SET OF FOUR "SAVONAROLE" SEATS Florence, late... Lot 22

SET OF FOUR "SAVONAROLE" SEATS Florence, late 15th - early 16th century Walnut H. 94-104 cm, W. 68 cm, D. 54,5-57,5 cm Mark on the back: in a medallion, monogram GB with a cross and a crown of thorns These four "Savonarola" type seats syncretize the technical and aesthetical virtuosity of the Renaissance artists. The backrest, armrests and runners in solid wood structure the seat and base composed of fine juxtaposed slats. The coat of arms on the backrests introduces a note of nobility into this suite with its refined decoration, judiciously distributed on all parts of each seat. The Savonarole chairs open and close with a chisel. Nine curved bars connect the armrest on each side to the opposite leg, to which they are attached by small pegs. The eighteen bars between them are articulated by means of a central round-headed trunnion. Three other pins connect the slim straight bars of the seat to each other and to the curved slats. On one side, the pin forms a hinge; on the other, it serves to lock the horizontal base. The bar of the backrest is also articulated to one of the armrests in order to keep the chair in an open position or, on the contrary, to allow its closing. Each backrest is enriched in its center with a coat of arms of various forms, carved in relief while rosettes cut in hollow animate the ends of the armrests. Bands of stylised foliage elegantly underline the lines of the seat and base. The design is identical to that of the chairs in Monselice Castle, where the claw motifs incised in the upper part of the armrests and on the legs accentuate the impression of vertical momentum (Fig. 1). Our chairs are distinguished by a more contoured cut-out of the backrest, armrests and glides. The heraldic decoration recalls the symbolic significance of these armchairs, whose shape is inspired by that of the curule chairs of Roman antiquity. The fascination exerted by these folding ceremonial chairs gave rise to various experiments, of which the sedia Savonarola is the culmination. It first appeared in Florence in the mid-1490s under the Dominican Savonarola. This type of seat was first used by scholars, by the intellectual elite of the Renaissance.