Dantesca Chair with Inlay Work, 16th century

Not on View

Medium

elm, with leather seat, velvet upholstery, and bone, horn, and boxwood inlay

Dimensions

overall: 94 x 68.6 x 45.1 cm (37 x 27 x 17 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.398

Artists / Makers

Italian 16th Century (artist)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Possibly Stefano Bardini [1836-1922], Florence.[1] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., New York, London, and Paris); sold 1924 to Joseph E. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, after purchase by funds of the Estate; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] The Widener collection records in NGA curatorial files note only Duveen Brothers as a previous owner. However, a chair that was once recorded as in the possession of Bardini may have been the NGA chair or its twin. William M. Odom (A History of Italian Furniture from the Fourteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries, Garden City, New York, 1918: 43-44, fig. 31) writes that the Bardini chair may have come from a Villa Machiavelli, which is not further identified. The Museo Bardini in Florence has a dantesca almost identical to the NGA chair and the one published by Odom (see Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, ed., Antiquariato, Enciclopedia delle arti decorative, Milan, 1981: 2:443).

Associated Names

Bardini, Stefano
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Widener, Joseph E.

Bibliography

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 17.