Louis Styles

LOUIS STYLES, the French decorative and architectural styles generally current during the reigns of Louis XIII., XIV., XV. and XVI. In all a vacillation between the ideals of classic grandeur and fantastic, imaginative lavishness is observable.

Louis XIII. (1610-1643), a period noteworthy for the gradual change from the extreme Baroque of the Henry IV. style to the classic grandeur of that of Louis XIV. and for the beginning of the use of various scroll and shell-like forms which were used in varying forms throughout the Louis styles. The influence of the contemporary Italian Baroque style was very strong, but in interior work many painted panels, often with curved ends, gave promise of later development.

Louis XIV. (1643-1715) .—Classic formality dominated the early years of this period. More and more, as the period pro gressed, the wish for the most lavish possible decoration led to modifications of the earlier classicism, which, however, continued to dominate exterior design. In interior work, curved headed panels were common, often decorated at the top with shells and complicated, interlaced, rather thin acanthus scrolls. Panel moulds were reduplicated and complex. The fire-place frames were scrolled and bowed, and the use of enormous mirrors was fre quent. Classic orders continued to be used, although a growing desire for softness of form led to the imposition of a wide, curved, sweep or cove, usually decorated with a network pattern between the cornice of the order and the ceiling proper. During the end of the period, sometimes differentiated as the Regence (1715 1773) style, a growing love for curves overwhelmed the last rem nants of classic dignity. Panel corners were cut off and the cus tom became universal of surrounding each panel with at least three sets of mouldings and of painting all interiors white, with lavish gilding upon mouldings and carvings. The classic orders gradually disappeared from interior use.

Louis XV. (1750-1774), merely a logical development of the love of fantastic curves which had grown up during the Regence.

Exteriors, however, were little affected, except in minor details, and as interiors became richer and more bizarre, exteriors became colder and more restrained. In interior work, the love of curves dominated everything. Panels not only had universally curved tops, but were frequently asymmetrical. The carving at panel heads and bases became continuously richer, more naturalistic, and more involuted, and panel moulds frequently died into, or were combined with, this carving. Definite cornice lines were avoided and wall decoration carried up into the ceiling. Fantasy, combined richness and delicacy, and unbridled imagination were the aims of the developed period.

Louis XVI. ( 1

the reaction against the excessive and bizarre fancies of the Louis XV. style. The classic ideal which had been banished to exterior architecture returned and controlled design inside as well as out. Rectangular panels again became universal, although the triple panel mould remained. Cornices came back into use; pilasters occasionally framed mirrors and doors and simple semi-circular or oval arches replaced the broken curves. At times, early Louis XVI. work strongly resembled the early work of the Louis XIV. period, but as the style developed, it attained a new delicacy entirely alien to the taste of the time of the "Sun King." The romanticism which coloured the literature of the period, and fostered a false pastoral sentimentality among the upper classes, found expression in the decorative painting of panels and over doors. See PERIODS OF ART.

The same conflict between classic formality and playful fantasy that characterized the architecture dominates the other arts.

During the reign of Louis XIII. and the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. a formal and dry classicism was almost universal. Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) was characteristic; a man of brilliant and basically unconventional genius, he was yet forced by the spirit of the times to paint largely scenes from classic history and mythology.