Design and Tradition: A short account of the principles and historic development of architecture and the applied artsFenn, Amor
History
Design and Tradition: A short account of the principles and historic development of architecture and the applied arts
Fenn, Amor
Architecture; Art; Decoration and ornament; Decoration and ornament -- History
Associated with this change was Jacques Gondouin, who died at Paris in
1818 at the age of eighty-one, whose most celebrated work is the Ecole
de Médécine. He was also entrusted with the erection of the column in
the Place Vendôme.
_Riesener and Gouthière_
[Illustration: No. 131. Detail of Cornice. Louis XVI.]
The most familiar names associated with the wood-work at the Louis XVI
period are Riesener and Gouthière. Riesener is famous for his furniture,
and Gouthière for the highly finished chased mounts with which this
furniture was decorated.
[Illustration: No. 132. Arm-chair covered with Beauvais Tapestry. Louis
XVI.]
Interior woodwork was generally of oak, painted white. Pilasters were
used, and were either carved or painted in colours. Mouldings were
frequently gilt.
Chairs and sofas were, in many instances, painted white and partly
gilt. They were upholstered in silk or Beauvais tapestry, the designs of
which were in panel form specially made for the purpose.
Cabinets, tables and other pieces of furniture were often exquisitely
inlaid with various woods, tulip, rosewood, pear, holly and ebony were
the most common, and Sèvres porcelain placques and gilt metal mounts
were also used to embellish them.
[Illustration: No. 133. Carved Oak Panel. Louis XVI.]
Furniture supports, such as table and chair legs, were straight, tapered
and fluted, with husks in the hollows of the flutes.
Among the decorative details were torches, quivers and other emblems,
trophies, musical instruments, bouquets and festoons of flowers, and
ribbons with peculiarly square and crisp folds. The laurel leaf was much
used in borders, festoons and wreaths.
The style of the Louis XVI period was more severe than the preceding
one, and was, in fact, a reaction from the flippancy which
characterised the reign of Louis XV. There was a tendency to return to
more classic forms, which prepared the way for the still more austere
Empire phase which was deliberately based on the Roman and Greek styles.
_Empire_
Furniture was made in mahogany, rosewood and ebony, and was decorated
with brass mounts or with carved ornaments, which were gilded.
Furniture legs and supports were fashioned after Greek and Roman forms,
human figures and sphinxes being often employed.
Inlay was used of ivory and metal, and this class of work attained a
very high degree of excellence.
Metal-work was unquestionably good, except that the details were
somewhat hard in character.
The most striking decorative features were sphinxes, winged figures of
Liberty, masks, the thyrsus of Bacchus, laurel wreaths and festoons,
which were all severe in treatment and delicate in execution.
_Empire in England_
The Empire style spread to other parts of Europe, and was closely
imitated in England, where it was chiefly remarkable for the extreme
nicety and finish of the metal-work, metal being extensively used for
the enrichment of furniture, for clocks, vases, candlesticks, inkstands
and other objects.
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