A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Western Furniture In The 16th - 17th Century

In all ages, furnitures is a necessery part of interior design. Although mats, chairs,beds, and desks are very different in tiems and sizes, they are all necessary in our daily life. Due to different history, politics, ecnomic and culture conditions, the East and West have created furnituress of their unique styles. Eastern and Western furnituress both have their own characteristics of modeling style and craft structure. In 16th and 17th century, it was Ming and Qing dynasty of China that was the summit of Ming-style furnitures. While at the same time, the West was in the stage of Renaissance. In both ideology and technology realms ushered in epochal changes. Therefore, the writer set the thesis on the background of times, economy, politics and culture. Make comparison between the styles, ornament, and material of typical furnituress of the East and the West of this period by literature contrasting and image contrasting with adequate examples and accomplish an acdamic conclusion. So, the paper would take these respects and keep it logical and accurate.The study finds that Ming-furnitures is famous for simplicity and its accurate mortise and tenon joint structure while Qing-furnitures pays more attention to decoration and auspicious patterns. What is more, Qing-furnitures is fastidious to the material, yellow pear is the main choice. The representitive of the typical West furnituress are from Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Spanish. They tend to add the architectual elements of Renaissance into the design of furnituress. The persuit for comfort leads to their preference of oak and walnut. Their furnituress also wear the carving following the color and grain of the wood. Although these coutries have much similarities due to Renaissance, they also have their own features.The comparison study leads to the conclusion that the development of Chinese and the West furnitures accords with their social conditions, economic capabilities, production modes and culture situations. And they keep on making progress to fit the times.