As always, the transition was everywhere gradual. At first furniture retained its generally Renaissance lines with but few Baroque characteristics: Plate 105 shows adaptations of this type. Later, ornament became more aggressive, as illustrated in Plate 108. The Baroque style is by some purists considered a decadent influence, but when it did not run to extremes it produced results that the world could not well have spared.

PLATE 105. ITALIAN WALL OR SOFA TABLE, WALNUT.

Manufactured by Kittinger Co., Inc.. Buffalo. N. Y.

Length 54 in., Width 20 in., Height 30 in.

CROMWELL1AN DESK CHAIR. WALNUT.

Height 37 in., Width 17 in., Depth 15 in.

CROMWELLIAN DESK. WALNUT.

Height 46 in., Width 33 in, Depth 17 in.

In order to present a broad and untrammelled view of these movements periods have not until now been mentioned.

Italy at this time consisted of several small states - if the reader is seeking bewilderment let him dip into their political history - and so the architecture and furniture of the epoch are not called by the names of rulers but are roughly divided into the Early and High Renaissance, the latter being the fully developed style. The previously so-called "Late Renaissance" finds the much more appropriate term: the Baroque influence.

PLATE 108. FLEMISH END TABLE, WALNUT.

Top 20 x 20 in., Height 25 in.

ITALIAN ARM CHAIR, WALNUT, TAPESTRY COVERING.

Height 36 in., Width 27 in.

Manufactured by kittinger Co., Inc., Buffalo, N. Y.

We have already seen that although the basic idea of the Renaissance was, as the name itself implies, the rebirth of Classicism, that idea was not slavishly employed, and that many oriental elements, with which the Italians had grown thoroughly familiar through centuries of intercourse, were amalgamated with those of antiquity. These found an increasing use as the severity of the Early Renaissance gave way to elaboration on every hand. The natural consequence was that there remained little basic resemblance between the furniture of the fifteenth century and that of the seventeenth, and the in appropriateness of still terming as Renaissance a decoration in which the old spirit had ceased to be the impulse, the folly of attempting to fit the one nomenclature to two movements totally diverse in ideals, means employed, and results, the one Classic and the other emotional and Romantic, will now appear.

But in two respects, there was no great change - those of size and weight; and so important are these, that, notwithstanding many other variations, the pieces of furniture of the two impulses are oftener than not found agreeably to accompany each other, while those of later and lighter periods do not usually assimilate with either.

In England the epoch is divided into the Elizabethan and the Jacobean periods, the latter so called because it embraced the years from the beginning of the reign of James I till the end of that of James II. But other reigns and the Puritan Commonwealth intervened, and the latter portion of this epoch was under the Baroque influence. The chronology is as follows:-

PLATE 109. LATE JACOBEAN CONSOLE AND CHAIRS, QUEEN ANNE MIRROR.

Manufactured by Century Furniture Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Console, Top 21 x 54 in., Height 33 1/2 in. Arm chair, Width 24 in., Height 45 in. Side chair, Width 20 in., Height 38 in. Mirror. 49 x 24 1/2 in.

PLATE 110. LOUIS QUATORZE ARM CHAIR.

Manufactured by Century Furniture Co., GrandRapids.

Height 45 in., Width 27 in.

PLATE 111. HEXAGON TABLE AND CHAIR OF SOLID WALNUT.

An accompanying Arm chair is also made Table, Height 28 in., Top 34 in.

Manufactured by The Elgin A. Simons Co., Syracuse, N. Y.

PLATE 111. HALL SUITE IN WALNUT.

Console, Height 16 in., Top 53 x 16 in.

Mirror, 20 x 42 in.

Manufactured by The Elgin A. Simons Co., Syracuse. N. Y.

In France the Renaissance movement, introduced to some extent by his predecessors, was greatly developed by Francis I (1515-47) but classical influences did not prevail till the next reign, that of Henri II (1547-59). The Baroque influence was strongly evident under the reigns of Henri IV (1589-1610) and Louis XIII (1610-43) but was modified in a classical direction under Louis XIV (1643-1715).

It will be seen that it required about one hundred years for the Baroque movement to become dominant in England after its advent in Italy. The introduction of such movements always has an interesting cause. After the fall of Cromwell, when the monarchy was restored in the person of Charles II, there was a decided reaction from the hard and narrow Puritanism of the Commonwealth, and the pendulum swung very far indeed. Luxury, fashion, and lavish expenditure again became prevalent, foreign modes were avidly seized upon. Naturally these came from the Continent, including even Portugal - the King having married Catherine of Braganza in 1661. In all these countries the Baroque influence was active, and (though there had been some earlier manifestations) it now found a home in England to abide till the days of the Brothers Adam.

Now how shall the furniture of all countries under the Baroque influence be recognised? It was of many varieties, but in all of them the prevalence of curvilinear contours and ornament was notable. The cabriole (double-curved or serpentine) leg and much carved or shaped stretchers were often employed, but two of its most characteristic forms were the broken curve and the C curve. These curves were not slender and flowing, as in the subsequent Rococo style, but were short, thick, and heavy, and were what the writer has previously called "stopped" curves; that is to say, they were ended by whorls, or circular ornaments. The shell was also very prevalent as an adornment.