Side Chair

Applied Arts of Europe

c. 1835

Italy, Turin
Designed by Filippo Pelagio Palagi (Italian, 1775–1860)
Made by Moncalvo (Gabrielle Cappello) and Carlo Chivasse

In 1832 the painter Filippo Pelagio Palagi was appointed director of the Academy of Design in Turin, Italy, by Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia, who also commissioned Palagi to redecorate a royal residence, Palazzo Racconigi. Palagi was responsible for the interior design, including the walls, ceilings, mantels and doorways, and also for the palace furniture, including a suite of six side chairs, four armchairs, and two sofas. The Art Institute’s side chair comes from this set.

Palagi used late-Neoclassical motifs in original ways on this furniture. The crest of the chair rail is adorned with three-dimensional carving of palmettes and lotuses, inspired by natural forms but arranged in such a way as to give an almost military rigor to the design. The inlaid friezes below repeat the palmette motif and also incorporate sinuous vines and tendrils. Thanks to the survival of the original dark blue and white upholstery on several of the pieces and the discovery of a panel of the original fabric in the Musée des Tissus (Museum of Fabrics) in Lyons, France, the original upholstery is reproduced here. The fabric on the seat shows a lyre flanked by swans, while the fabric on the chair back displays a large rosette framed by a border of leaves—all motifs that have time-honored associations with beauty, poetry, and classical culture.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Artist: Filipo Pelagio Palagi (Designer)
Title: Side Chair
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1830–1840
Medium: Mahogany, maple, and modern reproduction upholstery
Dimensions: 100.7 × 53.4 × 56.6 cm (39 5/8 × 21 × 22 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Antiquarian Society through Jessie Spaulding Landon, Mrs. J. T. Pirie, Mrs. Arthur S. Bowes, and Mrs. Clive S. Runnells
Reference Number: 1987.179.1
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/109931/manifest.json

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.