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Artwork Details
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Title:Choir chair
Date:early 16th century (partly, and later)
Culture:Italian, Tuscany (Florence?)
Medium:Walnut, maple, poplar.
Dimensions:H. 169 cm, W. 98.5 cm, D. 52.4 cm
Classification:Woodwork-Furniture
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number:1975.1.1997
The impressive, thronelike seat is modeled after choir chairs that were independently conceived, rather than separated from choir stalls.(1) This type of single seat united with two finished sides may have been the centerpiece of a choir furnishing reserved for the abbot or head of the congregation during important gatherings. It is influenced by the famous pieces in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi(2) that were designed by Giuliano da Sangallo (1443 – 1516) about 1469, and other well-known choir stalls that had been on public display in Italian museums by the nineteenth century.(3) A similar chair was acquired in 1859 from the Minutoli Collection for the Royal Kunstkammer in Berlin and was later transferred to the Kunstgewerbemuseum.(4) Stiegel observes that both objects are related to an item formerly in Vienna that has been lost since World War II.(5)
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. 248-49.
NOTES: 1. Eberlein, Harold Donaldson. Interiors, Fireplaces and Furniture of the Italian Renaissance. New York, 1916, ill. p. 41; Comolli Sordelli, Angela. Il mobile antico dal XIV al XVII secolo. Milan, 1967, p. 61, ill. no. 3. 2. Schottmüller, Frida. Furniture and Interior Decoration of the Italian Renaissance. 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1928, pp. 71, 244, fig. 169; Gregori, Mina, Renato Ruotolo, and Luisa Bandera Gregori. Il mobile italiano: Dal Rinascimento agli anni trenta. I quaderni dell’antiquariato. Collana di arti decorative 14. Milan, 1981, ill. p. 6; Massinelli 1993, p. 138, pl. xviii. For other works, see Scantamburlo 2003, fig. 62. 3. Massinelli, Anna Maria. Il mobile toscano. Milan, 1993, p. 140, pl. xxi (on view in the Pinacoteca, Lucca, in the late nineteenth century). See also Tinti, Mario. Il mobilio fiorentino. Milan, 1928, p. 73, pl. xxxvi. 4. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, k 2496. A comparable chair to the one in Berlin was acquired by the Louvre, Paris, in 1881. Achim Stiegel, Berlin, email to the author, 16 April 2012. 5. Odom, William M. A History of Italian Furniture from the Fourteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries. 2 vols. Garden City, N.Y., 1918 – 19, vol. 1, fig. 92; Windisch-Graetz, Franz. Möbel Europas: Renaissance und Manierismus, vom 15. Jahrhundert bis in die erste Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Munich, 1983, p. 214, ill. no. 30; Achim Stiegel, Berlin, email to the author, 2011. I am grateful for this information.
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