gardner museum
so yesterday i took myself on the self-guided tour of the gardner museum as was my homework for my architectural and furniture history class. i was asked a bunch of questions about pieces of furniture there- dating them, guessing at what country they came from, giving proper names, etc. it was a really amazing way to go around the museum. i ended up looking at entirely different pieces than i usually do. and my head is full of so much information about this stuff now.
it can make all of the difference when you *know* what you're looking at. like at one point i was face to face with a mid? italian renaissance cassapanca which is a bench/couch piece with storage under the seat that is often raised up on a dias (platform) and it dawned on me- this piece was made somewhere between 1500 and 1550. i'd seen a bunch in grainy black and white photocopies but there it was. i could've touched the dias if i didn't know i'd set of a dozen of alarms.
i found an elizabethan center table and saw that pastiglia (molded gesso) does kinda look soft like molded paste even when it's artfully crafted and then gilded.
i found some chairs that were maybe english instead of dutch cause even though the dutch were the weirdos who started putting double stretchers (supports between the legs) on chairs, they usually did double stretchers all the way around & the chairs i found had double stretchers only in front. the english learned about the renaissance from the dutch/flemish since henry viii's breaking with the roman catholic church cut them off from italy so english renaissance looks dutch/flemish-ish. (hence double stretchers in front but not all around might be english vs. dutch.)
edit: corrected: henry
it can make all of the difference when you *know* what you're looking at. like at one point i was face to face with a mid? italian renaissance cassapanca which is a bench/couch piece with storage under the seat that is often raised up on a dias (platform) and it dawned on me- this piece was made somewhere between 1500 and 1550. i'd seen a bunch in grainy black and white photocopies but there it was. i could've touched the dias if i didn't know i'd set of a dozen of alarms.
i found an elizabethan center table and saw that pastiglia (molded gesso) does kinda look soft like molded paste even when it's artfully crafted and then gilded.
i found some chairs that were maybe english instead of dutch cause even though the dutch were the weirdos who started putting double stretchers (supports between the legs) on chairs, they usually did double stretchers all the way around & the chairs i found had double stretchers only in front. the english learned about the renaissance from the dutch/flemish since henry viii's breaking with the roman catholic church cut them off from italy so english renaissance looks dutch/flemish-ish. (hence double stretchers in front but not all around might be english vs. dutch.)
edit: corrected: henry