Gusto, ambienti, mobili dell’Ottocento. Novara, 1990, p. 466; Koeppe, Wolfram. Die Lemmers-Danforth-Sammlung Wetzlar: Europäische Wohnkultur aus Renaissance und Barock. Heidelberg, 1992, p. 76, no. M9a, b.

Robert Lehman, New York