THE STYLE OK LOUIS XIV. 293 



are largely introduced with many other emblems, especially military 

 ones. The human figure neither elongated as in Primaticcio's 

 or Goujon's work, nor fleshy as in that of Rubens, but robust 

 and of normal proportions, is largely employed as a decorative 

 motive. The favourite animal forms are the lion, eagle, and griffin. 

 The full and leafy vegetation conforms to a few classical types oak, 

 laurel, and olive in serried be-ribboned wreaths, nervous scroll-work 

 of acanthus, massive swags and garlands of fruit and foliage with few 

 flowers. Motives derived from leather work are less common. Scrolls 

 and volutes suggest a less pliant material, or assume a semi-vegetable 

 character reminiscent of the coiled fronds of palm or hart's-tongue fern. 

 The cartouche has no longer such a characteristic type as under Louis 

 XIII. ; architectural mouldings and pediments are introduced into it, 

 as well as the acanthus and other foliage, and it resumes its original 

 function of framing a shield or panel. Backgrounds and spandrils are 

 sometimes filled with a reticulated pattern with flowers in the interstices. 

 Architraves and other members forming frames to panels and openings 

 are broad and bold, and carved with close packed foliage or other 

 enrichments. In the mouldings there is a predilection for full convex 

 sections, and the projecting members are often deeply undercut. 



Internally the use of permanent decorations for walls and of plastered 

 ceilings became more general. If tapestry was used, it was often 

 stretched like a painting in a fixed frame. The main beams were often 

 concealed as well as the joists. Doorways increased in size, but the 

 great chimney-piece reaching from floor to ceiling became rarer," the 

 breast being often disguised. Large use was made of modelled stucco, 

 of gilt metal ornaments and fittings, and stair balustrades in wrought 

 metal made their appearance. Marbles of various colours and enriched 

 with inlay were employed, not only for floors and chimney-pieces, but 

 also for pilasters, dadoes, and wall coverings. Full rich colour schemes 

 with gilding in different tones are general. 



The decoration of a room is a clearly thought out symmetrical and 

 carefully balanced scheme, distributed into large well-defined divisions, 

 and these sometimes subdivided into smaller compartments. There is 

 a masculine squareness about the design as a whole, and the panels are 

 usually of simple geometrical form. The barocco influence manifests 

 itself, apart from the character of the paintings and sculpture, chiefly 

 in such things as the rounding off of the top of a panel or the softening 

 of its angles into quadrants, the breaking of a lintel or arch by a shell 

 or scroll, a wreath festooned across the angle of a frame, a cherub 

 peeping over a string, a cartouche or a genius disguising the mitre of 

 a coved ceiling. But, however luxuriant the ornament, the main lines 

 are never obscured. 



The subjects of the paintings and enrichments contribute to the 



