As the official architects of Napoleon, Charles Percier (1764–1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762–1853) designed interiors that responded to the radical ideologies and collective forms of destruction that took place during the French Revolution. The architects visualized new forms of imperial sovereignty by inverting the symbols of monarchy and revolution, constructing meeting rooms resembling military encampments and gilded thrones that replaced the Bourbon lily with Napoleonic bees. Yet in the wake of political struggle, each foundation stone that the architects laid for the new imperial regime was accompanied by an awareness of the contingent nature of sovereign power. Contributing fresh perspectives on the architecture, decorative arts, and visual culture of revolutionary France, this book explores how Percier and Fontaine’s desire to build structures of permanence and their inadvertent reliance upon temporary architectural forms shaped a new awareness of time, memory, and modern political identity in France.
By:
Iris Moon
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 174mm,
Weight: 540g
ISBN: 9780367199081
ISBN 10: 0367199084
Pages: 186
Publication Date: 23 May 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Finding Revolutionary Architecture in the Decorative Arts Visionary Friendship at the End of the Ancien Régime Clean Sheets and Water Magic Architects in Training Roman Fever Solo Missions An Etruscan Friendship Propulsion and Residue: Constructing the Revolutionary Interior Rome à Rebours Staging Antiquity and Austerity Revolutionary Rearrangements Seek, Record, Destroy The Eternal Return of Luxury The Recueil de décorations intérieures: Furnishing a New Order Paper Studios Furnishing Techniques Strategies of Redaction Consuming Desires Writing Against Fashion Between the Lines Empire Styles The Platinum Cabinet: Luxury in Times of Uncertainty Pastoral Pastimes Incorruptible Precision Fast Times in Consulate Paris Haunting Season Tent and Throne: Architecture in a State of Emergency Après Coup Fantasies of the Ideal Villa A Permanent Work in Progress Little Pleasures The Moving Bivouac Political Theology Divorcing the Past Coda: Revolutionary Atonement
Iris Moon is a visiting assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute, New York. She specializes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European art, architecture, and the decorative arts.
Reviews for The Architecture of Percier and Fontaine and the Struggle for Sovereignty in Revolutionary France
"Iris Moon’s exciting reappraisal of Percier and Fontaine shows just how precarious monumental architecture can be: the Revolutionary instabilities underpinning their luxury designs for new Napoleonic elites demanded provisional solutions, fast responses, and adaptable designs. Her revelation of their process-oriented approach to architecture opens fresh perspectives on the visual culture of this time, from decorative arts to paper fantasies and mobile motifs. Susan Siegfried, Denise Riley Collegiate Professor of the History of Art and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan ""Professor Moon observes that the identity of the nobility that had been “fixed in seigneurial rights and inalienable ties to the land” and which disappeared in the Revolution, was replaced by “the mercurial personalities of Directory society”and wealth from capital and movable properties.""-- David P. Jordan, University of Illinois at Chicago, H-France Review"
