 |
| Father |
Furniture can be sexy. Who would have thought. Also it can be gorgeous, exquistely made, magical and hardest for some to believe, a work of art.. Exhibitions of furniture are usually worthy, which is to say instructive and dull. This one is anything but.
“Extravagant Inventions: The PrincelyFurniture of the Roentgens,” now at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art is an
unexpected treat. The woods –sycamore, rosewood,
apple among them are warm and beautiful. The inlaid marquetry is as good as it
gets with perfectly inset flowers, cherubs, comedia dell’arte figures, historical
scenes and plenty else besides--let's not forget cows. But best
of all are the secrets.
Marie Antoinette and
Catherine the Great were patrons of the Roentgens. These desks and chests, chairs, cabinets and caskets all practical objects, are also princely toys. Turn a
gilded key in a door of a cabinet and it springs opens to reveal boxes that
open out to reveal many hidden drawers; the
sides of a desk springs open to reveal
slanting stands on which to rest heavy books like illuminated manuscripts and
on it goes with parts of the furniture sliding, jumping out, turning and springing..
 |
| Son |
 |
| Before |
The sixty pieces on
view all made by in the eighteenth century by
Abraham and his son
David Roentgen and their team at their workshop in Neuwied, German This is the largest show of Roentgen
furniture ever staged in the United States. Unprecedented loans have come from
private and public collections at home and abroad including six pieces never
before loaned by Berlin’s
Kuntsgewerbe Museum. Here, the use of videos doesn’t
seem merely an attempt to appear to be up to date technologically. It helps. As soon as I figure out how to add the vidoes to this post I will. For now go to the Met's website. They show several pieces being opened.. Alongside the
Roentgens’ sizeable “Automaton of Marie Antoinette” of a large, doll-sized
queen sitting at her dulcimer, is a video of what happens when the piece is wound
up. The full skirt of her gown hides the mechanism that directs beauty to turn her bewigged head as if bemused by the music she makes as she strikes the
keyboard . The lovely sounds fill the galleries providing just a touch of
eighteenth century atmosphere—a touch is quite enough. Often at exhibitions I
feel that paintings mean most when hung at home on the wall and that there is
always a loss when seeing them in public exhibitions. But here, displayed in
the museum the power as well as the spectacular attractiveness and craftsmanship
of Roentgen pieces shines out more than one any single one I've seen does when on show in a museum period room.
 |
| after |
Not surprisingly for a writer, my favorite is a writing desk designed by Abraham Roentgen. In fact, this loan from the Rijksmuseum, is encrusted with such fanciful, luscious inlay it probably made anything its
owner wrote seem feeble in comparison. A dozen woods from walnut to olive were
used, some of them stained. Tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory, gilded
bronze, brass, copper and silver were used for the inlays There are coats of
arms of the von Wallendorfs who commissioned the piece. There are also putti
and flowers, Charity and Justice makes appearances as do evocations of black
and white tiled rooms and-- at the side-- pastoral scenes with flute playing
farmer and munching cows.. Just about every part of this desk springs open to
reveal more drawers and niches; the base becomes a knee- rest for praying and the
top turns into a small altar.(The von Wallendorfs were Catholic.)
The exhibition
which took three years to organize, is the outgrowth of the passion for the
Roentgens which Met curator Wolfram Koeppe has had since his student days. I wrote a profile of Koeppe for 25 years of TEFAF published last March. He has learned huge amounts since his student days but has never lost his love for European works of art. Lucky us.
