THE STYLE OF THE EMPIRE. 475 



roughened ashlar, or even with rough-cast. A peculiar form of 

 pediment, without any horizontal member, came into vogue, often of 

 enormous span and very low pitch, and sometimes with an arched 

 opening within it. The so-called " Venetian " window is occasional^ 

 used, and in this, as elsewhere, semicircular, or even very flat 

 segmental, arches spring direct from capitals (Fig. 463). Large semi- 

 circular windows divided by vertical mullions, and large shallow arched 

 recesses are common ; and within the latter, arched windows concentric 

 with them often occur, the intervening space being decorated with a 

 series of paterae or other recurring ornament. There is a tendency to 

 reduce features to their simplest expression, for openings to have no 

 architraves, columns and pilasters no bases and a mere apology for 

 capitals, and to carry lintels only, instead of entablatures, and for windows 

 to be divided into fewer panes. The supports of a chimney-shelf and 

 the sides of a mirror-frame are often formed like very elongated slender 

 columns, which, if Corinthian, have capitals of the Lysicrates Monu- 

 ment type and bases with similar foliage. 



DECORATIVE ELEMENTS. A certain fondness is displayed for diagon- 

 ally intersecting arrangements of bars in balconies, railings, and even 

 windows, lozenge-panels in doors, and lozenge patterns in ornament 

 (Fig. 462). All the classical types of foliage reappear, but in an 

 excessively stiff and regular form ; sprays of palm, myrtle, and olive, 

 imbricated bands and festoons of various leaves, are set out with a 

 hitherto unknown formality and precision ; great use is made of a stiff 

 type of acanthus and palmette varied by fern-leaves, of regularly spaced 

 out circular wreaths and paterae, of antique urns and cornucopias, torches, 

 lamps and lyres, of winged figures of various kinds, especially Victories, 

 Psyches, Pegasi, and sphinxes, also swans, sea-horses, and mermaids. 

 Maeanders, frets, and other Greek enrichments, and the Greek orders 

 are popular. The greater part of the decorative schemes and motives 

 are borrowed from Greek and Etruscan vases, and the frescoes of 

 Pompeii, but they are chilled and stiffened in transit, while the amiable, 

 if frivolous, doves, rose-sprays and ribbons of the old order were banished 

 (Figs. 446, 448, 452, and 465). There is a less delicate taste in 

 colour ; cruder tints and more violent contrasts were admired in the 

 upstart society of the Consulate and Empire, such as diapers of stars, 

 crowns, rosettes, marguerites, lattices of palm-branches, or key-pattern 

 borders, in gold or silver on bottle-green, or terra-cotta, yellow, violet, 

 or crimson grounds, ormolu ornaments on mahogany and rosewood 

 furniture, or on verde antique and porphyry, or coloured inlays on 

 white marble. 



EXPONENTS OF THE STYLE : PERCIER AND FONTAINE. That the 

 Empire style, however inferior to its predecessors in refinement and 

 charm, is yet invested with a certain dignity and attractiveness, and 

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