By
Gretchen Sawatzki
Renaissance Revival style furniture is the masculine counterpart to the feminine, French-inspired
Rococo Revival style of the mid 19th century. Instead of drawing from forms found in nature like the
Rococo Revival style before it,
Renaissance Revival takes design queues from the very unnatural, very square architectural world. True
Renaissance Revival style furniture features heavy rectilinear designs incorporating architectural-like moldings, heavy carvings, and even columns. The furniture style also imitates forms found in the
architectural orders of ancient Greece – the
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders.
Popular between 1860 and 1890 at the very height of the American
Victorian Period, the
Renaissance Revival style played into the social gender roles of the era. Where
Rococo Revival style furniture is delicate, light in form, and curvy like a woman's body,
Renaissance Revival style furniture is heavy, broad, and built on an often grandiose scale. It's no wonder that
Rococo Revival furniture was often selected for the most feminine of room within the
Victorian home, the parlor. And, while the woman of the home would converse with her guests on a
Louis XV style curvy settee, the man of the house would sleep in a bed fit for giants and dine a table even
Paul Bunyan would envy.
So, what's the easiest way to identify
Renaissance Revival style furniture? Here are five things to look for:
1). Oversized scale
2). Architectural moldings, cornices, pediments,
or columns
3). Flat, applied carvings, cartouches, or veneers
4). Dark heavy
wood (most often
walnut)
5). Square or rectilinear shape
Sources:
About.com
Buffalo History and Architecture
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks
Commission
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Wikipedia
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