French and English furniture / distinctive styles and periods described and illustrated

by Esther Singleton

PLATE XIII

The influence of Le Brun cannot be over-estimated. All the industries of the day that had any connection with art passed into his control. For at least twenty-five years, he regulated all the types and models, and was the arbiter and judge of the productions. He furnished designs for painters, sculptors, cabinet-makers, weavers, etc., etc. Let us in confirmation of this turn to the Mercure de France for 1692; “Although I have mentioned,” says the writer, “many works, I have forgotten to speak of those large and superb cabinets that they make at the Gobelins from his designs and under his guidance; it would seem that all the arts have contributed something to them. Finally, M. Le Brun is so universal that all the arts work under him, and he even goes so far as to make designs for the locksmith. I have seen very cultivated strangers gazing at the locks and bolts of the doors and windows at Versailles and the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre as if they were chefs-d’œuvre, from whose beauty they could not tear themselves away.”

Colbert’s industrial system was founded upon the idea of useful luxury. Everything in common use had to be beautiful, and the result was that, although the taste was aristocratic, the result upon France was democratic. Silk and velvet, tapestry and rugs, vases of porphyry and porcelain, candelabra and andirons, clocks and articles of silver, rich cabinets and armoires, in fact, all kinds of useful and ornamental articles were soon to be found in middle-class houses as well as in the homes of the wealthy. A great progress was noted in the art of the dyer; the tapestries became brighter, with the famous Gobelin scarlet, Lyons black, Rouen blue, Tours green, the Nîmes yellow, etc.

To appreciate the general luxury of the day, let us recall the magnificent entertainment that Fouquet gave to Louis XIV. at the Castle of Vaux, when “he went so far as to cause to be placed in the room of each courtier of the King’s retinue a purse filled with gold to supply at the play those who had not enough, or none at all;” and the still more remarkable lottery that Cardinal Mazarin held in his palace in 1660 (the year before his death), for the benefit of the courtiers. The prizes given on this occasion consisted of precious stones, jewels, textiles, mirrors, tables, cabinets, and other furniture, crystal candelabra, silverware, gloves, ribbons and fans, valued altogether at half a million.

Again, when Louis received the Siamese Ambassador, he was seated on a throne of silver, and his costume was so heavy with gold and jewels that he was soon forced to remove it.

It was an age of jewels. Travellers brought home from the East many precious stones, particularly diamonds; Tavernier, for instance, made six voyages to India and Persia, and brought diamonds to the King. Chardin, merchant to the King, publishes his voyage to Persia. This contact with the East touches popular fancy, and the Persian, the Turk and the Hindu appear in court-ballets, and their art often inspires the art of the day, as may be noted in some of the arabesques of Jean Bérain.

The general impression of the Louis XIV. style is that of imposing majesty,—a style that is more appropriate to ceremonial rooms than to familiar living. It is an age of carved and gilded furniture; the period indeed has been called “the triumph of gilded wood.” The carving, however, is entrusted to sculptors who seem to find inspiration in the work of the goldsmiths, for the complicated ornamentation that appears on the frames of chairs sofas, consoles, tables, etc., etc., suggests the chiselling of metal. Dead gold and burnished gold are both used, and the profusion of scrolls, leafy boughs, guilloches, heavy foliage, lozenge-shaped imbrications embossed with flowers in high relief, shells and flowers in high relief, arranged as festoons, garlands, bouquets, and sheaves, not to speak of the acanthus, the mascaron and the cartouche, produce an appearance of luxury and brilliancy that was unknown until the days of Louis XIV.

In the reign of Louis XIV., it was generally understood that every piece of decorative work should consist of a combination of the straight line and the curve. A series of bars interlaced, or ending with scrolls, is a distinguishing characteristic of this period. This combination is found not only in the forms of the furniture, but in the inlays of wood and brass and upon the walls of rooms, both painted and carved.

A feeling of stoutness and width characterizes the mouldings, the hollows of which never refuse to admit light, and these architectural mouldings are usually rich in classic ornaments (palm-leaves, ovolos, etc.). Sometimes the mouldings are replaced by a torus enriched with imbricated laurel-leaves.