Vestibule met rondboog

Pierre Gabriel Berthault made this print of a vestibule with a round arch in the late eighteenth century. Vestibules like the one imagined here were public spaces. The image refers back to Roman antiquity and the architecture of empire through its classical columns and arched doorway. In eighteenth-century France, at the height of its own imperial power, such references to the art of the past were meant to legitimize the social order. Note the sculptures, too, of reclining figures in classical garb. This idealizes power, suggesting that authority is timeless and natural. To understand this print fully, we can look to sources on eighteenth-century French society, its relationship to the classical world, and its institutions of power and display. The image reminds us that all art objects are shaped by a specific culture and historical moment.