Louis XV style

The Louis XV style or Louis Quinze is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV of France. From 1710 until about 1730, the period known as the Regency, it was largely an extension of the style of his great-grandfather and predecessor, Louis XIV of France. From about 1730 until about 1750, it became more original, decorative and exuberant, in what was known as the rocaille style, under the influence of the King’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour. It marked the beginning of the European Rococo movement. From 1750 until the King’s death in 1774, it became more sober, ordered, and began to show the influences of neo-classicism.

Period
The Louis XV style developed mainly in the second quarter of the eighteenth century (1723-1750). It is already announced in the Regency style and extends into the following periods, especially in the provinces. It coincides only very roughly with the long reign of the monarch: 1715-1774. Very daring in his time, he experienced a resurgence of success in furniture produced in the late nineteenth century.

The waving of the Louis XV style gradually gives way to the rigid majesty of the Louis XVI style during the following period when we speak of Transition style .

Previous or pre-existing styles
The Louis XV style succeeds the Regency style which is a sketch by the gradual abandonment of the classical inspiration that prevailed since the Renaissance, and which is tempted by the Baroque.
Political and cultural situation
Louis XV , who was elected to the throne at the age of five in 1715 after the death of his great-grandfather Louis XIV , was declared a major on the threshold of his fourteenth year in 1723 , putting an end to the regency of his great-uncle Philip Duke of Orleans . The king and especially his wife Marie Leszczyńska must maintain a furnished courtyard and surround themselves with artists and artisans. This splendor will last until the 1760s , the date that marks the end of the style before the many bereavements saddening the last years of the monarch (1752 and 1759, his eldest daughters, Henriette-Anne and Louise-Elisabeth, Duchess of Parma, 1761 the Duke of Burgundy, his grandson and heir to second Louis aged 10, 1763, his granddaughter, wife of the future Emperor Marie-Isabelle of Bourbon-Parma , 1764, the Marquise de Pompadour, his favorite, 1765 his son Philip 1st , Duke of Parma and his son the Dauphin Louis , 1766, his father-in-law Stanislas Leszczynski , life-giving Duke of Lorraine and Bar, 1767, the dauphine Marie-Josephus of Saxony , 1768, Queen Marie Lesczynska ).

Aesthetics
Main features
The Louis XV style is a style that could be described as Dionysian :

In response to the Louis XIV style where the furniture was to emanate power and impose respect to the point of becoming crushing, it is characterized by its lightness: Louis XV furniture is charming, elegant, light and invites more relaxation and to the distractions of the court than to the solemnity.
As evidenced by the abundance of curves and patterns such as shell, foliage or garlands, this style draws some of its inspiration from nature.
It is a style that is characterized by a search for intimacy and comfort. The rooms are smaller and warmer, the ceilings are lower, the woodwork is painted in soft tones (pastel colors, pink, cream).

It’s a style of invention:

One thus sees appear the foot curved (said ” foot Louis XV “) which is an evolution of the feet in the form of animal legs, but here it is the legs of doe , and no longer of lion , which are taken like model.
For the first time since the Middle Ages , asymmetry reappears. Small dressers , often asymmetrical are nonetheless always balanced. Without being able to say why at first glance, it results in an impression of elegant and mischievous fantasy.
Priority is given to the decoration rather than to the useful form , for example on the dressers, the bronze decorations extend from one drawer to another, until the intersection between them disappears.
The furniture is redesigned to occupy all the space of the rooms, and not only the periphery as can still be seen today at the Château de Versailles . This is the reverse side of the files is more worked.
The seat belt becomes curved in plan, but also for the first time in elevation.
It is the appearance of the violin back and the cabriolet back (curve in plan), for the seats which are in the middle of the room, although one always uses the file with the queen (right in plan), violiné or not , for seats intended to stay along the walls.

Ornamentation
It is the reign of the Ornemanistes , new profession ancestor of the decorators: they are interested in a project of interior decoration in its entirety, since the paneling, stuccoes and paintings until the furniture and the chandeliers.

Louis XV furniture is often decorated with bronze motifs in the Rococo style.

The marquetry is first abandoned in favor of the frieze where the beauty of the essence ( amaranth , satin , rosewood and violet …) prevails; then it returns to fashion from 1745 with representations of bouquets of flowers and / or musical instruments (on the court furniture), very provided and colored.

Elements of bronzes often finely chiseled and gilded with mercury reminiscent of the decorations of woodwork (present at the apron, falls, handles or framing sticks) reveal all the repertoire of the aquatic world (rockeries, foliage elements, acanthus leaves , rushes) while the shells from the regency become indented, gaudronnés …

The seats are filled with flowery silks, and are often entirely gilded .

The furniture is often furnished with panels of lacquer Far East. Research to imitate these lacquers stimulates the development of European lacquers ( Martin varnish ).

Architecture
The chief architect of the King was Jacques Gabriel from 1734 until 1742, and then his more famous son, Ange-Jacques Gabriel until the end of the reign. His major works included the Ecole Militaire, the ensemble of buildings overlooking the Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde (1761-1770)} and the Petit Trianon at Versailles (1764). Over the course of the reign of Louis XV, while interiors were lavishly decorated, the facades gradually became simpler, less ornamented and more classical. The facades designed Gabriel were carefully rhymed and balanced by rows of windows and columns, and, on large buildings like those the Place de la Concorde, often featured grand arcades on the street level, and classical pediments or balustrades on the roofline. Ornamental features sometimes included curving wrought-iron balconies with undulating rocaille designs, similar to the rocaille decoration of the interiors.

The religious architecture of the period was also sober and monumental and tended, at the end of the reign, toward and the neo-classical; major examples include the Church of Saint-Genevieve (now the Panthéon), built from 1758 to 1790 to a design by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, and Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (1765-1777) by Jean Chalgrin, which featured an enomrous barrel-vaulted nave.

Interior decoration
Interior decoration during the reign of Louis XV fell into two periods; the first especially featured rocaille ornament, sculpted sinuous curves and counter-curves, often in floral and vegetative patterns, applied to the panels of the walls, often with medallions in the center. The panels large mirrors were framed in often framed with sculpted palm leaves or other floral decoration. Unlike the rococo style, the ornament was usually restrained, symmetrical and balanced. In the early period of the style, the designs were often inspired by French versions of Chinse art, animals, especially monkeys (Singerie) and arabesques, or themes taken from works of the artists of the period, including Jean Bérain the Younger, Watteau and Jean Audran.

After 1750, in reaction to the excesses of the earlier style, the designs and moldings on the interior walls were white or pale colored, more geometric, decorated with sculped garlands, roses, and crowns, and ornamented with designs inspired by ancient Greece and Rome. This style was found in the Salon de Compagnie at the Petit Trianon, and was the predecessor of the style of Louis XVI.

Furniture
The chairs of the Louis XV style, compared with those of Louis XIV, were characterized by lightness, comfort and harmony of lines. The traverse support of the legs disappeared, and the chairs were designed so one could sit back comfortably. The legs had a curving ‘S shape. The carved decor featured sculpted fleurettes, palmettes, seashells, and foliage. The dossier, or back of the chair, was violones, slightly curved like a violin. Several new variants of chairs appeared including the bergere, with stuffed upholstered arms, A confessional, with upholstered and padded arms; the Marquise, a bergere seating two persons, with a low back, and short arms.

The Console table was a table designed to be placed against a wall, usually used for displaying art objects; it was almost always in the rocaille style, with undulating curves, modeled after seashells and foliage. very sinuous, twisting rocaille modeled after seashells and foliage.

The Commode was a new type of furniture which had first appeared late in the reign of Louis XIV. It was a chest drawers resting on four S-shaped legs. It usually featured gilded bronze ornament, but during the reign of Louis XV, it was also covered with plaques of exotic woods of different colors in geometric patterns or floral shapes. A particular variation, called the façon de Chine or “Chinese fashion” emerged, which contrasted the gilded bronze against black lacquered wood. A large number of skilled ébénistes from around Europe were employed to fine wood Commodes and other furniture for the King. They included Jean-François Oeben, Roger Vandercruse Lacroix, Gilles Joubert, Antoine Gaudreau, and Martin Carlin.

A variety of other new types of furniture appeared, including the chiffonier, a cabinet with five drawers, and the table de toilette, a kind of desk-table with three shutters, the central one having a mirror.

Later in the reign of Louis XV, between 1755 and 1760, tastes in furniture began to change. The rocaille designs began more discreet and restrained, and the influence of antiquity and neo-classicism began to appear in new designs of furniture. The Commodes became to have more geometric forms; the decoration turned from rocaille to geometric forms, garlands of oak leaves, flowers and classical motifs. A new type of tall cabinet, the Cartonnier, made its appearance between 1760 and 1765. It took its inspiration from Greek mythology and architecture, with friezes, vaulting, sculpted trophies, bronze lion heads, and other classic, elements.

Iconic Louis XV style furniture
The furniture consists mainly of small furniture.

The most manufactured furniture are:

small dressers with two drawers and hidden crosspieces ;
small tables or services ;
all kinds of seats;
the game tables .

New furniture
In the field of the seat appears the right file says “to the queen” and the concave file says “in cabriolet” with different notches
The sofa (Ottoman, Sultana, Paphosis) .
The shepherdess , lady’s chair wide and low to accommodate the dresses to basket, furnished with a cushion and rich silks with flower pattern and chinoiserie
The slope office , which soon gives way to the roll secretary
The library
The hairdresser
The beds: alcove: the Polish bed: two backs from which four curtains raised at the corners. And the turkish bed: three files including one applied to the wall.

Materials
With regard to the construction of the furniture, the oak begins to generalize and to supplant the fir tree very used under Louis XIV .

Veneers are diversifying to extend the range of colors. We leave the ebony in favor of more shimmering essences: rosewood and violet (furniture plated with these essences seems dull today, because of the effects of time, but their original color was very pronounced), rosewood , boxwood , pear tree (tinted or natural), plum tree .

As for the seats, they are often solid wood, including beech , walnut , cherry , and mahogany (although it lends itself pretty badly to the seat, because it is brittle). They are often painted or entirely gilded.

Techniques and tools
The new forms required a new tool: the invention was invented in particular for the feet and the curved panels (this tool is the last cabinetmaking tool to have been invented).

New techniques are devised to press the curved panels which, remember, have a curvature in two planes which prevents preparing the flat marquetry.

In the field of the seat, the caning remains the technique that brings the most comfort, but for aesthetic reasons it is often preferred a seat of horsehair and wool stretched brocade (the spring will appear in the seat pads that from the early nineteenth century ).

Painting
The dominant subjects of painting in the early reign of Louis XV were mythology and history, the same as those of Louis XV. Later in the reign, when Louis began to construct new apartments within the palaces of Versailles and Fontanebleau, his tastes turned more to pastoral scenes and genre painting. Madame de Pompadour, the king’s mistress, was also one of the major patrons of the artists of the period.

The most favored artist of the King was François Boucher, He produced for the King art of every description; religious paintings, genre scenes, landscapes, pastorals, and exotic scenes, frequently featuring gatherings of cheerful and seductive nudes. As the king’s other great passion was hunting, he painted Leopard hunt (1765) and Crocodile hunt (1767) for the King’s new apartments at Versailles. In 1767, near the end of the career, he was named First Painter of the King.

Other notable painters included Jean Baptiste Oudry, whose hunting scenes decorated royal apartments in Versailles, and were made into tapestries and popular engravings; the portrait artists Maurice Quentin de la Tour and Jean-Marc Nattier, who made portraits for the royal family and aristocracy; and the genre painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

Sculpture
The sculptural styles of the Grand Siécle of Louis XIV continued to dominate during most of the reign of Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was a particularly enthusiastic patroness of sculpture, and many busts and statues were made of her or commissioned by her. The most prominent sculptors of the early period were the Guillaume Coustou the Younger and his brother, Guillaume Coustou the Elder, Robert Le Lorrain, and Edmé Bouchardon. Bouchardon created the equestrian statue of Louis XV for the center of the new Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde) which was modeled after that of Louis XIV in the Place Louis le Grand (now Place Vendôme) by François Girardon. After the death of Bouchardon, the statue was finished by another major monumentalist of the period, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In the later part of the reign of Louis XV, sculptors began to give greater attention to the faces; the leaders of this new style were Jean-Antoine Houdon noted for his busts of celebrated authors and statesmen, and Augustin Pajou, who made notable portrait busts of the natural scientist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and Madame du Barry. Sculpture began to reach a larger popular audience during this period, thanks to reproductions made from terra cotta and unglazed porcelain.

Urbanism: monumental squares and fountains
In the later years of his reign, Louis constructed a major new square in the center of the city, Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde, with a harmonious row of new buildings, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. He built other monumental squares in the centers of Rennes and Bordeaux. He also constructed one monumental fountain in Paris, the Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons, with statuary by Edmé Bouchardon; but it was poorly sited on a narrow street, and while it had an abundance of sculpture, because of the antiquated water supply of Paris, it produced very little water. The fountain was criticized by Voltaire in a letter to the Count de Caylus in 1739, while it was still under construction:

I have no doubt that Bouchardon will make of this fountain a fine piece of architecture; but what kind of fountain has only two faucets where the water porters will come to fill their buckets? This isn’t the way fountains are built in Rome to beautify the city. We need to lift ourselves out of taste that is gross and shabby. Fountains should be built in public places, and viewed from all the gates. There isn’t a single public place in the vast faubourg Saint-Germain; that makes my blood boil. Paris is like the statue of Nabuchodonosor, partly made of gold and partly made of muck.

Source From Wikipedia