Rinceaux Et Figures : L'ornement En France Au Xviiè Siècle

The 17th century sees in France an upsurge in ornament concerning all the artistic fields. First considered as the very substance of the beauty, touching at the same time to the political, the religious and the social, the ornament is progressively associated to the superfluous and to a form of vanity.
From the architecture and great decors to the textile and embroidery, from the furniture and painting to the music, through the renowned figures of the “Grand Siècle”, this book contributes to the rehabilitation of the ornament, initiated thirty years ago, by tackling from a new angle its real status, its place in the 17th-century arts and its aesthetic stakes.