THE STYLE OF LOUIS XV. 



369 



Rohan in the Hotel de Soubise. This last example forms part of a 

 suite of rooms decorated by Germain Boffrand (1735), with paintings 

 by Natoire, Boucher, C. van Loo, and La Tremolliere, in others of 

 which the rococo manner is even less restrained. 



The little oval drawing-room in the Chateau de Rambouillet, 

 rooms in the Hotel de Rohan in Paris (built by de la Maire, 1706, 

 now Imprimerie Nationale), the suite in the Chatelet at Chantilly 

 (decorated with "Singeries" in deep enriched borders) all works of 

 about 1740-5 show a restlessness of line and a complication of 

 contorted curves, which arrest the eye and obscure the few straight 

 lines (Fig. 348). The coved ceilings usual in this type of work, over 

 which decoration creeps up from a very slightly indicated cornice, un- 

 checked by horizontal members, help to emphasise the feeling of free 

 upward growth. This is the case in a supreme degree in the oval 

 saloon of the Hotel de Soubise (Fig. 352), where there is only the 

 slightest trace of a dado, and none at all of a cornice, but instead a 

 deep undulating frieze of panels 

 and scroll-work running round 

 the head of the arches, with a 

 lace-like tracery above converging 

 towards the centre of the dome. 



Other examples are offered 

 by the Elysee Palace, originally 

 Hotel d'Evreux decorated by 

 Nicolas Pineau (1684-1754), who 

 published a series of designs of a 

 similar character. 



OPPENORDT. One of the 

 earliest and most vigorous ex- 

 ponents of the curvilinear manner 

 was Gilles Marie Oppenordt 

 (1672-1742), son of a Dutch 

 cabinetmaker in the employ of 

 Louis XIV., who, after working 

 in J. H. Mansart's office, spent 

 several years in Italy, where he 

 became thoroughly imbued with 

 the spirit of the late barocco 

 masters of the Roman School. 

 On his return he was employed 

 by the Regent Orleans to deco- 

 rate the new gallery of the Palais 

 Royal, built by Mansart. Op- 

 penordt's designs show none of 



353. DESIGN FOR ENTRANCE DOOR- 

 WAY, BY G. M. OPPENORDT. 



