DOI issue:
No. 135 (May, 1908)
DOI article:Levetus, A. S.: On some old cupboards in Austrian collections
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28254#0223
Old Cupboards
FIG. 4.—SACRISTY CUPBOARD FROM A MONASTERY IN SOUTH TYROL (1500)
(Count Wilczek's Collection)
they gained in beauty, gradually becoming more
and more graceful, while every possible atten-
tion seems to have been directed towards their
artistic development. The decoration was, how-
ever, always in keeping with the purpose for which
the particular cupboard was intended, this purpose
also influencing the form and dimensions. Here
was no casual making of a pattern destined to
be used for, perhaps, hundreds of like ones, like
some factory-made wardrobe of the present day,
but each had its own individuality, being con-
structed, like Longfellow’s ship, “ straight and
worthy,” staunch and strong to laugh at the wear
and tear of life, each a perfect model finished with
nicest skill and art. Under conditions such as
these it hardly seems surprising that there should
be still in existence so many fine examples which
have defied the vicissitudes of centuries.
As the cupboards lost their massiveness the
squareness of their form also disappeared, additions
were made, columns and niches and balustrades
came into vogue, as also architraves and often an
“attic,” on which a statuette was placed on a
pedestal. Sometimes they had a configuration
like the frontage of a castle, with battlements,
embrasures, loopholes, and other features of a
mediaeval stronghold, as if intended to defy long
and severe usage.
There seems, however, from the earliest times
to have been two distinct classes of cupboards
widely different in construction and in ornamenta-
tion—those constructed by secular craftsmen for
domestic purposes and those made by the monks
for ecclesiastical use. Examples of both kinds
are given in the illustrations accompanying these
notes. These interesting specimens are in the
201
FIG. 4.—SACRISTY CUPBOARD FROM A MONASTERY IN SOUTH TYROL (1500)
(Count Wilczek's Collection)
they gained in beauty, gradually becoming more
and more graceful, while every possible atten-
tion seems to have been directed towards their
artistic development. The decoration was, how-
ever, always in keeping with the purpose for which
the particular cupboard was intended, this purpose
also influencing the form and dimensions. Here
was no casual making of a pattern destined to
be used for, perhaps, hundreds of like ones, like
some factory-made wardrobe of the present day,
but each had its own individuality, being con-
structed, like Longfellow’s ship, “ straight and
worthy,” staunch and strong to laugh at the wear
and tear of life, each a perfect model finished with
nicest skill and art. Under conditions such as
these it hardly seems surprising that there should
be still in existence so many fine examples which
have defied the vicissitudes of centuries.
As the cupboards lost their massiveness the
squareness of their form also disappeared, additions
were made, columns and niches and balustrades
came into vogue, as also architraves and often an
“attic,” on which a statuette was placed on a
pedestal. Sometimes they had a configuration
like the frontage of a castle, with battlements,
embrasures, loopholes, and other features of a
mediaeval stronghold, as if intended to defy long
and severe usage.
There seems, however, from the earliest times
to have been two distinct classes of cupboards
widely different in construction and in ornamenta-
tion—those constructed by secular craftsmen for
domestic purposes and those made by the monks
for ecclesiastical use. Examples of both kinds
are given in the illustrations accompanying these
notes. These interesting specimens are in the
201