X-chair
An X-chair is a chair with an X-shaped frame. It was known to have been used in Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. The Christian faldstool is a type of X-chair.
History
X-chairs have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, often featuring carvings in the shape of animals or animal-skin draperies. Roman X-chairs are believed to have been used by magistrates and nobles.A type of folding chair with a frame like an X viewed from the front or the side originated in medieval Italy. Also known as a Savonarola or Dante chair in Italy, or a Luther chair in Germany, the X-chair was a light and practical form that spread through Renaissance Europe. In England, the Glastonbury chair made an X-shape by crossing the front and back legs, while in Spain X-chairs were inlaid with ivory and metals in the Moorish designs.
The use of the name Savonarola chair comes from a nineteenth-century trade term evoking Girolamo Savonarola, which is a folding armchair of the type standardized during the Italian Renaissance.
The chair in the illustration consists of a wooden flat-arched back rail carved with a coat-of-arms in low relief and connected to the back of the straight arms of the chair and a seat made of narrowly fitted wooden slats. The wood used in the construction of the chair is the typical walnut, as in other gothic and renaissance furniture.