The Roman Curule Seat

No matter what point in history this chair served as the most flexible chair in the world. Although it was known as a symbol of authority, it was also sat upon on by people not in power. The form of this chair allowed it to be flexible by either being foldable or static. The use of the chair varied between temporary and permanent depending on its design. The chair went into different iterations throughout history allowing it to remain relevant up to the modern century. This paper will be about the Roman curule seat and why it is the most flexible chair in the world. Figure 1. Curule Stool (Byrne, 2015)
The different uses of the curule seat allowed for a flexible way of understanding how the seat functioned at different times of history. …show more content…
This allows the seat to be able to fold in a joint where the support frames intersect. This was done to help save space and make the chair portable. (Mooring, 2013) The key aspect of the x-frame in the curule seat is that the form follows function in terms of design. The x-frame must be able to support the load that will be put once a person sat on the curule seat. The x-frame distributes the load evenly across each of its four supporting legs. There are two ways to orient the x-frame structure of the chair. It could either be placed on the side or front and rear of the chair. Originally, the frame would be placed at the side to serve more of a functional approach. However, during the French Renaissance the idea of etiquette was a big deal and it changed the orientation of how the x-frame would look. (Azzarito, n.d.) Another important aspect for the flexibility of the curule seat is the construction of the chair. The curule seat can be made with or without an armrest and the same goes for the backrest. The form would only be good as the materials that are used to build the curule seat. In Ancient Egypt a folding stool would be constructed with a pair of wooden frames and flung with leather on top. (Azzarito, n.d.) In more modern times the structural frame could be built from steel, plastic, etc. The curule seat may also be more decorative in its x-frame before the 19th century, whereas the modern variation opts for a simpler …show more content…
The Romans took the form of the stool and made it more lavish with lots of decoration. The chair design called for a simple stool with no backrest. The Renaissance period gave birth to the Savonarola also known as the scissors chair. The construction consist of a back rail with carved motifs usually a coat-of-arms and is connected to the back of the arm rests, the x-frame is made of several interlocking wood that is foldable and seamlessly intersect with each other. (Revolvy, X-chair, n.d.) Another kind of curule seat is the Dante chair looks the same as the Savonarola, simpler in appearance, but also symbolically