Furnishing the Home of Good Taste | Page 9

made France the authority of the world and firmly imposed
his taste and his will on the country. Now that this absolute power of
one man is a thing of the past, we have the influence of many men
forming and molding something that may turn into a beautiful epoch of
decoration, one that will have in it some of the feeling that brought the
French Renaissance to its height, though not like it, for we have the
same respect for individuality working within the laws of beauty that
they had.
The style that takes its name from Louis XIV was one of great
magnificence and beauty with dignity and a certain solidity in its
splendor. It was really the foundation of the styles that followed, and a
great many people look upon the periods of Louis XIV, the Regency,
Louis XV and Louis XVI as one great period with variations, or ups
and downs--the complete swing and return of the pendulum.
Louis XIV was a man with a will of iron and made it absolute law
during his long reign of seventy-two years. His ideal was splendor, and
he encouraged great men in the intellectual and artistic world to do
their work, and shed their glory on the time. Condé, Turenne, Colbert,
Molière, Corneille, La Fontaine, Racine, Fénélon, Boulle, Le Brun, are
a few among the long and wonderful list. He was indeed Louis the
Magnificent, the Sun King.
One of the great elements toward achieving the stupendous results of
this reign was the establishment of the "Manufacture des Meubles de la
Couronne," or, as it is usually called, "Manufacture des Gobelins."

Artists of all kinds were gathered together and given apartments in the
Louvre and the wonderfully gifted and versatile Le Brun was put at the
head. Tapestry, goldsmiths' work, furniture, jewelry, etc., were made,
and with the royal protection and interest France rose to the position of
world-wide supremacy in the arts. Le Brun had the same taste and love
of magnificence as Louis, and had also extraordinary executive ability
and an almost unlimited capacity for work, combined with the power of
gathering about him the most eminent artists of the time. André Charles
Boulle was one, and his beautiful cabinets, commodes, tables, clocks,
etc., are now almost priceless. He carried the inlay of metals,
tortoise-shell, ivory and beautiful woods to its highest expression, and
the mingling of colors with the exquisite workmanship gave most
wonderful effects. Sheets of white metal or brass were glued together
and the pattern was then cut out. When taken apart the brass scrolls
could be fitted exactly into the shell background, and the shell scrolls
into the brass background, thus making two decorations. The shell
background was the more highly prized. The designs usually had a
Renaissance feeling. The metal was softened in outline by engraving,
and then ormolu mounts were added. Ormolu or gilt bronze mounts,
formed one of the great decorations of furniture. The most exquisite
workmanship was lavished on them, and after they had been cast they
were cut and carved and polished until they became worthy ornaments
for beautiful inlaid tables and cabinets. The taste for elaborately carved
and gilded frames to chairs, tables, mirrors, etc., developed rapidly.
Mirrors were made by the Gobelins works and were much less
expensive than the Venetian ones of the previous reign. Walls were
painted and covered with gold with a lavish hand. Tapestries were truly
magnificent with gold and silver threads adding richness to their beauty
of color, and were used purely as a decoration as well as in the old
utilitarian way of keeping out the cold. The Gobelins works made at
this time some of the most beautiful tapestries the world has known.
The massive chimney-pieces were superseded by the "petite-cheminée"
and had great mirrors over them or elaborate over-mantels. The whole
air of furnishing and decoration changed to one of greater lightness and
brilliancy. The ideal was that everything, no matter how small, must be
beautiful, and we find the most exquisite workmanship lavished on
window-locks and door-knobs.

[Illustration: One of a set of three rare Louis XIV chairs, beautifully
carved and gilded, and said to have belonged to the great Louis
himself.]
In the early style of Louis XIV, we find many trophies of war and
mythological subjects used in the decorative schemes. The second style
of this period was a softening and refining of the earlier one, becoming
more and more delicate until it merged into the time of the Regency. It
was during the reign of Louis XIV that the craze for Chinese decoration
first appeared. La Chinoiserie it was called, and it has daintiness and a
curious fascination about it, but many inappropriate things were done
in its name. The furniture of the time was