Interiors and Patronage

Abstract

This chapter surveys major developments regarding the creation and use of interiors in eighteenth‐century Europe, focusing on four geographic regions—France, Germany, Italy, and England—and three principal design styles: Rococo, Neoclassicism, and chinoiserie. Interiors were a privileged site of innovation for both architects and patrons in eighteenth‐century Europe. Changing social, political, and economic structures had a major impact on the design of interiors and generated a new class of patrons who were eager to use architectural space to display their status to others. At the same time, evolving notions of privacy and interiority encouraged eighteenth‐century patrons to think differently about how they lived or interacted with the world around them, and to favor the creation of comfortable, intimate environments where they could cultivate new forms of self. Architects responded eagerly to these new client demands, and they relished the freedom they were given in interiors to indulge their most forward‐thinking schemes. Interiors were also discussed at length in architectural literature, novels, and travel guides and were represented in ornament prints that spread across Europe, contributing to the international exchange of styles and ideas.