What wood was the world's first wardrobe made from?
The closet, as a storage of things, has lived next to people since time immemorial, but it did not immediately take on the modern, familiar appearance for us.
The appearance of the cabinet has undergone many changes over the centuries. Initially, it was generally placed not vertically, but horizontally and was what we call a “chest”. The medieval way of life was far from being comfortable and measured, and the very concept of “furniture” in modern meaning the word did not yet exist. All property was in the literal sense of the word “movable”, that is, at the first sign it had to be immediately placed in a chest so that it could be carried away and saved from a raid or fire.
Therefore, numerous chests were an essential item: property was stored in them and used as seats - placed along the walls, they successfully replaced benches. In the XII-XIII centuries. The simplest wooden cabinets were also made, which were designed for installation in niches, but they were mostly used for church use.
In the 16th century the first samples of furniture appear, reminiscent of some types modern cabinets. And all that was needed was for someone to come up with a simple and brilliant idea: Place the chest on its end. Or two chests on top of each other - here you have a double-door wardrobe. The lids are replaced with two opening doors - and the cabinet is ready!
Two-tier cabinets, characteristic of France, also appeared, and so-called “cabinets”, which spread throughout Europe, were based on a chest with a hinged lid, raised on a base.
In Venice they made famous cabinets decorated with inlays and Certosian mosaics: a continuous, very small geometric pattern.
The Italians are considered the inventors of the cassone cabinet - the same chest made of deep walnut brown tone and richly decorated with carvings.
In France and Germany, the most common material for making chests and cabinets was oak, while in Switzerland pine wood was more often used. Unlike Italian cassones, Gothic oak chests are more massive, wider and higher. Fine oak carving was also impossible due to specific properties this breed, therefore, applied iron loops and iron locks with openwork ornaments become part of the decoration of the chests.
In the 15th century, one of the favorite forms of the locker was dressoir (dressoir), or in Russian - “supplier”. This is a French version of the cabinet, also common in the Netherlands and the Rhinelands, which originated from a chest raised on racks.
Carved double cabinets become the pinnacle of Renaissance furniture art in France. They are built according to the architectural principles of the Renaissance: the lower building, the “floor,” is more massive and wide, and the upper one is more slender and recedes somewhat back. To complete the analogy with the building, three ladies - “caryatids” - or three Atlases support a magnificent cornice along the edges and between the sashes.
Throughout the 16th century, the canonical cabinet was built on the principle of a two-story building. It is placed on a plinth, each tier is decorated with columns or pilasters, the tiers are separated by a cornice.
IN late XVI centuries, the shapes of cabinets become part of the interior: the cabinet is often built into wood paneling walls Cabinets already differ in purpose.
In the 17th century, the most characteristic piece of furniture in the palaces and castles of the nobility became the “cabinet” - a cabinet for storing business papers, decorated with exquisite luxury. Then, in the 17th century, the cabinet-bureau appeared. This was the name of a cabinet with a built-in countertop, which was upholstered in cloth.
Concerning wardrobes, then by the end of the 17th century, Dutch craftsmen were the first to abandon the two-tier construction and move on to making cabinets with full-height doors.
In chapter Tips, Ideas to the question What kind of wood was Pinocchio made from? given by the author Olga the best answer is There is a theory that Pinocchio was made from pine. This is indicated by the name of his relative Pinocchio. After all, pino is Italian for pine.
But this is only a theory, because Tolstoy, bringing out his proletarian hero, could adapt everything to Russian reality. He could, for example, imagine that Buratino was made of birch or aspen. Papa Carlo was practically a lumpen and could only get hold of the cheapest fuel, that is, low-flammable aspen or waste birch logs. To reach a final conclusion about the material, it would be possible to conduct a full-scale experiment. For example, find out how long it takes to cut a doll of satisfactory quality from pine, birch and aspen. From pine, of course, faster. After all, as far as I remember, he only cut for a few hours. It's almost a detective story. There is no easy way to answer this question. A thorough investigation of both the primary source and the investigative experiment is necessary.
It is probably impossible to find a person who has never heard of one of the most popular fairy-tale characters - Pinocchio. He has long turned into a hero of folklore, a hero of jokes and caricatures.
Everyone in childhood read or heard a fairy tale performed by their parents. A. N. Tostoy "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio" (1935), or at least watched the wonderful 1975 children's film based on the work of the "red count".
Pinocchio illustrated by Enrico Mazanti for the first edition of the book by Carlo Collodi
(Isn’t it true that this character is not too similar to the image of Pinocchio that is familiar to us?):
Illustration by L. Vladimirsky (1956):
But how many can answer a seemingly simple question: And from what kind of tree did Papa Carlo (or Papa Geppetto) cut down Pinocchio (or Pinocchio)?
Try asking your friends or acquaintances this question, and they will probably shrug their shoulders in bewilderment or begin to offer different versions at random - from birch to oak, linden and cherry.
I judge by own experience, and the arguments of supporters of this or that tree are very interesting. Since it’s a log, it must be birch (for those who like to barbecue); Pinocchio is not smart, that's why he is made of oak (everyone who considers themselves highly educated intellectuals); Linden has soft wood, and cherry is best suited for wood carving (relevant specialists).
The very name of the character in the fairy tale “The Golden Key” does not answer this question (however, there is no answer in the text of A. N. Tolstoy’s work), since in translation from Italian (here A. N. Tolstoy did not bother to come up with a hero his fairy tale some original name, but I don’t know why he wasn’t satisfied with the author’s “Pinocchio”) "Pinocchio" literally means nothing more than "wooden doll" (burattino. - it.).
But the name that Carlo Collodi gave his hero seems to hint that Pinocchio was made from pine
.
Indeed, in Mediterranean countries, pine, although not too similar to the tall tree we are accustomed to, is true. slender tree, called pine tree
(in Italy) or pineda
(in Spain) - pinus pinea
.
Until some time I was completely sure that this was so.
But I recently found out that it turns out the word "Pinocchio"
in Tuscan dialect means "pine nut"
(Carlo Collodi, as everyone probably knows, was a Florentine). So, it turns out that Pinocchio (Pinocchio) was knocked out precisely from cedar logs
.
However, such a tree as cedar belongs to the pine family , so I was not too much mistaken in thinking that Pinocchio is a pine log.
And if, when you ask your friends about what Papa Carlo cut Pinocchio out of, they answer you that it was made of pine, then you can, with some amendment, congratulate them on the correct answer.
Sergey Vorobiev.
