Furniture
Encyclopedia : F : FU : FUR : Furniture
- : This is an article about items in a room. For information about the UK band, see Furniture (band).
Furniture is the collective term for the movable objects which may support the human body (seating furniture and beds), provide storage, or hold objects on horizontal surfaces above the ground. Storage furniture (which often makes use of doors, drawers, and shelves) is used to hold or contain smaller objects such as clothes, tools, books, and household goods. (See List of furniture types.)
Furniture can be a product of artistic design and is considered a form of decorative art. In addition to furniture's functional role, it can serve a symbolic or religious purpose. Domestic furniture works to create, in conjunction with furnishings such as clocks and lighting, comfortable and convenient interior spaces. Furniture can be made from many materials, including metal, plastic, and wood.
Cabinetry is the term for the skillset used in the building of furniture.
Contents
History of European furniture
Furniture has been a part of the human experience since the development of non-nomadic cultures. Evidence of furniture from antiquity survives in the form of paintings, such as the wall Murals discovered at Pompeii; sculpture, examples of which have been excavated in Egypt; and extant pieces, such as those found in tombs in Ghiordes, in modern day Turkey. The furniture of the Middle Ages was usually heavy, oak, and ornamented with carved designs. Along with the other arts, the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century marked a rebirth in design, often inspired by the Greco-Roman tradition. A similar explosion of design, and renaissance of culture in general, occured in Northern Europe, starting in the fifteenth century. The seventeenth century, in both both Southern and Northern Europe, was characterized by opulent, and often gilded Baroque designs that frequently incoporated a profusion of vegetal and scrolling ornament. Starting in the eighteenth century, furniture designs began to develop more rapidly. Although there were some styles that belonged primarily to one nation, such as Palladianism in Great Britain, others, such as the rococo and neoclassicism were perpetuated throughout Western Europe. The nineteenth is usually defined by concurrent revival styles, including gothic, neoclassicism, and rococo. The design reform of the late century, introduced the aesthetic movement and the arts and crafts movement. Art Nouveau was influenced by both of these movements. The first three quarters of the twentieth century are often seen as the march towards modernism. Art Deco, de stijl, Bauhaus, Weiner Werkstatte, and Vienna Secession designers all worked to some degree within the modernist idiom. Post modern design, intersecting the pop art movement, gained steam in the 1960s and 70s, promoted by designers such as the Italy-based Memphis movement.Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau in architecture and interior design eschewed the eclectic historicism of the Victorian era. Though Art Nouveau designers selected and "modernized" some of the more abstract elements of Rococo style, such as flame and shell textures, in place of the historically-derived and basically tectonic or realistic naturalistic ornament of high Victorian styles, Art Nouveau advocated the use of highly-stylized nature as the source of inspiration and expanded the "natural" repertoire to embrace seaweed, grasses, and insects. Correspondingly organic forms, curved lines, especially floral or vegetal, and the like, were used.Arts and Crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement originated in mid-ninteenth-century Britain, with art/designers such as John Ruskin and William Morris. It reached the height of its popularity in the last decades of the century both in Britain and in the United States. The Arts and Crafts ideology promoted the role of the craftsman, and look to gothic and Medeival styles to as an antidote to the fussy and eclectic look of Victorian era design.Art Deco
Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer, inlaid wood, sharkskin (shagreen), and zebraskin. It also features the bold use of zigzag and stepped forms, and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous curves of the Art Nouveau), chevron patterns, and the sunburst motif. Some of these motifs were ubiquitous — for example the sunburst motif was used in such varied contexts as a lady's shoe, a radiator grille, the auditorium of the Radio City Music Hall and the spire of the Chrysler Building.Bauhaus
One of the most important contributions of the Bauhaus movement is in the field of furniture design. The world famous and ubiquitous Cantilever chair by Dutch designer Mart Stam, using the tensile properties of steel, and the Wassily Chair designed by Marcel Breuer are two examples.Gjernes
A style following the methods of Liv Mildrid Gjernes is primarily popular in Scandinavia.Shaker furniture
A distinctive style called Shaker furniture was developed by the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (that is, the Shakers), a religious sect founded by Jane and James Wardley. They came to America from Manchester, England in 1774 led by Mother Ann Lee. Shaker furniture is widely admired for its simplicity, innovative joinery, quality, and functionality. Shaker designs were inspired by the ascetic religious beliefs of the Society.
- See also: List of furniture designers
Selected bibliography
- Gloag, John. A Short Dictionary of Furniture. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 1965.
- Hayward, Charles H., Antique or Fake?: The Making of Old Furniture. London: Evans Brothers, 1971.
See also
- Appliances
- Decorative art
- *History of decorative arts
- *Study of decorative arts
- Furnishings
- Grand Rapids, Michigan, Furniture City
- Self-assembly furniture
External links
- [Antique furniture articles] at the Harp Gallery.
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