Renaissance Revival Cabinet
- Gustave Herter, American, 1830-1898
- Born: Stuttgart, Germany
- Work Locations: New York, NY
- Christian Herter, American, 1839-1883
- Born: Stuttgart, Germany
- Work Locations: New York, NY
- Herter Brothers
- Work Locations: New York, NY
- Active Years: 1864-1906
Herter Brothers, Renaissance Revival Cabinet, about 1877. Rosewood, wood inlay, gilt, ormolu (gilt bronze), and brass; 85 × 84 1/2 × 23 1/4 in. Denver Art Museum: Funds from Bruce and Nancy Benson, Estelle R. Wolf, DAM Yankees, The Junior League of Denver, and in memory of Walton W. Wilson, 1989.202.
Herter Brothers, established by German-born brothers Gustave and Christian Herter, furnished the elaborate mansions of American industrialists during the Gilded Age and became one of the most prestigious furniture makers and interior decorating firms in the nation by the 1870s. The company was at the forefront of the Aesthetic Movement in the United States, in which designers combined a variety of historical and exotic styles while maintaining a sense of elegance and visual harmony.
This three-part Renaissance Revival cabinet was purchased in the 1870s by John Shillito, owner of Cincinnati’s foremost department store. For many of America’s wealthy entrepreneurs, whose fortunes were newly acquired, the Renaissance Revival style signaled affluence and authority. The style is characterized by an eclectic use of classical Greek and Roman motifs popular during the Italian Renaissance, including flowers, medallions, classical figures and statues, and architectural elements such as columns and pediments. In its abundance of carving and incising, its intricate multicolored marquetry, and its touches of gilding, this imposing cabinet is typical of Herter Brothers’ work of the mid- and late-1870s.
- “By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects” — Denver Art Museum, 10/24/2021 – 1/1/2024