The Louis XVI. style is easily recognizable. In every kind of furniture whether viewed from the full face or profile, the straight line strikes the eye. It is everywhere, in all the uprights, in the leg and backs of tables and chairs, and parallel lines are close together. Another striking object is a peculiarly slender oval that appears in medallions and vases and all kinds of ornaments. Oval medallions are to be met with on panels and wood marquetry in light tints. These medallions, in which the favourite device is a basket of flowers, are surrounded by a frame, or border, of a straight row of eggs, itself bordered within by a row of pearls. At the top of the medallion is a knot or bow of ribbon, from which falls on either side a little bunch of flowers.
The indications of the coming Louis XVI. style really began between 1745 and 1750, and developed at the same time that the rococo was in full flower. The discoveries made in Pompeii and Herculaneum are responsible for the enthusiasm of certain masters of decoration for the straight line and the regular forms of Greek art. Madame de Pompadour greatly favoured this new style.
This period is characterized by a peculiar liking, or pretended liking for everything relating to the fields and to nature. Books of Idylles and Bergeries are multiplied; l’homme de champs has appeared in literature; and the word “sensible” is very fashionable. The works of J. J. Rousseau, Berquin and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre are now being widely read. Ornamentation includes all the pastoral attributes (such as shepherds’ crooks, shepherds’ and shepherdesses’ hats, scythes, rakes, spades, watering-pots, pipes, flutes, Basque drums, and bird-cages), knots of ribbon, wreaths of roses, bunches of flowers, baskets of flowers, falling garlands, sheaves of wheat, architectural eggs and pearls, or beads, parallel groovings, the thyrsus, quivers, torches, the lyre, the broken column, the grooved shaft, the little open galleries or rails on the tops of pieces of furniture (see Plates [XLVIII.] No. 1; XLVII. and [XLIV.]) and round, oval, elliptical, or long square medallions containing pastoral subjects. Acanthus scrolls with slender stems support the tablets; and the mouldings are almost invariably bordered with pearl headings. The laurel leaf in the form of a wreath, or a swag, is often used; and the husk, or bell-flower, drops down the pilasters and legs of furniture. (Typical legs appear as Nos. 6 and 7 on Plate [XLVII.]) The vase is exceedingly prominent. Sometimes it holds flowers, sometimes a pine cone or a flame; the shield is also evident; the woodwork is often oak painted white; the walls are divided up by pilasters delicately carved and painted in colours, and often the mouldings are gilt. The chairs and sofas are covered with rich silk or tapestry. Pastoral subjects, flowers and trophies are worked for the backs and seats. Cabinets and tables are inlaid with woods of various colours: tulip-wood, rosewood, pear, holly and ebony are all in use; and bright colours are obtained by chemical treatment.
A critic has asked: “How is this? Should a decorator lose all sense of appropriateness and invite you to sit down upon a pigeon, to obliterate a love scene, and lean your back against a panier of fruit, or a basket of flowers?” The answer was: “Is it not as absurd to eat from a plate decorated with flowers which will mingle with the sauces, or to drink from a cup decorated with butterflies which might fly down your throat! If the pigeons, baskets of flowers and pastoral scenes delight the eye, that is sufficient.”
The materials used in this style are principally white marble, bronzes covered with a soft burnished gold, woods painted white, or in pale delicate hues, such as grey, with which is mixed a little blue, green, or red. To these numerous shades of grey the name “celadon” was given.
“The effort was everywhere made to substitute straight lines for curved and broken lines and unsymmetrical forms, so that simultaneously a right principle of construction was recognized and ornament was no longer required to serve constructive ends. It recovered its place as mere decoration, and as such was added or applied to furniture, though not always happily, for chairs and tables were adorned with freely modelled festoon and floating ribbons and garlands, which were too loosely connected with the objects decorated, and stood in too slight connection with them. Not only were the structural parts of furniture once more made rectilinear, but their profiles and dimensions were decidedly more delicate, and the legs of chairs and tables tapered downward to a point. Although this is essentially right in principle, as it gives furniture a more portable appearance, still it can be carried too far. This was so much the case with the furniture of this period that tables, chairs, high-legged secretaries and cabinets look poor and thin, stiff and stilted,—an effect which is not condoned by their elegant prettiness.”
The above quotation is from Falk, who goes on to say:
“That which was new in the style of Louis XVI. consisted in the employment of antique ornamental designs, which, having lately been made known through the excavations at Pompeii, had become fashionable; we mean those flowery, conventional, and charming arabesques interspersed with many graceful animal forms, with which the decorators of the time skilfully and pleasingly added an approach to the realistic use of natural forms, quite opposed to the system of Rococo ornament. Perfectly preserved examples of this style of ornament, which was used at the Petit Trianon, still exist in the above-mentioned boudoir of Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau, as well as in the palace at Haga,[[19]] both painted on and carved in the woodwork, although the latter is not left in its natural colour, but is gilded in various shades.”
Pollen describes the interior decoration of the rooms of this period as follows: