A Curious Mobilier of the 15th Century: Part One

Some furniture forms are so practical that they exist from antiquity through to today.

Set a three-legged stool before an Egyptian of the third millenia BCE, a citizen of the first century Han Dynasty, and any person of today and they will immediately recognize the form and function.

But other mobilier fit niches in time and place outside of which they have largely been forgotten. One of these forms is a 15th century pivot-backed settee known regionally as a Banc à tournis (French), Strycsitten (Flemish), and Vändbänken (German), among others. A settee (also called a settle, from the Old English setl) is a long bench with a high back and arms.

I will be using “strycsitten” in this write-up as a general term for pivot-backed settees, reserving Banc à tournis, Strycsitten (capitalized), and Vändbänken for specific regional forms.

What is a strycsitten?

The defining feature of strycsittens is a backrest affixed in such a manner as to flip from back to front, making what had been the front now the back and vice versa. The practicality of such a feature enables the user to enjoy changing the direction in which they are seated without the inconvenience of having to lift and reposition the entire strycsitten.

Evolution and Distribution

The map above documents extant strycsittens (denoted by the symbol of a seated figure) and strycsittens included in paintings and illuminations (denoted by the symbol of an artist’s palette). This is an ongoing work by the author, and documents only the extant pieces and images for which the author has evidence of the time and place of creation. The reader may click on the symbols to see an image of the entry, along with further information such as title, year-range and place of creation, or a link to the museum or gallery in which the piece currently resides.

In examining the known dates of creation, we discern that the earliest extant pieces are Bancs à tournis from northern France and southwestern Belgium (at that time, the County of Flanders, soon to become Burgundian Netherlands). The earliest known image of a Bancs à tournis (“turning bench”) is found in “Livre de la Mutation de Fortune” (France (probably Bourges), 1403) MS BSB cod. gall. 11 by Christine de Pisan. This is followed by “Les comédies de Térence”, MS 664, fol. 209v (c. 1411) by the Master of Bedford, who was active in Paris. Four more of these early pieces all originated in the Flemish city of Tournai: Robert Campin’s “L’Annonciation” (c. 1415-1425); the “Merode Altarpiece” (c. 1427-1432), begun by Campin and completed by one of his apprentices (most likely Jacques Daret, although the more famous Rogier van der Weyden is also considered); van der Weyden’s “Annunciation Triptych” (1434); and “The Virgin and Child Before a Firescreen” (1440), also by Robert Campin.

Does this mean that strycsittens sprang into existence around 1400? Not necessarily, but the lack of any extant pieces or images prior to that date range suggests that the furniture form was invented around the beginning of the fifteenth century and was popular enough by 1403 that artists began to feature them in paintings.

From northern France and southwestern Belgium, the design spread. The next generations of Bancs à tournis appeared north in Brussels and the Netherlands. Soon they entered Germany. Later, the strycsitten design was adopted in Germany and as far east as Austria. Finally, a last generation sprung up in Scandinavia, with extant examples to be found in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. More details on the migration and evolution will be found in a later section of this article.

Case Study: The Strycsittens of the Workshop of Robert Campin

The earliest documented strycsittens are already a mature form, suggesting that the true origin is of an earlier time. Robert Campin (c. 1375-1444) included a Strycsitten in his painting L’Annonciation, c. 1415-1425. Within a few years, an apprentice in the workshop of Robert Campin completed the central panel of another Annunciation (c. 1427-1432) which eventually became the central panel of what is now known as the “Mérode Altarpiece”. Both Annunciations appears to contain the very same Strycsitten as well as the unusual table, jug, fireplace, corbels, and ceiling.

But is this the same Strycsitten? The striking similarities suggest so. But one important detail is different in the two images: placement of the pivots. The apprentice’s later painting shows the pivot in the center of the middle stile (the upright post supporting the armrest). One can easily imagine the backrest being flipped from back to front, so as to make what is currently shown to be the top of the backrest becoming the bottom of the backrest, and resting on what had been the front of the seat but is now the rear.

Campin’s earlier Annunciation, however, shows a different arrangement for the pivot. Instead of being placed at the center of the middle stile, the pivot is shown above the stile and set into the armrest. Additionally, the arm shows sweeping curves in the visible face.

It should also be noted that the entire backrest is shown in the apprentice’s later painting, whereas Campin’s image has a cloth covering nearly all of the back. This is an important detail, because if Campin’s Strycsitten has the same backrest as the apprentice’s does, then either it has a complicated hidden hinge or would not work in any position other than the one shown. My conjecture, then, is that under the cloth is a simple bar, similar to those seen in later examples such as the Playfair Hours MS (below).

My conjecture is further supported by an investigation of the right panel of the Werl Triptych (1438), another painting from the school of Robert Campin. Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1400-1464) is a likely candidate for the creator, although Campin himself may have been the painter as underdrawings beneath the paint are similar to those Campin drew on the Merode Altarpiece canvas.

Which brings us back to the question: is the Strycsitten as painted by the apprentice modeled on the same piece of furniture as his master, Campin, used a few years earlier? If so, did either take liberties with this one detail in the construction as shown in their painting? Considering the extraordinary attention to detail exhibited by both painters, plus the remarkable similarity of every other aspect of the Strycsitten, as well as the other aspects of the two paintings which are identical (the table; the window; the fireplace; etc.) I believe that the same Strycsitten was used as a model in both paintings, and that it underwent a replacement of the backrest in the interim.

Thus in two of our earliest examples of strycsittens we see two styles of backrest (one pivoted midway up a stile; another pivoted in the armrest) in the very same Strycsitten, separated by perhaps as few as two years. These observations suggest that strycsitten design was evolving even in these early years, and lead well into a discussion of the stylistic changes which occurred across time and place.

Types of Strycsittens

While studying this fascinating furniture form, I noticed differences –some subtle, others quite distinct– which led me to categorize Bancs à tournis, Strycsittens, and Vändbänken by certain features. To help keep them organized, I created the following taxonomies:

Type I

Type I are most likely the earliest examples, and are the Bancs à tournis of France and French-speaking Burgundy and the Strycsittens of Flemish-speaking Flanders.

These settees are marked by common attributes including rectangular legs supporting armrests, mortise-and-tenon construction, and stretchers supporting the bench seat. The sides may be open or closed by frame-and-panel. The same is true for the front and back beneath the seat. If the area beneath the seat is entirely enclosed, the space within may contain storage accessible by a portion of the seat being hinged as a lid.

I have further defined Type I by the location of the pivot.

In Type Ia, the pivot is located low on the side, nearly touching the seat. Type Ib has the pivot midway up the side. In Type Ic, the pivot is on the inside of the armrest, whereas in Type Id the pivot is on the outside of the armrest and, invariably, the lever is of iron.

Type II

Stylistically, Type II strycsittens are quite similar to Type I, but the pivot has been replaced with a hinge rising from the seat.

Type III

Type I strycsittens had been introduced to the area of modern day Germany as early as c. 1453. However, by 1466 Germanic craftspeople had put their own stylistic stamp on the furniture form. They replaced the heavy carcass (the framework) of thick rails and stiles joined by mortise-and-tenon joins with lighter boards dovetailed or nailed together. The armrests disappeared and were replaced by simple and distinctive crenellations sawn into the top ends of the side-boards; the outer two acting as supports for thee backrest to land on, and the center crenellation rising to support the pivot. This new style was named Vändbänken (“turning benches”), or if they also contained storage, Truhenbänken (“chest benches”).

Type IV

The function of strycsittens migrated to Scandinavia by circa 1600. As in Germany, the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians put their own stylistic stamp on the form. Most notably, the Scandinavian “Drejebænke” replace the square timbers of the Bancs à tournis with turned wood (wood shaved into spindles on a lathe). They also applied their painting skills to the furniture, embellishing the pieces with multiple hues and patterns, in addition to carved motifs.

Survey of Strycsittens in situ

 The author has collected thirty-eight (38) illuminations or paintings of the various types of strycsittens, dated 1403 through 1526. These images originated within the modern borders of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. Unfortunately, the author has as-of-yet been unable to locate any medieval images of strycsittens from Scandinavia. Remarkably, the majority of medieval images of strycsittens have them placed before or adjacent to a fireplace.

Type	Country	Total	Fireplace adjacent?
Ia	France	11	6
Ia	Belgium	1	1
Ib	France	6	3
Ib	Belgium	1	1
Ic	France	2	0
Ic	Belgium	1	1
Ic	Germany	1	1
Id	Belgium	1	1
II	France	7	5
III	Germany	7	0
IV	Scandinavia	*	N/A

While the evidence is far from conclusive, the number of strycsittens imaged before fireplaces (nineteen of thirty-eight) suggests that this was a common position for them. The curious design of the strycsittens’ backs allow for the user to sit comfortably either facing or turned from the fire, without having to turn the entire bench around. 

Which leads to the following conjecture. While researching strycsittens in all their forms, the natural question arose: why did this furniture form disappear? By the end of the 16th century, new construction of strycsittens apparently ceased in lands south of Denmark. While the Scandinavian countries continued to produce them well into the mid-1800s, there they seem to have been preserved in small towns and rural life. The author proposes a possible answer: that as the northern hemisphere experienced a “little ice age” between ~1300 and ~1850, the need for improved heating and heat retention increased. Strycsittens may have served an immediate need circa 1400: a furniture convenient for before the fireplace. As the form developed, so did it migrate northward and westward into the cold mountainous regions and sub-arctic climes. But as winters continued to get colder and lasted longer, more was needed than just a convenient seat by the fire. More fireplaces –and more efficient designs– were built into homes. Perhaps the need for a strycsitten (with its fairly complicated joinery) gave way to more comfortable and less delicate mobilier.

What’s Next?

In Part Two of this research, the author is constructing a Type Ic Strycsitten, inspired by the one shown in Robert Campin’s Annunciation.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Christian Walda, director of the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte in Dortmund, BRD, for invaluable aid and resources.

My deepest gratitude and appreciation go to Alicia du Bois, for technical support, editing, encouragement, and inspiration.