Furniture

Chairs

General features

The features of the Cretan chair are:

The same dimensions are used throughout Crete with minor variations:

· Seat 39-41 cm wide by 39-42 cm long.

· Seat height 37-40 cm.

· Height of back uprights about 90 cm.

· Inclination of back: 12 cm between the top of the back upright and its vertical section.

· Leg cross-section 4×4 cm.

Chairs are made of the following materials : walnut, black mulberry, maple and more rarely cypress wood. The furniture is neither painted nor varnished. Over time, black mulberry wood, preferred due to its durability, becomes a beautiful dark chestnut colour. The parts of the chair are joined with dowels, struts and glue.

Decorative Typology

The typological classification of the Cretan chair according to the various decorative elements is complicated, because the items discovered belong to a period of declining traditions, together with objects made by “amateurs” who distorted the traditional style.

For this reason we choose elements that are:

The finials on the back uprights

The symbolic figure of the double-headed eagle

The famous double-headed eagle was the emblem (or logo, as we might say today) of the Roman Empire. After the separation of the Empire into East and West in the 4th century AD, the symbol came to be used exclusively by the Eastern Imperium and, in later centuries, by Bulgarian and Southern Slav tribes (10th-12th c.) and eventually the Russians in the 17th century.

The Byzantine noble families who settled in Crete in the 11th century brought with them their national symbols, the chief of which was the double-headed eagle .

The symbol is placed on the finials of the back uprights of chairs and armchairs intended for persons of note. It takes the form of a symbolic eagle’s head with a curved beak, an impression reinforced by the imitation feathers on the “pyramid” of the finial. This form is carved using a curved gouge and is found only in Crete.

The diamond

The carved diamond with vertical grooves is relatively rare, but it is found in depictions of old Byzantine furniture. Therefore this decoration is proof of the Byzantine origin of Cretan furniture.

The pilos (mitre)

A mitre-shaped finial is sometimes found at the top of back uprights. It too is also seen in depictions of Byzantine furniture.

Decoration Of The Back Uprights And Front Legs

Curved gouges

This type of decoration, commonly found on the chair back and more rarely on the outer sides, gives the impression of eagle feathers.

Parallel fluting

The grooves are carved with a curved gouger or a special plane. They are believed to be a later form of decoration, perhaps dating from the 17th century.

Stamped designs

Stamped circular designs are found on Cretan furniture and on the rims of large pots such as pithoi. The artisan makes the stamp out of a metal pipe which he notches with a metal file. He then punches the piece of furniture with the notched pipe, creating a round, daisy-like decoration.

Carved decoration

This relatively rare form of decoration is carved with a sharp knife or chisel. The designs used are always geometrical.

Carved rope pattern

This is a rich carving whose corners are framed by a rope pattern. It is rare and requires woodworking skills.

The Chair Back And Its Decoration

Twin horizontal rectangular boards

The chair back is usually made of two horizontal rectangular boards with a gap between them about as wide as each board. The upper board is placed just below the finial decoration of the back uprights, which protrude 10-13 cm or more, giving the chair a stately look. In rare cases chairs with three back boards are found, but these are in 20th-century styles.

Triangular upper boards

About 30% of the upper boards of Cretan chair backs have a wide-angled triangular point, a decorative feature that stresses the overall stateliness of the chair. This feature is also used as a window pediment in all Cretan architecture from the mid-16th to the mid-18th century. It is probably a Venetian-inspired element, which is also found in other former Venetian possessions in Greece, such as the Ionian Islands and parts of the Aegean.

Twin touching horizontal fretwork boards

This fairly common type of decoration can produce an impressive visual effect with very simple techniques. It is used by furniture-makers of the 19th and 20th centuries as a “modern” variation.

Back Made Entirely Of Boards

This form is rare and concerns more recent additions to old chair frames.

Back of turned rails or small vertical decorated boards

The stick-back chair is an imported 19th-century style.

Chair back decoration

One or both boards of the chair back may be decorated with carved or incised decoration. Three characteristic traditional designs are commonly found on Cretan furniture or stonework window and door frames, all based on the rosette: the simple rosette, the many-petalled rosette and the S-shaped sun motif.

These designs have their origins in antiquity and are found on marble temples and other public buildings. They have been transmitted down the millennia unchanged. It is particularly interesting to note that these decorative features are also found elsewhere, for instance on traditional Basque and Breton furniture.

Writing

A few chair backs bear writing, either incised or carved. This may comprise initials, dates, the name of the maker or village etc. Unfortunately the most important piece of information, the date of the furniture, is rarely marked.

Historical Evidence – Conclusions

Cretan chairs are different to the traditional forms found in mainland Greece, with one exception mentioned below.

The most impressive decorative feature is the pyramidal finial of the back uprights, found on 90% of chairs and armchairs across Crete. The simplified symbolic form of the eagle’s head, together with other decorative features which heighten this impression, can only be interpreted as symbolic of the Byzantine Empire. Since Crete lost all contact with Byzantium in 1205, this motif must have been established among the Byzantine nobility before this date and brought to Crete during the period between 1070 and 1120.

Another comparable example comes from the small island of Skyros in the Sporades of the north-western Aegean. Deposed Byzantine Emperors were exiled to this island, along with the members of their small courts. Their seats are very similar in decoration to Cretan furniture, supporting the hypothesis that the latter follows old Byzantine traditions.

Finally we would like to mention some examples of Venetian cabinet-making, pre-Renaissance chairs and armchairs, which bear many Byzantine decorative elements – especially back upright finials – similar to those found in Crete. Given that before 1205 the Venetians were subjects of the Eastern Empire, who gained many cultural benefits from their intensive commercial transactions, it seems certain that the influence of a glorious civilization gave rise to common styles.

Bear in mind that western furniture-making at the beginning of the second millennium was completely primitive and that it was the Venetians who first developed a refined western European culture.

Due to the lack of financial resources besetting cultural foundations, the existing bibliography and European museum or private collections are beyond the scope of this study. However, we believe that the examples mentioned are sufficient to demonstrate the Byzantine seal set on Cretan traditional culture.