THE STYLE OF LOUIS XV. 363 



name from the use made of real shells for the decoration of grottoes 

 and rockeries. If into the scallop-shell a head or other ornament be 

 introduced, or if its centre be pierced, there remains a ribbed and 

 indented border, and if, further, a thicker, more laminated and irregular 

 shell of the oyster type be substituted for the scallop, most of the char- 

 acteristics of the "rocaille" motive are obtained (if. Figs. 344 and 345). 

 It emerges from and disappears into foliage, fills hollows, softens the 

 collision of contrasted volutes, fringes frames and enriches scroll-work. 

 With its frilled edges, its fluted or pierced surfaces, it assumes forms at 

 times not unlike the undulated leather-work of the Louis XIII. style, 

 at others it resembles foliage, bark, coral, or rock. In this last type 

 it enters into the decoration of garden vases, fountains, and grottoes. 



The tops, bottoms, and centres of pilasters and narrow panels, 

 and the angles of broader ones and of ceilings, often show an ornament 

 resembling a pierced and foliated shell, from which sprigs of slim 

 and spidery foliage escape (Fig. 346); both the foliage and the 

 " rocaille " sometimes take spiky and contorted forms, which recall 

 seaweed waving in the water or branches bristling with icicles. Back- 

 grounds and spandrils are commonly decorated with reticulated or 

 trellis-work patterns (Fig. 351). 



Another common element is the palm motive, not merely palm 

 branches, which had been in use for two hundred years as decora- 

 tions of spandrils and so forth, but the whole palm tree used con- 

 structively to form a column or frame, and sometimes entwined 

 with wreaths (Fig. 347). Le Brun, borrowing the idea from Bernini, 

 had formed an arch, for the triumphal entry of Louis XIV. into Paris 

 on his marriage, of naturalesque palm trees supporting a rocky mount, 

 but it was not till the time of Louis XV. that it became a common 

 feature in decoration. 



CHINESE AND PASTORAL MOTIVES. The arabesque panels of the 

 period carry Berain's style a step further ; they are even more open, 

 their forms are more slender and their subjects more modern and 

 naturalistic. But a fresh element had entered into them. The Far 

 East had gradually become known to Europe during the seventeenth 

 century by the narrations of Jesuit missionaries, as well as by the Chinese 

 embroideries, lacquer-work, and porcelains imported by Dutch traders. 

 Under the first impression of these novelties Louis XIV. had caused 

 his short-lived "Trianon de porcelaine" to be built in what was supposed 

 to be the style of a pagoda, and decorated inside and out in blue and 

 white with enamelled tiles and earthenware figures made at St Cloud. 

 This was an isolated caprice, but forty years later China became the 

 rage. An art so far removed from European traditions was not 

 indeed taken seriously, but was looked upon as something agreeably 

 bizarre, furnishing quaint and novel motives for decoration. After 

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