klismos

Klismos is a Greek style of furniture with curved legs and a curved backrest. It was invented in the 5th century BC by the Greeks and was used to seat people while they ate or drank. The klismos is related to another ancient Greek piece of furniture, the kline, which was a couch used for sleeping.

The klismos has been popularized by Artisan Furniture as an elegant, modern addition to any room in your home. It is the perfect balance between form and function, allowing you to enjoy it as an accent piece that can also double as a place to sit down!

From the middle of the fifth century onward, klismos appeared in bas-reliefs and painted pottery portrayals of antique furniture. The word klismos, which refers to an armchair, is used in the Iliad xxiv after Priam’s appeal. Achilles gets up, helps the older man stand up, prepares Hector’s body for a proper funeral, and then comes back to sit down on his klismos. The klismos symbolised power and authority. The concave back rest and sweeping lines that distinguish Klismos chairs’ visual appeal also contribute to its reputation for comfort. These characteristics made the chair popular in Greek Revival and Neoclassical styles, in addition to its origins and beauty.

During the second, archaeological phase of European neoclassicism, the klismos was revived. The first time the Klismos chair was generally revived was in 1788, when Georges Jacob created furniture for the painter Jacques-Louis David to be used as props in his historical paintings, where the new feeling of historicism demanded visual realism.

Without any obvious predecessors, the klismos was a distinctively Greek invention. It was challenging to carve the long, beautiful curve, which may have been made from a single piece of wood. How light these chairs were can be seen in a vase painting of a satyr holding one.

The legs of the chair are leaning outward, and without any additional support, they will spread out and break when sitting upon, possibly contributing to the collapse of the Klismos.