Perspectival Drawing of an Armchair 1500 - 1546

Curator: Welcome. We're looking at Peter Flötner's "Perspectival Drawing of an Armchair," made sometime between 1500 and 1546. It's a fascinating example of a design drawing from the Renaissance. Editor: The perspective feels…stark. Even rudimentary. It draws my eye not just to the armchair, but also to this austere domestic space, where one might pause and ponder. Curator: Precisely. Think of Flötner’s position. He’s an artist and designer operating within a network of workshops, civic projects and noble commissions. His drawings like this one weren’t merely aesthetic exercises. They were blueprints. Consider the material possibilities – wood types, carving techniques, upholstery – that would come into play when actually crafting such a piece. Editor: And consider also the symbolism of furniture. The chair is a stage upon which power and privilege literally rest. Who gets to sit, and in what manner, are never neutral questions. I see in the almost diagrammatic rendering a commentary, a drawing of societal power structures even when only intending to plan its design. Curator: The artist is using his skilled draftsmanship, not to mimic a thing perfectly but to create functional possibility. There are all sorts of cultural status and aesthetic choices embedded in how it's made, how those resources are then distributed. I see here less the drawing of structural inequity and more the possibility of creation—and all the choices, and opportunities that requires. Editor: Flötner's design appears incredibly ornate, even by our contemporary standards, suggesting that the patron's class demanded luxury, craft, and status. Perhaps this piece hints at larger historical injustices tied to labour? It’s fascinating to imagine where the material comes from, whose hands work on the chair, where this labour comes from in a socio-political sense? Curator: And that gets back to material concerns: How do we understand not just how to read its perspective, but what type of shop and materials are able to create the designs? What workshops would compete to build something of this caliber? What constraints affected the execution of these designs? Editor: Exactly. The artwork invites us to meditate not just on design aesthetics, but on how culture itself takes form and is reproduced—or resisted. Curator: Thinking through the object allows us to bring new forms to life through new modes of construction and accessibility. Editor: Ultimately, it forces me to see this armchair not just as an object but as a document of our history.