Classic Sofas
Introduction
The furniture of the Louis XV period (1715-1774) is characterized by curved shapes, lightness, comfort and asymmetry; it replaced the more formal, boxy, chunky furniture of the Louis XIV style. It used marquetry, using inlays of exotic woods of different colors, as well as ivory and mother-of-pearl.
The style had three different periods. During the early years (1715-1730), called the Regency, when the king was too young to rule, the furniture followed the geometric and massive style of the Louis XIV style. From 1730 to about 1750, the period known as the first style, it was much more asymmetrical, ornate and exuberant, in the fashion called rocaille. From about 1750 until the king's death in 1774, there was a reaction against the excesses of rockery. The Louis XV style showed the influences of Neoclassicism, based on recent archaeological discoveries in Italy and Greece. It featured Roman and Greek motifs. Later furniture featured decorative elements of Chinoiserie and other exotic styles.[1].
Louis XV's furniture was not designed for the grand salons of Louis It included several new types of furniture, including the toilet and dressing table, and many pieces, particularly chairs and tables, were designed to be easily moved, rearranged, or moved from room to room, depending on the type of function.[2].
History
With the death of Louis XIV on September 1, 1715, his grandson, Louis XV, born in 1710, became king. Due to its young age, France was ruled by a regent, Philip of Orleans, until 1723. During this period, the style of furniture changed little from the Louis XIV period; It was enormous, lavishly decorated and solemn, designed for the gigantic state halls of the new Palace of Versailles. In 1722, Louis XV moved from Paris, where he had lived with the regent, to Versailles, began his own government and gradually imposed his own taste in the arts, architecture and furniture.[3]
Louis left the exterior of Versailles and the other palaces virtually unchanged, but from 1738 he extensively redesigned the interiors, creating the petits apartments, or smaller apartments and halls for himself, the queen, Marie Leszczyńska, whom he married in 1725, and later, for his main mistresses, Madame Pompadour and Madame du Barry. In these rooms the traditional etiquette and formality of Louis XIV was abandoned. These new smaller room suites were furnished in a new style that met the needs of comfort, intimacy and elegance. Beginning around 1730, his preference was for the style called , a term referring to an ornamental decoration resembling a stylized seashell, a style that expressed playfulness and whimsy. The ornament appeared rarely on the exteriors of the new buildings, but profusely on the interiors, on walls, ceilings, and furniture.[3] Architects Robert de Cotte and Ange-Jacques Gabriel redid the interiors of the Palace of Versailles, the Palace of Fontainebleau, and the Château de Compiègne in the new style.[4]