Chair

Rococo chair. This chair is a Rococo piece of furniture. The Rococo style, which began in France, where it was named after the reigning King Louis XV, spread throughout Europe. In Austria and the territories influenced by the Habsburg dynasty, Rococo experienced its greatest flowering during the reign of Maria Theresa (1717–1780), empress from 1745 on. The central European rococo style is known as the Maria-Theresian style after the empress. Unlike French furniture of the period, Central European furniture is distinguished by its more traditional, still Baroque form. The characteristic curves and wood carved ornaments, blurring the legibility of construction in French Rococo furniture, are more restrained in the Austrian variety. This is particularly evident in the chair presented here, which has a backward leaning backrest, shaped in one plane. The Rococo ornaments do not distort the furniture frame, concentrating on the backrest arms, the front seat rail and the curve of the S-shaped, so-called cabriole legs ending in a scroll at the bottom. During the Rococo period, furniture used for seating was comfortable and designed for long use. Full or partial upholstery added to the comfort. In the chair presented here it was replaced later, together with the fabric, by a spring (on the seat), used since the 1820s. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967