444. DESIGN FOR CHIMNEY-PIECE BY PERCIER AND FONTAINE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



STYLE OF THE EMPIRE (1790-1830) 



RULERS. 



Louis XVI. (1774-92). 

 NATIONAL CONVENTION (1792-95). 

 DIRECTORY (1795-99). 

 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, First Consul 

 (1799-1805). 



NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, Emperor (1805- 



14 and again 1815). 

 Louis XVIII., King (1814- 15, and again 



1815-24). 

 CHARLES X., King (1824-30). 



CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS. 

 GEORGE III. (1760-1820), GEORGE IV. (1820-30). 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



POLITICAL EVENTS. Although in essentials the line of Renaissance 

 styles came to an end with the old absolute monarchy, that which 

 nourished during the generation succeeding the Revolution is, super- 

 ficially at least, so closely related to the style of Louis XVI , that this 

 book would be incomplete without some reference to it. The styles in 

 vogue from 1790 to 1830, which, while introducing a new era, still 

 have much in common with the old, will therefore be briefly described 

 in this chapter under the heading of the Empire. 



The summoning of the States General in 1789 marked the opening 

 of the great drama of revolution, in which the unrest of an outworn 

 society culminated, and all existing institutions were cast into the 

 melting-pot. A period of republican forms of government under 

 various names followed the fall of the monarchy. Power fell into the 



