The characteristic ornamentation of the first period of the Louis XIV. style, which was dominated by Lepautre, is Roman or heroic. The motives are, for the most part, such as would appeal to a warrior or hero. We find trophies of antiquity where the cuirass, surmounted by a helmet, is accompanied by swords, and even by the lictor’s fasces, and sometimes they are heaped up in a mass, suggesting the spoils of war,—such as cuirasses, casques with plumes, shields, fasces, laurel wreaths and clubs. The winged Victory is also omnipresent, and Victories blowing trumpets are used. We also find allegorical figures, mythological divinities, river-gods resting on their urns, great cornucopias much heavier and with wider openings than those of Louis XIII., and heavy garlands, or swags, of fruits and leaves, having much longer and fuller leaves than the Louis XIII. style, and these trails of foliage frequently display a wealth of ample scrolls. The acanthus leaf, which is so popular, becomes very broad, even bloated, and all the other leaves in use are now strong and powerful. The mascaron, typical examples of which are seen on Plate XIV., Nos. 1, 2, and 3, the _fleur-de-lis_, the double L (the King’s cypher) represented on Plate XVI., Nos. 2 and 4, complete, with the cartouche, the characteristic ornamentation. Upon the latter are displayed the coats-of-arms, the _fleur-de-lis_ and the double L, as represented on the plate just referred to. The cartouche has a strongly rounded and projecting field, and its form is either circular or oval,—a real ellipse (quite different from the egg-shaped oval of Louis XVI.). There is another peculiar decoration, consisting of a strange combination of the scroll and shell; the anthemion,[11] treated as a shell (see Plate XV., central ornament on No. 2) and the scroll mingled with the foliage of the acanthus. The second period of the _style Louis Quatorze_ is especially characterized by Bérain, and is nothing more than an attenuated Louis XIV., which forms a quite natural transition to the style of the Regency. The swelling curves and the heavy masses of decoration gradually become finer, more delicate and more refined, until at length they merge into the succeeding period. Another characteristic taste of the day was for the Chinese style. One of the Trianon palaces exhibited in high degree this taste for _la chinoiserie_ in decoration. It was called the _palais de porcelaine_. Four of its small pavilions were ornamented with plaques of _faïence_ in imitation of porcelain. The interior was painted also in porcelain. The walls were covered with mirrors and the furniture was extremely sumptuous. The flowers and shrubs were planted in handsome porcelain pots.