The illustration on the following page is from an example in the same museum, shewing a different decoration, the oval plaques of figures and coats of arms being of carved ivory let into the surface of the coffer.  This is an early specimen, and belongs as much to the last chapter as to the present.

“Pietra-dura” as an ornament was first introduced in Italy during the sixteenth century, and became a fashion.  This was an inlay of highly-polished rare marbles, agates, hard pebbles, lapis lazuli, and other stones; ivory was also carved and applied as a bas relief, as well as inlaid in arabesques of the most elaborate designs; tortoiseshell, brass, mother of pearl, and other enrichments were introduced in the decoration of cabinets and of caskets; silver plaques embossed and engraved were pressed into the service as the native princes of Florence, Urbino, Ferrara, and other independent cities vied with Rome, Venice, and Naples in sumptuousness of ornament, and lavishness of expense, until the inevitable period of decline supervened in which exaggeration of ornament and prodigality of decoration gave the eye no repose.

Edmond Bonnaffe, contrasting the latter period of Italian Renaissance with that of sixteenth century French woodwork, has pithily remarked:  “Chez cux, l’art du bois consiste a le dissimuler, chez nous a le faire valoir.”

[Illustration:  Italian Coffer with Medallions of Ivory. 15th Century. (South Kensington Museum.)]

In Ruskin’s “Stones of Venice,” the author alludes to this over-ornamentation of the latter Renaissance in severe terms.  After describing the progress of art in Venice from Byzantine to Gothic, and from Gothic to Renaissance he subdivides the latter period into three classes:—­1.  Renaissance grafted on Byzantine. 2.  Renaissance grafted on Gothic. 3.  Renaissance grafted on Renaissance, and this last the veteran art critic calls “double darkness,” one of his characteristic terms of condemnation which many of us cannot follow, but the spirit of which we can appreciate.

Speaking generally of the character of ornament, we find that whereas in the furniture of the Middle Ages, the subjects for carving were taken from the lives of the saints or from metrical romance, the Renaissance carvers illustrated scenes from classical mythology, and allegories, such as representations of elements, seasons, months, the cardinal virtues, or the battle scenes and triumphal processions of earlier times.

[Illustration:  Carved Walnut Wood Italian Chairs. 16th Century. (From Photos of the originals in the South Kensington Museum.)]

[Illustration:  Ebony Cabinet.  With marble mosaics, and bronze gilt ornaments, Florentine work.  Period:  XVII.  Century.]

The outlines and general designs of the earlier Renaissance cabinets were apparently suggested by the old Roman triumphal arches and sarcophagi; afterwards these were modified and became varied, elegant and graceful, but latterly as the period of decline was marked, the outlines as shewn in the two chairs on the preceding page became confused and dissipated by over-decoration.