     Left to right, top to bottom:Salon Doré ofMarie Antoinette, Chateau de Versailles; Armchair byGeorges Jacob, Chateau of Versailles;Château de Bagatelle (1777); Corner cabinet byJean-Henri Riesener (1785);Toile de Jouy printed fabric, with balloon design (1784) | |
| Years active | 1774–1789 |
|---|---|
| Location | France |
Louis XVI style, also calledLouis Seize, is a style of architecture, furniture, decoration and art which developed in France during the 19-year reign ofLouis XVI (1774–1792), just before theFrench Revolution. It saw the final phase of theBaroque style as well as the birth of FrenchNeoclassicism. The style was a reaction against the elaborate ornament of the preceding Baroque period. It was inspired in part by the discoveries of Ancient Roman paintings, sculpture and architecture inHerculaneum andPompeii. Its features included the straight column, the simplicity of thepost-and-lintel, thearchitrave of the Greek temple. It also expressed theRousseau-inspired values of returning to nature and the view of nature as an idealized and wild but still orderly and inherently worthy model for the arts to follow.[1]
Notable architects of the period includedVictor Louis (1731–1811), who completed theGrand Théâtre de Bordeaux (1780). TheOdeon Theatre in Paris (1779–1782) was built byMarie-Joseph Peyre (1730–1785) andCharles de Wailly (1729–1798).François-Joseph Bélanger completed theChateau de Bagatelle in just sixty-three days to win a bet for its builder, the King's brother. Another period landmark was the belvedere of thePetit Trianon, built byRichard Mique. The most characteristic building of the late Louis XVI residential style is the Hôtel de Salm in Paris (now thePalais de la Légion d'Honneur), built byPierre Rousseau in 1751–1783.
Superbly crafted desks and cabinets were created for thePalace of Versailles and other royal residences by cabinetmakersJean-Henri Riesener andDavid Roentgen, using inlays of fine woods (particularlymahogany) and decorated with gilded bronze andmother of pearl. Equally fine sets of chairs and tables were made byJean-Henri Riesener andGeorges Jacob.[2]
The royal tapestry works ofGobelins,Aubusson andBeauvais continued to make large tapestries, but an increasing part of their business was the manufacture of upholstery for the new sets of chairs, sofas and other furnishings for the royal residences and nobility.Wallpaper also became an important part of interior design, thanks to new processes developed by Reveillon.
InHungary, it is known asCopf Style.
The Louis XVI style was a reaction to and transition theFrench Baroque style, which had dominated French architecture, decoration and art since the mid-17th century, and partly from a desire to establish a newBeau idéal, or ideal of beauty, based on the purity and grandeur of the art of the Ancient Romans and Greeks. In 1754 The French engraver, painter and art criticCharles-Nicolas Cochin denounced the curves and undulations of the predominantrocaille style: "Don't torture without reason those things which could be straight, and come back to the good sense which is the beginning of good taste."[3]
Louis XVI himself showed little enthusiasm for art or architecture. He left the management of these toCharles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, the Count of Angiviller, who was made Director General of theBâtiments du Roi.[4] Angeviller, for financial reasons, postponed a grand enlargement of thePalace of Versailles, but completed the newChâteau de Compiègne (1751–1783), begun byLouis XV, and decorated it from 1782 to 1786. The King's principal architectural addition to Versailles was the new library on the first floor (begun 1774). He was much more generous to Queen Marie Antoinette; she redecorated the Grand Apartments of the Queen at Versailles in 1785, and carried out important works on her apartments at thePalace of Fontainebleau and Compiègne, as well as new apartments in theTuileries Palace. The King also gave the Queen thePetit Trianon at Versailles, and in 1785 bought a new château for her atSt. Cloud.[5]
Classicism, based Roman and Greek models had been used in French architecture since the time ofLouis XIV; he rejected a plan byGian Lorenzo Bernini for a baroque façade of theLouvre Palace, and chose instead a classical façade with a colonnade and pediment. The architects of Louis XIV,Jules Hardouin-Mansart andJacques Lemercier, turned away from the gothic and renaissance style and used a baroque version of the Roman dome on the new churches atVal-de-Grace andLes Invalides. Louis XV and his chief architects,Jacques Ange Gabriel andJacques-Germain Soufflot continued the style of architecture based upon symmetry and the straight line. Gabriel created the ensemble of classical buildings around thePlace de la Concorde while Soufflot designed thePanthéon (1758–1790) on the Roman model.[6]
An influential building from the late Louis XV period was thePetit Trianon at Versailles (1762–1764), byJacques Ange Gabriel, built for the mistress of the King,Madame de Pompadour. Its cubic form, symmetric facade and Corinthian peristyle, similar to the villas of Palladio, made it model for the following Louis XVI style.
Another notable influence on the style was the architecture of the Renaissance architectAndrea Palladio, which influenced the building of country houses in England, as well as the French architectClaude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806). Palladio's ideas were the inspiration for theChâteau de Louveciennes, and its neoclassical music pavilion (1770–1771) built byClaude Nicolas Ledoux for the mistress of Louis XV,Madame du Barry. The pavilion is cubic in form, with a facade of fourpilasters supporting the architrave and the pilaster of the terrace. It became the model for similar houses under Louis XVI.[7]
The decorative motifs of Louis XVI style were inspired byantiquity, theLouis XIV style, and nature. Characteristic elements of the style: a torch crossed with a sheath with arrows, imbricated disks,guilloché, double bow-knots, smoking braziers, linear repetitions of small motifs (rosettes, beads, oves),trophy or floral medallions hanging from a knotted ribbon,acanthus leaves,gadrooning,interlace,meanders,cornucopias,mascarons, Ancient urns, tripods, perfume burners, dolphins, ram and lion heads,chimeras, andgryphons. Greco-Roman architectural motifs are also very used:flutings,pilasters (fluted and unfluted), flutedbalusters (twisted and straight),columns (engaged and unengaged, sometimes replaced bycaryatids),volutecorbels,triglyphs withguttae (inrelief andtrompe-l'œil).[8]
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Notable monuments of Louis XVI civil architecture include theHotel de la Monnaie in Paris (1771–1776) byJacques Denis Antoine, as well as thePalais de Justice, Paris by the same architect; and the theater ofBesançon (1775) and theChâteau de Bénouville in theCalvados, both by Ledoux. The latter building has geometric architecture, a flat ceiling, and a portico in thegiant order of Corinthian columns. TheÉcole de Chirurgie, or School of Surgery in Paris byJacques Gondoin (1769) adapted the forms of the neoclassical town house, with a court of honor placed between a pavilion with a colonnade on the street and the main building. He also added aperistyle and another floor above the columns, and transformed he entrance to the courtyard into a miniature triumphal arch.[9]
Theatres in Paris and Bordeaux were prominent examples of the new style. The architectVictor Louis (1731–1811) completed theGrand Théâtre de Bordeaux (1780); its majestic stairway was a forerunner of the stairway of the ParisOpera Garnier.[9] In 1791, in the midst of theFrench Revolution, he completed theSalle Richelieu, now the home of theComédie-Française. TheOdeon Theatre in Paris (1779–1782) was built byMarie-Joseph Peyre (1730–1785) andCharles de Wailly (1729–1798). It featured a portico in the form of a covered gallery and columns in advance of the facade.[10]
One of the best-known buildings of the period is the smallChâteau de Bagatelle (1777), designed and built byFrançois-Joseph Bélanger for theComte d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother. The small château was designed and completed in just sixty three days, to win a bet withMarie Antoinette that he could build a château in less than three months. Marie Antoinette had a similar small neoclassical belvedere created by architectRichard Mique, who had also designed theHameau de la Reine, her picturesque rustic village in the gardens.
Another unusual architectural project was the transformation of thePalais Royal in the heart of Paris, into a grand shopping mall. In 1781 theDuc de Chartres, needing money, commissioned architectVictor Louis to create an arcade of shops, cafes and clubs on the ground floor. In 1788 he added a coveredcirque in the center, a covered promenade and space for concerts and entertainments, with a trellis roof supported by seventy-two ionic columns.[11]
The most characteristic building of the late Louis XVI residential style is theHôtel de Salm in Paris (Now thePalais de la Légion d'Honneur, built byPierre Rousseau in 1751–1783. The façade is distinguished by its simplicity and purity, and its harmony and balance. A colonnade of corinthian columns supports theentablature of therotunda, which is surmounted by statues. The façade is also animated by busts of Roman emperors in niches, and sculptures in relief above the windows of the semicircular central avant-corps.[12]
ThePanthéon, designed byJacques Germain Soufflot as the Church of Sainte-Geneviève and begun in 1757 under Louis XV, was the most prominent example of religious architecture under construction during the period. It replaced the colossal columns modeled after those of theChurch of the Gesù andSt. Peter's Basilica in Rome with slender, graceful corinthian columns supporting a continuous entablature. The plan was also classical; the long nave with a vaulted ceiling was replaced by aGreek cross, with the dome in the center. Soufflot employed novel engineering techniques to support the dome; a system of contreforts and arches, and the use of iron bars to support the stone structure. The building was begun in 1764 but not completed until 1790, after the Revolution.[9]
Another important church completed in the Louis XVI period wasÉglise Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (1768–1784) byJean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin. It was one of the last churches finished before the Revolution. The church is inspired by paleo-Christian architecture; it features massive columns and a pediment, and an interior with vaulted ceiling that suggests a vast Roman basilica.[13]
The architectClaude-Nicolas Ledoux specialized in designing functional buildings in greatly simplified the classical style. Examples included his simplified neoclassical design for the customs barrier at La Villette in Paris (1785–1789), with its classical facade androtunda. He was especially known for his project for theRoyal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans (1775–1779) This was a model industrial site, in an elliptical shape, with the house of the factory director in the centre, with a rustic neoclassical colonnade, surrounded by the workshops, storerooms and offices in concentric rings.[14]
Etienne-Louis Boullée (1728–1799) was another visionary architect of the period; his projects, never built, included a monument toIsaac Newton (1784) in the form of an immense dome, with anoculus allowing the light to enter, giving the impression of a sky full of stars. His project for an enlargement of theRoyal Library (1785) was even more dramatic, with a gigantic arch sheltering the collection of books. While none of his projects were ever built, the images were widely published and inspired architects of the period to look outside the traditional forms.[14]
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The Louis XVI style of decoration marked the triumph of neo-classicism, which had been underway in Europe since 1770. It reflected the murals and designs found in the early archeological excavations inHerculaneum andPompeii, and the travels of groups of artists to Greece and Asia Minor. The "taste Pompeiian" was followed by the "taste Etruscan". Motifs in interior decoration includedarabesques andgrotesques on the Pompeiian model.Bas-reliefs in the Greek and Roman style were popular, often in the form of rectangual friezes in bronze on furniture, orstucco, marble, molded stucco, baked earth, or simply painted intrompe-l'œil over doors. Other popular motifs included garlands of oak leaves or olive leaves, interlaced flowers, ribbons or vines, crowns of roses, flaming torches, horns of plenty, and particularly vases from which emerged flowers or vines.[15]
In the early part of the reign of Louis XVI, interior decoration was designed to overwhelm the viewer with its scale, majesty and opulence. Grand halls served multiple purposes, for theatre entertainments, balls, or banquets. An example of the early Louis XVI style is the dining room of theChâteau de Maisons, rebuilt between 1777 and 1782 byFrançois-Joseph Bélanger for theComte d'Artois, the brother of Louis XVI. This dining room, inspired by Grand style of Louis XIV and Louis XV. It features columns of the giant order, inches[clarification needed],pediments,consoles, sculpture in relief, and a gigantic fireplace.
Later in the reign, the tendency shifted to smaller, more intimate and comfortable salons, studies, dining rooms and boudoirs, as the Cabinet Doré of Marie Antoinette at the Palace of Versailles (1783) and the boudoir of Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau, in the Pompeiian style (1785). The Pompeiian style featured mythical animals, such as sphinxes and griffons, horns of plenty, and vases of flowers mounted on tripods. The style also was frequently used infriezes andcameos, in medallions and in white on blueWedgwood porcelain. In the later years of the Louis XVI style, the decorative panels were divided into often geometric divisions, either circles or octagons,[15]
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Louis XVI style furniture, particularly the furniture made for the royal palaces, is among the most finely-crafted and valuable ever produced in France. Much of it was produced at theGarde-Meuble du Roi, the royal furniture workshop, directed by Francois II Foliot (1748–1808). Among the notable craftsmen of the period wereGeorges Jacob, who made a suite of sofas and chairs for the apartments of Marie Antoinette at Versailles and for those of the Comte d'Artois, the King's brother, at the Temple.Oak,mahogany andwalnut were the woods most commonly used. The chairs of the early period made for Marie Antoinette were richly decorated gilded carvings, usually with floral patterns. The chairs and sofas were usually upholstered in satin, with more elaborate medallions embroidered in silk attached. Later in the period, more exotic themes, often taken from popular theatre productions in Paris, appeared in decoration of furniture. These included Chinese, Arabesque, and Etruscan figures. A variety of specialized pieces of furniture were created, including lightweight chairs for men sitting at gambling tables, and specialized chairs for boudoirs, dressing rooms, libraries, and antechambers.[16]
The beds, especially in thechambers de parade or ceremonial bedrooms of the royal palaces, were of monumental proportions and were usually separated from the rest of the room by a balustrade. These beds were termedà la Duchesse, and featured an ornate canopy over the bed. The sculpted and gilded wood frame of the silk embroidered canopy over the bed of Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau, installed in 1787, was so heavy that two additional columns were placed under it at night avoid its collapse.[16]
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The craft of theébéniste, or cabinet-maker, was considered separate from that of other furniture-makers. About a third of theébénistes in Paris were of foreign origin, either second-generation immigrants from Belgium and the Netherlands or first-generation from theRhineland. The latter group included some of the most famous craftsmen, includingJean-Henri Riesener, who became a master in 1768, andDavid Roentgen. They received special protection and patronage from Marie-Antoinette, who admired German craftsmanship.[17]
Several new varieties of the furniture were introduced, including acommode in the form of half-moon form, and thecommode dessert, which had a door in the front with shelves on either side. Thecommode bonheur-du-jour was a dressing table for aboudoir, with a small armoire on top, with either a mirror or a curtain. Thetable à la Tronchin, named afterJean Robert Tronchin, was a table with a built-in-shelf which could be raised by a mechanism for reading. Some of the furniture was small and designed to be easily moved, to quickly rearrange salons. These included thetable bouillotte, a small round table with four legs and drawer.[18]
The tables and cabinets were usually decorated with sculpted and gilded bronze ornament, often in the forms of stylized roses, knotted ribbons, or pine cones. The surfaces were frequently inlaid with plaques of different colored exotic woods ormother-of-pearl, forming either a chequerboard pattern, a pattern of cubes, or more intricate designs. Sometimes the wood was dyed to achieve the color contrast, or pieces of wood were laid with the grain in different directions. Riesener was especially known for richly ornamented surfaces.[18] Roentgen was particularly famous for his desks, which featured a variety of mechanical features as well as superb woodwork.
The royal tapestry workshop ofGobelins continued to produce high-quality large works for royal residences and the nobility, but tastes had changed. The immense tapestries celebrating historical events were largely out of style. Instead of creating new designs, the manufactures of Gobelins,Beauvais, andAubusson recycled old designs, such as theMetamorphoses ofBoucher.[19] An increasing amount of the work was the creation of designs, especially polychrome floral patterns, for the upholstery of the royal furniture. The other two major tapestry workshops, Aubusson and Beauvais, also oriented their work primarily to furniture upholstery.
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Hand-paintedwallpaper had been used since in the 16th century for interior decoration, followed by wood block prints. French aristocrats often used tapestries in the major rooms, but in the antechambers and lesser rooms they often used painted or printed of painted paper designs imported from China, India, and especially England. In 1765, the French government placed a heavy tax on imported wallpaper, stimulating French production. During the reign of Louis XVI, the largest French enterprise for making wallpaper was createdJean-Baptiste Réveillon. In 1784, they received the title of Royal Manufactory, opened a large depot near theTuileries Palace, and hired a group of noted artists and illustrators, including the son of the painterBoucher, to design wallpaper. They also soon developed a process for printing the wallpaper in long rolls. He also made the colorful paper that covered the balloon that made the first manned flight in 1783.[19] Their factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine became one of the largest in Paris, and was an early target of demonstrations at the beginning of theFrench Revolution.
Another popular style that developed during the period was the decoration of rooms with panoramic scenes, composed of a number of painted or printed panels put together. These were commonly used in boudoirs and bath chambers. The salon of the pavilion of the Countess of Provence in Montreuil, and the countrycottage ofLouis Joseph, Prince of Condé atChantilly had a similar panorama installed in 1775.[19]
Another popular form of decoration was printed fine cotton, with elaborate arabesques and floral patterns. The most famous variety wastoile de Jouy. The fabric was made with wood block prints, was usually white and red or blue and red, was used to cover beds, for curtains, and for the covers of furniture. Another important industry was that of the manufacture of silk products. The best quality silk was made inLyon, and was sold toCatherine the Great of Russia,Frederick the Great of Prussia, and other royal clients.Lampas silk coverings with motifs of arabesques and medallions covered the walls of the billiards room of Marie-Antoinette in 1779, and thereafter became fashionable in Paris residences.[19]
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The most famous painter of the later French baroque wasFrançois Boucher, who perfectly captured the spirit and style of the period. After his death in 1770, shortly before the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI, he had no real successor in the baroque style. The end of the reign of Louis XV also brought to prominence the first artist to paint in the neoclassical style,Joseph Marie Vien, who painted scenes of Rome inspired by the discoveries atHerculaneum andPompeii. Vien became the last holder of the title offirst painter of the King, which he held from 1789 to 1791. Jean Peyron was another neoclassicist in the early Louis XVI reign.Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was noted for her portraits of the royal family and nobility, including of Marie Antoinette and her children.
The most prominent neoclassicist by far wasJacques-Louis David, whose works well before the revolution expressed the Roman virtues of noble and grave simplicity. His major early works includedBelisarius Begging for Alms (1781),Andromache Mourning Hector (1783), and especiallyOath of the Horatii (1784), exalting the willingness of Roman soldiers to give their lives for the nation. The painting was so popular when shown at the Salon of 1785 that David was permitted to establish his studio in the Louvre, a particular honor for artists. This painting became a model of the style that dominated French art during and after the Revolution.[20]
Sculpture evolved from the more animated forms of theBaroque art to the more serene neoclassical style. The sculptors who were most prominent in the period includedÉtienne Maurice Falconet, who created table sculptures on classical and romantic themes for many Parisian salons, as well as the famousBronze Horseman, a statue of Peter the Great on horseback forSaint Petersburg. Another notable portrait sculptor wasAugustin Pajou, who also made statues of Greek and Roman gods, illustrating virtues; his statue of Mercury represented commerce. The most celebrated portrait sculptor wasJean-Antoine Houdon, known for his busts of leading figures of the period, including, in 1790, in the midst of the Revolution, Louis XVI himself.Louis-Simon Boizot was prominent for making busts of the nobility, including Marie Antoinette, but also for modeling figures for theSevres porcelain factory, which became better known than his more formal sculpture. Examples include hisThe Toilet of Madame, made of hard-paste porcelain, mounted on a plaque of marble and gilded bronze.
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Musical tastes at court were guided byMarie Antoinette. The Queen played the harp and sang, and had been, in Vienna, a student ofChristoph Willibald Gluck. Her favorite composers were Gluck andGrétry, and she regularly attended concerts at theAcademy of Music and theConcert Sprituel, a society created to support new religious music. Gluck came to Paris in December 1776 for performances of his operaIphigenie en Tauride, and remained to compose seven more operas. However, his opera,Echo et Narcisse in 1779, was a failure, and he departed Paris, never to return.[21]
Mozart came to Paris in 1778, where he conducted two symphonies including theParis Symphony, and gave music lessons to members of the nobility, as didJoseph Haydn. The members of the new Masonic movement in Paris were particularly active in sponsoring music; they commissioned Haydn in 1785–86 to write theSymphonies parisiennes all of which premiered in Paris under the direction ofJoseph Bologne.[22]
![Château de Voisins, Saint-Hilarion, France, by René Sergent (1903–1906)[23]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aCh%25C3%25A2teau_de_Voisins_Saint-Hilarion_1.jpg)
![Grand salon of the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, by René Sergent (1910–1913)[24]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGrand_Salon_in_Mus%25C3%25A9e_Nissim_de_Camondo_5.jpg)
![Postmodern Louis XVI lowboy by Robert Venturi for Arc International (c.1985), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA[25]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRobert_venturi_per_paul_downs_cabinetmakers%2c_comodino_louis_xvi%2c_1984.jpg)
![Louis Ghost by Philippe Starck (2009), various locations[26]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPhilippe_starck_per_kartell_spa%2c_poltrona_masters%2c_2009.jpg)
