Set of Four Armchairs and Settee
Royal Savonnerie Manufactory, Chaillot Workshops
These chairs belong to a suite that includes a settee (also in the CMA’s collection) and a tapestry made for a count and countess to mark their wedding in 1717. Furniture of this scale was usually placed against the wall in grand reception halls, more as a display of wealth than for use. Upholstered in Savonnerie tapestries, this suite was among the most treasured and expensive example anyone could own and was typically reserved for royalty. To add decorative and intellectual interest to the textiles, weavers incorporated symbols depicting various stories from the Fables of Jean de La Fonta...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Dimensions
- overall: height 1.2 m, width 2.013 m, depth 0.559 m
- Origin
- France, 18th century
- Department
- Decorative Art and Design
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- John L. Severance Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
12 tags
Subject Matter
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Flora Visual · 99%
Flowers, leafy branches, floral baskets, and garlands densely cover the back, seat, arms, and front upholstery.
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Animals Visual · 96%
The central pictorial textile scene visibly includes a deer and several birds among trees and flowering plants.
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Narrative Both · 80%
The upholstery contains a distinct representational animal scene, while the catalog describes textile imagery depicting stories from La Fontaine’s Fables.
Visual Qualities
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Highly Ornamented Visual · 99%
The carved frame, scrolling motifs, floral baskets, cartouches, and densely patterned upholstery create an exceptionally elaborate appearance.
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Curvilinear Forms Visual · 97%
The arms, carved stretchers, scrolls, tendrils, and borders are dominated by rounded and sweeping contours.
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Pastel Colors Visual · 92%
The upholstery uses a pale, muted palette of sage blue-green, cream, tan, salmon pink, and dark green.
Materials
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Natural Fibers Metadata · 99%
The catalog specifies wool and hemp for the Savonnerie upholstery; these are natural fibers, although the fibers themselves cannot be verified from the photograph.
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Wood Both · 99%
The exposed legs and long serpentine stretchers are visibly carved wood, matching the catalog medium of carved wood.
Furniture and Lighting
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Sofa Both · 99%
The image clearly shows a long upholstered settee, and the catalog title identifies the work as including a settee.
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Upholstered Furniture Both · 99%
The furnishing has an upholstered body and carved wooden frame; the catalog classifies the work as furniture and woodwork.
Textiles
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Textile Arts Both · 96%
The upholstery is visibly a woven or piled textile, and the catalog identifies it as Savonnerie knotted-pile upholstery.
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Use of Fabric Both · 98%
Fabric-like upholstery visibly covers the furnishing, and the catalog specifies wool and hemp upholstery.
Source & rights
Royal Savonnerie Manufactory, Chaillot Workshops (French, est. 1627). Set of Four Armchairs and Settee. Cleveland Museum of Art.