Accession Nr.: 14443
Date of production:
first half of the 16th century
Place of production: Nagyszeben (Sibiu) (presumably)
Materials: ash veneer; iron bands; oak base
Techniques: inlay
Dimensions:
height: 195 cm
width: 98 cm
The door is panelled on both sides with ash sheets, which is divided by profiles into trigonal, rectangular and hexagonal shaped fields. In the middle of the lozenge shaped profiles there is geometrical intarsia. On the other side of the door, the rectangular profiles do not create lozenges. The lock of the door still shows characteristics of the Gothic style. Companion pieces can mostly be found in Southern German territories, namely Switzerland, Franconia and Swabia. A wardrobe of Thurgau, made in about 1550 and another one of Nuremberg, made in the middle of the 16th century, both in the collection of the Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt am Main, and a two-storey wardrobe with four doors dating from the second quarter of the 16th century, in the collection of the Ulm Museum der Stadt are examples of the same kind of decoration. The use of ash on a large surface for decorative purposes in one of the typical features of these pieces of furniture. (Ash veneering has been referred to as a Hungarian type of wood in the literature on the subject: „ungarische Esche”, „frene hongrois” etc.) The geometrical decoration of the front is common in all companion pieces. The „HS” initials are the mark of a younger contemporary of Peter Flötner, who mainly worked in Thurgau (Switzerland). The profiled division of large surfaces and the strict geometrical patterns are characteristic of his woodcuts between 1530 and 1540, and especially of the chair-stall, which he made in 1534 in Steingaden. Taking into consideration the close and continuous economic and cultural connections between the Saxon towns of Southern Germany, we can suppose that the stylistic influence of the „HS” master would almost immediately have been apparent on Saxon-Transylvanian pieces of furniture.

Literature

  • Semsey Balázs: Faszination Stadt. Die Urbanisierung Europas im Mittelalter und das Magdeburger Recht. Sandstein Verlag, Drezda, 2019. - Nr. II.165
  • Batári Ferenc, Vadászi Erzsébet: Bútorművészet a gótikától a biedermeierig. Iparművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 2000. - p. 30., Nr. 2.
  • Szerk.: Péter Márta: Reneszánsz és manierizmus. Az európai iparművészet korszakai. Iparművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1988. - Nr. 350. (Zlinszkyné Sternegg Mária)
  • Batári Ferenc: Európai bútorok a XV-XVII. században. Iparművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1966. - Nr. 14.
  • Zlinszkyné Sternegg Mária: Renaissance Intarsien im alten Ungarn. Budapest, 1966. - Nr. 15.