Journal article
Giuseppe Ferrari's Carved Cabinet for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition: Presentation Furniture in the Cultural Context of World's Fairs
West 86th, v 20(1), pp 62-91
01 Mar 2013
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
World's fairs offer much to art historians seeking to investigate and understand the history of furniture in the later nineteenth century. This article examines a single piece of deluxe presentation furniture displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Distinguished by the inclusion of a bust of the poet Dante Alighieri, and the recipient of a bronze medal for "Dgood design, superior carving, and fine workmanship," the cabinet reveals the often competing interests of artists, manufacturers, and organizers that were at work in the design and production of luxury furniture, and how the world's fairs mediated the reception of the decorative arts through classification, display strategies, and competitive awards, as well as promotional, critical, and popular commentary. A myth of material and social progress generally permeated most critical attitudes toward the fairs, especially the compatibility of commerce with culture-but in the furniture trade such views hid the realities of competition, favoring large-scale manufacturers and eventually marginalizing individual artist-craftsmen, who clung to a faith in professional recognition inherited from the earlier, preindustrial traditions of craft and labor organization. This article also follows the increasing critique of such carved presentation furniture in a time of evolving display practices that favored furnished room ensembles rather than individual " masterpieces."
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Giuseppe Ferrari's Carved Cabinet for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition: Presentation Furniture in the Cultural Context of World's Fairs
- Creators
- David Raizman - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- West 86th, v 20(1), pp 62-91
- Publisher
- Univ Chicago Press
- Number of pages
- 30
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- [Retired Faculty]
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000409594100003
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85049979409
- Other Identifier
- 991019167919404721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Art