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Side Chair

A work made of mahogany, maple, and modern reproduction upholstery.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of mahogany, maple, and modern reproduction upholstery.

Date:

c. 1835

Artist:

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

About this artwork

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

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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