THE STYLE OF LOUIS XV. 367 



of the Royal Manufactures at Beauvais and the Gobelins, and cele- 

 brated for his hunting scenes ; and Christophe Huet who painted the 

 " Chinoiseries " and " Singeries " in the Hotel de Rohan, and perhaps 

 also those at Chantilly. Frangois Boucher (1703-70), engraver, painter, 

 and designer of theatrical scenery, and Oudry's successor at the Royal 

 Manufactures, was the leader of a school of another sort, which adorned 

 boudoirs and salons with voluptuous mythological and erotic scenes, 

 and from him that extreme type of rococo furniture and panelling, 

 which forms their appropriate setting, has acquired the designation of 

 " Style Boucher." 



STYLE OF Louis XV. The terms Louis XV., Pompadour, Rocaille, 

 and Rococo are applied more or less synonymously to all free decorative 

 work after the Regency. Rococo may fairly be used in speaking of 

 France as synonymous with Louis XV., but Rocaille should be confined 

 to the type of ornament above described. " Pompadour " can have no 

 definite meaning as the name of a style. Madame de Pompadour, the 

 beautiful and clever woman who, after being the King's mistress, 

 remained for many years his friend and adviser, and was herself an 

 artist of some talent and an enlightened patroness of the arts, exercised 

 her influence at least as much in favour of the classical reaction as in 

 that of the free manner. " Du Barry " is even more devoid of meaning 

 as applied to Louis XV. work. The reign of the low-born courtesan, 

 who kindled the King's senile passion, occurred at a time 1768-74 

 when the reaction was in full swing. She was in no sense a leader of 

 society, and her vulgar taste had little, if any, influence on the progress 

 of style. 



EXAMPLES OF Rococo. The rococo tendencies, first clearly appear- 

 ing in the work of the Regency, continued to increase in intensity 

 till about the middle of the century, when the tide of free design began 

 to ebb, but throughout this period many designers observed a certain 

 degree of restraint, and stopped short of the extremes of licence, especially 

 in the royal palaces, where its examples are often remodellings of earlier 

 work. The decoration is bounded by the straight lines of an unbroken 

 cornice and dado, and by the vertical sides of the main divisions of the 

 room, the curvilinear treatment being applied chiefly to the inner frames 

 of the panels, and the decoration of their surfaces, while the sides even 

 of the inner panels are themselves also largely straight. 



Among the examples of this class at Versailles the following deserve 

 mention : Louis XV. 's Bedroom (Fig. 345), the Dauphin's Bedroom and 

 Library, the King's Cabinet, or Cabinet du Conseil (Fig. 346), Madame 

 Adelaide's Cabinet, or " Salon des Medailles," the two dining-rooms in 

 the " Cabinets du Roi." Their exquisitely designed and carved wood- 

 work were executed mostly by J. Verberckt, who also did much work at 

 Bordeaux, and by Antoine Rousseau, at different periods between 1735 



