CHAPTER XIX
THE PERIODS OF THE THREE LOUIS
The only way to learn how to distinguish the three Louis is to study these periods in collections of furniture and objects of art, or, where this is impossible, to go through books showing interiors of those periods. In this way one learns to visualise the salient features of any period and gradually to acquire a feeling for them, that subtle sense which is not dependent wholly upon outline, decoration, nor colour, but upon the combined result.
French writers who specialise along the lines of interior decoration often refer to the three types as follows:
Period of Louis XIV—heavily, stolidly masculine;
Period of Louis XV—coquettishly feminine;
Period of Louis XVI—lightly, alertly masculine.
One soon sees why, for Louis XIV furniture does suggest masculinity by its weight and size. It is squarely made, straight (classic) in line, equally balanced, heavily ponderous and magnificent. Over its surface, masses of decoration immobile as stone carving, are evenly dispersed, and contribute a grandiose air to all this furniture.