Art Institute of Chicago

Table

Date

c. 1800

Medium

Burl maple, fir or pine, gilt bronze, and marble

Culture

Berlin

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This table is a rare example of the work of Friedrich Gilly, who was born in Pomerania, which is now part of Poland but was then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Gilly trained with his architect father David Gilly, who had founded an important school of architecture in Berlin in 1793. A 1797 study trip through Austria, England, and France had a profound influence on the younger Gilly’s work. Friedrich did important architectural and interior design work for royal palaces and other buildings in Berlin, and even his designs for unrealized projects such as monuments and theaters influenced subsequent generations of German architects. Sadly, he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. In this table, Gilly incorporates several elements typical of the Neoclassical taste of his time, including the lyre shape, which was based on the harp-like instrument associated with the Greco-Roman god Apollo, whose head appears between the arms of the lyre. The tabletop is made of a type of limestone called pietra paesina (landscape stone) for the patterns that suggest valleys and hills.

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