Interior Design with a Large Renaissance Style Cabinet against a Green Wall 1880 - 1900

This watercolor shows an interior design with a large Renaissance style cabinet against a green wall. Although we don't know who made this, we can still ask what it might tell us about the culture of its time. The style of the cabinet and the wall decorations are inspired by the Italian Renaissance. By the time this drawing was made, the Renaissance was long over. But throughout Europe, many artists and designers looked back to the Renaissance as a classical golden age. In nineteenth-century Europe, this mode of historical imitation was widespread in the decorative arts. If we wanted to find out more, we could research the history of design schools in Europe and the different stylistic movements that were popular at the time. We might also look at interior design magazines to see what kind of styles were fashionable at the time.