Studio: international art (53.1911)

Old Danish Carved Furniture

FIG. 20. CHAIR FROM SEALAND. DATED 1822

been the strong point of the peasant craft, and for
this reason alone it would be difficult for its
followers to imitate the baroque. It must also be
remembered that the High Renaissance, prevalent
in the country's happiest and richest period, had
made its way into the more humble strata of the
nation, putting its stamp upon the whole culture of
the Danish peasantry, and that it gave them far
more serviceable motifs. It could inspire good
and harmonious furniture (tables and chairs,
Figs. 12, 15, 16) and more especially one of its orna-
mental motifs was as if made for the peasant
carver. The flat and simple coffer ornamen-
tation, to which reference has already been made,
is on the face of it admirably suited for oak;
it is easy to learn and easy to carve, because
its geometrical fundamental lines, the square
jewel and the circled rosettes, can be varied
ad infinitum, without taxing to excess either the
inventive power or the technical skill of the crafts-
208

man. It gained a particularly firm footing in
Sleswick, but in addition to the cupboards from
North Jutland already mentioned, one finds in
Denmark proper a number of less important
articles, small cabinets, boxes and mangling boards,
which are ornamented with home-made coffer-
work. Such home-slojd articles were made as late
as the year 1700, and even later, and it seems to be
the coffer-work of the High Renaissance which
inspired the Danish peasantry with their liking for
the carver's craft. The peasant craft, however, did
not confine itself to these motifs. In Denmark, or
elsewhere, they borrowed from other sources, while
they continued to hold in reverence most ancient
motifs. The Renaissance appears to have called
forth amongst the Danish peasantry a second
bloom of the notch (the " Karve") style, the
ancestry of which hails from remote ages, but which

FIG. 21. THREE-LEGGED CHAIR FROM SOUTH FUHNEN,
DATE ABOUT iSoO