Gothic Furniture

Gothic furniture, prevalent in the 1500s and 1600s in Europe, drew its expression and style from Gothic architecture. The type of architecture which was most prevalent in this form was the Gothic Cathedral. As such, Gothic furniture has many cathedral elements to it.

Carvings and designs that represent arches and buttresses; the heavy, dark but intricately designed elements and patterns. Pointed arch designs are extremely common and almost all essential Gothic architectural designs and structures can be correspondingly found in Gothic style furniture.

The most renowned area for Gothic style furniture was France. In France, they produced highly detailed carvings and portrayals and of course, also had extremely high quality tapestries and fabrics on their furniture. Oak was the predominately used wood, although in France walnut would also be used. Both of these woods are strong, sturdy and give well to the darker elements of Gothic furniture and architecture.

As with Gothic architecture, Gothic furniture had a focus on intricate carvings, generally based on the surroundings. This meant various plants, vines and leaves carved and woven together. This also meant on occasion carvings of animals, both real and imaginary, and sometimes stunningly misshapen figures as well. But these artistic styles varied greatly from country to country and ranged from simple to overblown and extremely detailed.

With foliage and plant life having such a large influence on Gothic furniture, there were many different types of floral designs and elements used. Examples include the ball flower, which was a flower design consisting of three or four balls connected together with a hollow middle; the Tudor rose with five open petals and the dogtooth style with four pointy leaves connected in the center by those points.

While the designs were intricate, they were not finely detailed. Larger carvings and art worked better in wood such as oak, and so the designs were commonly thick and large as opposed to thin or narrow. Another major element to Gothic furniture was the tracery work.

Traceries were found in Gothic windows and were ornamental displays of interconnecting ribwork. Many of these designs were found in Gothic furniture including the trefoil, quatrefoil and so on. The linen fold style was also deployed in some areas, consisting of a design that mirrored the look of a vertically bunched together linen.

France not only had the best tapestry work but they also produced Gothic furniture that was detailed and decorated even down to the metal mountings. These provided extra space and different material to apply more finely detailed scenes and imagery. In many countries, including France, Gothic furniture was also painted or gilded.

The types of Gothic furniture are extremely varied from country to country but manage to bring in many of the same elements. Different details were used, such as the local plant and floral life, but the main themes and artistic styles were fairly consistent. Gothic furniture stems completely from Gothic architecture, and the cathedral’s influence over Gothic furniture is very easy to see.