Royal Abbey Refectory Bench, Musée de Cluny, Antique Print, 1851

This is an original antique chromolithograph, printed in olive and brown tones, lettered "BANC de RÉFECTOIRE, aux armes de France, provenant d'une Abbaye Royale (XVe Siècle Chêne sculpté) Musée de Cluny N° 532." The bench is drawn from the front as a tall enclosed seat under a canopy. A cresting of pierced tracery panels crowns the canopy, which is fringed with cusped arcading. The high back is filled with rows of small tracery panels and a few figure reliefs, the side posts carry standing saints in niches, and the chest-like seat front has tracery panels around a central angel holding the shield of France.

The caption translates as "refectory bench with the arms of France, from a royal abbey (fifteenth century, carved oak), Musée de Cluny no. 532." The running head reads "AMEUBLEMENTS RELIGIEUX Pl. 17." The credits read "H. Soltau del.", "Chromolith. Engelmann et Graf." and "Kellerhoven lith.", with "F. Séré direxit" beneath the caption.

Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance was published in Paris in five volumes between 1848 and 1851. Paul Lacroix, who also wrote as the Bibliophile Jacob, edited the text, and Ferdinand Séré directed the illustrations, which is why his name and the word direxit stand beneath every plate. The work surveys the manners, crafts, sciences and arts of medieval and Renaissance Europe, and its chromolithographed plates record objects held around 1850 in churches, museums and private collections. This plate is from the fourth volume, dated 1851, plate seventeen of the section on church furniture.

The dense carving and upright format suit a narrow wall or a pair with another Gothic furniture plate.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.