The Renaissance influence - Rome and Naples - Roman mosaic - Florentine work - Marble mosaic, pietra dura, marble in "set" patterns - Venetian influence and work - Venetian glass, carving and gilding, figure work and methods of enrichment - Milanese cabinet work and inlay - Ebony and ivory furniture, Certosinawork - LaCertosa di Pavia - The influence of Pompeii on French and English design - Marqueterie furniture - General character of Italian furniture - Methods of gilding - Reproductions of the past twenty years - Italian Exhibitions.

IN the chapter on furniture of the Renaissance it has been shown how, towards the end of the fifteenth century, a radical change came over Italian design, subsequently influencing in turn the designers and manufacturers of every European country, and I have attempted, in the case of French, Flemish, and English furniture, to give some description of the way in which each country adopted this new force from Italy, and then afterwards developed its own traditions under the influences of local personalities and special circumstances.

The present short chapter will deal more in detail with the furniture of Italy itself, and in doing so it should be borne in mind that, although in the earlier centuries for Italy one might almost write Rome, this is by no means the case with the Italy of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and subsequent centuries.

The Gothic taste predominant in Germany, England and France, until it was gradually superseded by the Renaissance, was never a Roman style, although in other parts of Italy it reigned supreme in the carved-wood furnishings of cathedrals and churches, and also in the very limited furniture of the palace.