Régence
The immediate successor of the style of the Grand Monarch was the phase known as Régence, in which the strap frame was moulded in section, and the whole detail became much lighter, resulting in more open or plain spaces.
In the period of Louis XV restraint was thrown overboard, panels and enclosed areas were framed with mouldings irresponsible in curvature, and without regard to structural conditions. The growth line disappeared, the leafage and other details being arbitrarily disposed on the framing mouldings, which were generally in flattened and elongated curves opposed to each other in flexured lines. In comparison with the preceding Louis XIV style the ornament is thin and liney in character, the leaf, still of the acanthus type, is greatly modified both in form and detail, the ends of the lobes being curled and twisted spirally.