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ARMOIRE

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 578 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARMOIRE , the See also:

French name (cf. See also:ALMERY) given to a tall movable See also:cupboard, or " See also:wardrobe," with one or more doors. It has varied considerably in shape and See also:size, and the decoration of its doors and sides has faithfully represented mutations of See also:fashion and modifications of use. It was originally exceedingly massive and found its See also:chief decoration in elaborate hinges and locks of beaten See also:iron. The finer ecclesiastical armoires or aumbries which have come down to us—used in churches for the safe custody of See also:vestments, eucharistic vessels, reliquaries and other See also:precious objects—are usually painted, sometimes even upon the interior, with sacred subjects or with incidents from the lives of the See also:saints. The cathedrals of See also:Bayeux and See also:Noyon contain famous examples; the most typical See also:English one is in See also:York See also:minster. By the end of the 14th See also:century, when the See also:carpenter and the See also:wood-See also:carver had acquired a better mastery of their material, the See also:taste for painted surfaces appears to have given See also:place to the See also:vogue of See also:carving, and the See also:simple rectangular panels gradually became sculptured with a simple See also:motive, such ,as the See also:linen-See also:fold or See also:parchment patterns. In the See also:treasury of St Germain l'Auxerrois the ends of the 15th-century armoires are treated in this way. In that and the two following centuries the keys and the escutcheons of the locks became highly ornamental; usually in forged iron, they were occasionally made of more precious metals. By slow degrees the shape of this receptacle changed—from breadth was evolved height, and the tall See also:form of armoire became characteristic. The See also:Renaissance exercised a notable effect upon this, as upon so many other varieties of See also:furniture. It became less obviously and aggressively a thing of utility; its proportions shrank from the massive to the elegant; its See also:artistic effectiveness was vastly enhanced by its See also:division into an upper and a See also:lower See also:part.

Enriched with columns and pilasters, its panels carved with See also:

mythology, its canopied niches filled with sculptured statuettes, and terminating with a See also:rich See also:cornice and perhaps a broken See also:pediment, it was widely removed in See also:appearance, if not in purpose, from the uncompromising iron-mounted receptacle of earlier II generations. During the 16th century, when the surging impulses of the Renaissance had died away, the armoire relapsed into plainness, its proportions increased, and it was again constructed in one piece. Ere See also:long, however, it See also:grew more sumptuous than ever. See also:Boulle encrusted it with marqueterie from designs by See also:Berain; it glowed with amorini, with the torches and arrows of See also:Cupid, with the garlands which he weaves for his captives, and when allusiveness See also:left a corner vacant, it was filled with arabesques in See also:ebony or See also:ivory, in See also:brass or See also:white See also:metal. While the royal palaces and the hotels of the See also:great See also:nobility were filled with those costly splendours, the See also:ordinary cabinetmaker continued to construct his modest pieces, and by the See also:middle of the 18th century the armoire was found in every French See also:house, ample in width and high in proportion to the lofty rooms of the See also:period. It is not to be supposed that so useful a piece of furniture was confined to See also:France. It was used, more or less, throughout a considerable part of See also:Europe, but it was distinctively Gallic nevertheless, and never became thoroughly acclimatized else-where until about the beginning of the 19th century, when it See also:developed into the See also:glass-fronted wardrobe which is now an essential detail in the plenishing of the See also:bed-chamber, not merely in France and See also:England, but in many other countries. The armoire a glace was known and occasionally made in France as far back as the middle of the 18th century, and almost the earliest mention of it connects it with the scandalous relations of the Marechal de See also:Richelieu and the beautiful fermiere generale, Mme de la Popeliniere, who had one made to See also:mask a See also:secret See also:door.

End of Article: ARMOIRE

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