Troubadour Style Carved Walnut Armchair

Evocative of the romantic sensibility of the 19th century, this solid walnut armchair is part of the historicist movement of the Troubadour style, which draws its inspiration from the medieval and Gothic imagination. It has an X-shaped structure, called “savonarola”, borrowed from the seats of the Italian Renaissance, typical of the neo-Gothic aesthetic cultivated by the cabinetmakers of the July Monarchy and the Second Empire. The rectangular and vertical backrest is decorated at the top with an openwork frieze with a trefoil motif and stylized pinnacles evoking the architectural crests of Gothic cathedrals. It is upholstered in crimson velvet, enriched with star-shaped nails, also repeated for the seat. The richly carved armrests are particularly noteworthy: each rests on a grotesque figure representing a crouching character with a mocking and caricatured expression, in the tradition of “sotties” or medieval gargoyles. This type of motif, taken from a fantastic bestiary, testifies to the 19th-century taste for popular and satirical medieval references, rehabilitated through the Romantic prism. The sides of the seat are decorated with openwork motifs with Gothic interlacing, sculpted with a beautiful mastery of relief and a finesse of chiseling. The whole rests on crossed curved legs, giving the piece an architectural and solemn silhouette, evoking both liturgical furniture and ceremonial seats. The Troubadour style is distinguished by a search for the picturesque and nostalgia for the feudal past. This armchair is an excellent illustration: architectural forms, fantastic bestiary, imposing but decorative structure, and noble materials. It is not a faithful archaeological reproduction, but a romantic and theatrical interpretation of the Middle Ages, typical of French decorative arts around 1850–1880.