Betimmering met tafel en kasten 1752 - 1794

Pierre Gabriel Berthault created this print of a wall with a table and cabinets. Its clean lines and classical motifs reflect the neoclassical style that was fashionable in France and throughout Europe towards the end of the 18th century. Neoclassicism stood for order, reason, and a return to the perceived purity of ancient Greek and Roman art. You can see it as a reaction against the more ornate and extravagant styles of the preceding Rococo period. This shift mirrored broader social and political changes, including the Enlightenment’s emphasis on rationality, and a growing critique of aristocratic excess. The design of interiors became associated with ideals of civic virtue and moral clarity. To understand a work like this, one might consult architectural treatises, design manuals, and inventories of aristocratic households. The historian seeks to understand the status that was attached to art like this, and what was the public role of the imagery it contained.