Other objects on display include candlesticks, snuff boxes, silverware and porcelain by important artists, like Joseph-Marie Vien, Hubert Robert, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Louis Jean-François Lagrenée, Louis-Claude Vassé, Jean-Jacques Caffieri, Auguste Pajou, Jean-Charles Delafosse, René Dubois etc.
Critics attribute the change of style in the art of mid-18th century France to fatigue with excessive decorations of the so-called goût rocaille and the desire to return to the austere clarity of the Greek style (le goût a la grecque).
Excavations in southern Italy, the subsequent interest in a more systematic approach and classification of the excavation material and of the art of antiquity, as reflected in numerous relevant publications, along with the intellectual atmosphere of the Enlightenment, are some of the factors that contributed to the shaping of this new artistic style in France.
National Gallery director Marina Lambraki-Plaka points out that this style-shift-turned-trend acquired the dimensions of a social phenomenon that made its presence felt in the choices of the entire court, all the way from Luis’ mistress Madame Pompadour and political figures to common merchants and seamstresses.
The classically inspired style called for austere lines in the place of rococo’s playful curves. Architecture (but also decorative patterns) was dictated by Doric, Ionian and Corinthian rhythms and Greek mythology. The Dionysian cycle in particular was reflected in both painting and sculpture.
The exhibition is structured in such a way so as to focus on antiquity lovers and significant collectors, like le Compte de Gaylus, le Duc de Choiceul and le Duc d’Aumont, whose collections have provided the core of the archaeological treasures currently displayed in the Louvre and other French museums.