Prayer Bench (Prie-Dieu)
Giovanni Battista Galletti (Turin, Duchy of Savoy (now Italy))
c. 1770–75
- Medium
- Boxwood, ebony, walnut, poplar, pine, and iron
- Classification
- Furniture
- Dimensions
- 86.7 × 77.8 × 58.5 cm (34 1/8 × 30 5/8 × 23 in.)
- Culture
- Turin
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts of Europe
- Credit line
- Mary Waller Langhorne Memorial Fund; purchased with funds provided by Kay and Frederick Krehbiel; Irish Gala Purchase Fund; purchased with funds provided by John W. and Patricia O'Brien and Gayle Tilles; Neville and John Bryan Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The surface of this prie-dieu—a kneeling bench used for prayer—is inlaid with an intricate, geometric veneer of boxwood and ebony. This complex marquetry design over the prie-dieu’s undulating facade attests to the high degree of technical skill that was the hallmark of cabinetmakers at the royal court of Savoy at Turin in what is now Italy. A door in the center of the prie-dieu conceals a small cabinet for a rosary and prayer books, and the drawer at the base would have held a padded cushion to kneel on.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
