er of Maria Theresa on the
fashions of the day was manifested in furniture and its accessories. We
know that Marie Antoinette disliked the pomp and ceremony of Court
functions, and preferred a simpler way of living at the favourite farm
house which was given to her husband as a residence on his marriage, four
years before his accession to the throne; and here she delighted to mix
with the bourgeoise on the terrace at Versailles, or, donning a simple
dress of white muslin, would busy herself in the garden or dairy. There
was, doubtless, something of the affectation of a woman spoiled by
admiration, in thus playing the rustic; still, one can understand that the
best French society, weary of the domination of the late King's
mistresses, with their intrigues, their extravagances, and their
creatures, looked forward, at the death of Louis, with hope and
anticipation to the accession of his grandson and the beautiful young
queen.

[Illustration: Part of a Salon. Decorated and furnished in the Louis XVI.
Style.]

Gradually, under the new regime, architecture became more simple; broken
scrolls are replaced by straight lines, curves and arches only occur when
justifiable, and columns and pilasters reappear in the ornamental facades
of public buildings. Interior decoration necessarily followed suit;
instead of the curled endive scrolls enclosing the irregular panel, and
the superabundant foliage in ornament, we have rectangular panels formed
by simpler mouldings, with broken corners, having a patera or rosette in
each, and between the upright panels there is a pilaster of refined
Renaissance design. In the oval medallions supported by cupids, is found a
domestic scene by a Fragonard or a Chardin; and the portraits of innocent
children by Greuze replace the courting shepherds and mythological
goddesses of Boucher and Lancret. Sculpture, too, becomes more refined and
decorous in its representations.

As with architecture, decoration, painting, and sculpture, so also with
furniture. The designs became more simple, but were relieved from severity
by the amount of ornament, which, except in some cases where it is
over-elaborate, was properly subordinate to the design and did not control
it.

Mr. Hungerford Pollen attributes this revival of classic taste to the
discoveries of ancient treasures in Herculaneum and Pompeii, but as these
occurred in the former city so long before the time we are discussing as
the year 1711, and in the