THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 441 



modern, and reproduce the Pompeian type or that of the Vatican 

 Loggie (Figs. 415 and 421). In figure subjects, ancient rather than 

 modern dress prevails. Medallions and tablets painted in mono- 

 chrome, to represent cameos or reliefs, are introduced. All the stock 

 classical elements (particularly sphinxes, tripods, and lyres), treated with 

 much taste and refinement, mixed with those characteristic of the age. 

 Lighter than the arabesques of Louis XIII. or XIV., more restrained 

 than those of the Regency and Louis XV., they are without the vigour 

 of the former though they rival the latter in delicate and fertile fancy 

 (Fig. 419). As the style advanced they tend to become loose and 

 weak in composition, and deficient in that feeling for structure which 

 their predecessors seldom lack (Fig. 420). 



The colour schemes of interiors were prevalently of soft and cool 

 tones, white and gold, silver rose and pearl-grey, tender blues and pale 

 greens. 



Fine examples of Louis XVI. decoration are to be found in Paris, 

 at the Ecole Militaire, the H6tel des Monnaies, the Ministry of Public 

 Instruction, and the Italian Embassy; at Versailles, in Louis XVI.'s 

 Library and Dressing-room, the Salon de la Meridienne, and the 

 Queen's private apartments ; at the Petit Trianon and Compiegne ; 

 at Fontainebleau, in Marie Antoinette's Boudoir (Fig. 421) and Concert- 

 room ; in the Museums at Dijon and Lyons, and the Victoria and 

 Albert Museum, South Kensington, and in innumerable private houses. 



Among the exponents of Louis XVI. decoration, in addition to the 

 principal architects of the day, were the following designers : de la 

 Fosse, Boucher fits, and Cauvet (Figs. 391, 397, and 433); L. Prieur, 

 Salembier, and Lalonde; the flower painters, Ranson (Fig. 419), Pille- 

 ment, and Hubert Robert ; the wood-carvers, Antoine Rousseau and 

 his sons ; the sculptors, Pajou, Clodion, Pigalle, Berruer, Falconet, and 

 Jean Jacques Caffieri ; the metal-workers, Forty, Philippe Caffieri and 

 Gouthiere ; and the cabinet-makers, Riesener, Roentgen, and Oeben. 



TOWN PLANNING AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 



SECOND "PLACE Louis QUINZE." The middle of the eighteenth 

 century was marked, as above stated, by great activity in city improve- 

 ments, culminating in a competition for an open space in Paris to 

 contain the king's statue. Since the competition for the fagade of the 

 Louvre, no event had created such general interest in architectural 

 circles, while both the character of the designs submitted and the final 

 result are as symptomatic of the stylistic trend of the age as they had 

 been in the former instance. The greatest divergence appears in the 

 designs elicited by the first competition, ranging between the opposite 

 polls of the rococo-academic school, as represented by Boffrand, and 



