Mantel Design 1770 - 1780

This mantel design was drawn anonymously with pen and watercolor. It reflects the neoclassical style popular in Europe and North America towards the end of the 18th century. The symmetry, the classical friezes, and the garlands, all draw on the artistic vocabulary of ancient Greece and Rome. It was an era of revolution in both politics and philosophy. The design speaks to a cultural moment in which old aristocratic forms were being questioned, and new kinds of authority were being sought in historical precedent. The design probably comes from France, given the signature at the bottom right. Drawings such as these were used by architects and craftsmen to produce luxury interiors for an aspirational middle class. Art historians can study pattern books, architectural treatises, and the records of guilds, in order to better understand the institutions that shape the look of the past. Only then can we can appreciate the meaning of art as contingent on its social and institutional context.