November, 1917 
29 
Fig. 8. The dominance of curvilinear designs analogous to the 
Queen Anne-Early Georgian forms of English and American 
furniture is shown in this walnut Italian settee of c. 1730 
Fig. 9. Closely akin to the square backed chairs on the opposite 
page is this triple chair back settee, polychrome painted and parcel 
gilt . It is characteristic of the late 18th Century work 
analogue in the Queen Anne-Early Georgian 
forms so familiar in English and American 
furniture of the first forty years of the 18th 
Century. But whereas English and American 
cabriole legged seating furniture of this date 
was first of walnut and then of mahogany or 
(in England) adorned with marquetry or lac¬ 
quered, in Italy walnut maintained its vogue, 
with comparatively limited use 
of mahogany; and polychrome 
painted decoration was popu¬ 
lar. The Italian carved and 
molded walnut chairs (Fig. 1) 
and settees of the first half of 
the 18th Century, however, ex¬ 
hibited not a little strongly 
national individuality in minor 
details of contour and sub¬ 
sidiary items of decorative de¬ 
tail. To the fore part of the 
18th Century also belongs the 
garden bench (Fig. 3), which 
echoes in its own local way the 
influences shown in contempo¬ 
rary England, where Kent and 
his fellow architects were de¬ 
voting much attention to the de¬ 
signing of furniture of archi¬ 
tectonic stamp. Even here we 
find the mellow lines and re¬ 
fined modeling just alluded to. 
Again, in the armchair (Fig. 
2) there is evidence of the same carefully con¬ 
sidered lines and subtle molding—-surely 
enough to refute the prejudiced assertion that 
“there was no 18th Century Italian furniture, 
only rubbish.” 
So much has already been said of the poly¬ 
chrome painted wall furniture that it will suf¬ 
fice to note, with reference to the polychrome 
Fig. 10. There is 
obvious kinship be¬ 
tween this walnut 
chair and some of 
Hepplewhite’s work 
chairs of the first half of the 18th Century, 
that the contour was substantially the same as 
that of contemporary walnut chairs, though 
often simplified in details; that the body color 
was frequently light and brilliant, the Vene¬ 
tians showing a preference for light hues while 
the Romans inclined to deeper values; and, 
finally, that the multi-colored decoration usual¬ 
ly consisted of floral motifs or 
else of Chinese devices, rend¬ 
ered with peculiarly national 
interpretation. 
With the middle and latter 
part of the century we come 
to a collection of types that 
pretty accurately echoed the 
styles in successive favor in 
England and France, though 
always with an unmistakable 
Italian quality of rotundity 
and mellowness. For example, 
Fig. 10 shows obvious consan¬ 
guinity with some of Hepple¬ 
white’s “shelf-back” creations, 
but the Italian craftsman has 
impressed upon it his own in¬ 
dividuality by altering the 
measurements, by the design of 
the splat and by the abruptly 
tapered fluted legs. So like¬ 
wise, does the armchair of 
(Continued on page 78) 
Fig. 11. Italian 
manipulation has 
not lessened the 
worth of this arm¬ 
chair of early Louis 
XVI provenence 
Fig. 12. From the 
late 18th Century is 
a painted chair with 
bluish white ground, 
dark blue striping 
and vermilion 
Fig. 13. The body is an old 
huffish cream tone, xvhile the 
decorations are in black and 
Tuscan red 
Fig. 14. Delightfidly refined 
playfulness is in the twin 
rows of cypress trees, a clever 
bit of carved perspective 
Fig. 15. A close inspection 
reveals how well this design 
lends itself to the original 
polychrome treatment 
Fig. 16. The perforations on 
the back of this late 18th 
Century peasant piece adapted 
it to painted decoration 
