Design for the decoration of a ceiling with filagree borders and a central medallion 1830 - 1897

Curator: This delicate design for ceiling decoration, featuring filigree borders and a central medallion, comes to us from the hand of Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, dating between 1830 and 1897. You can find it in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It projects an almost austere elegance at first glance. I'm drawn to the subtle color palette—pale creams, faint blues, soft terra cotta. It evokes a sense of faded grandeur, like whispers of aristocracy. Curator: Notice how Lachaise employs a series of geometric motifs, balanced and contained by delicate filigree lines. The symmetry of the design speaks to a rigorous classical education. It also makes effective use of the rectangle, setting multiple patterns inside of patterns, from one border to the next. Editor: I can’t help but consider what kind of spaces these ceiling designs would adorn. The ornamentation, while beautiful, suggests a distinct class separation. The detailed, elaborate ceiling for those looking up while the labor and exploitation remained invisible. Do you see any of that here? Curator: What's compelling about the decorative arts in general is the very directness of this association—the designer creating a specific form of beauty to fill a literal, architectural space. It has to work visually and practically. Here, the print makes it visible what in life becomes quite literally out-of-sight and thus potentially out-of-mind, like an early architectural mock-up that reveals class. Editor: Right, its function can highlight how power is structurally integrated, shaping even domestic spaces, embedding privilege in every corner, curve and careful decorative touch. In contrast with the modernists' rejection of ornament, isn’t this late 19th-century design overtly communicating that power? Curator: I find myself reflecting on the sheer craftsmanship, the intricate geometry that suggests an entire world— Editor: …While reminding us how intertwined artistic expression can be with larger, often inequitable, social structures.