you have been here sometime

the
french
empire.
(green this time)

Empire style is originally the elaborate Neoclassical style of the Napoleon's French First Empire (1804-1815). Roman-inspired symbols, furniture, and even hairdos were part of an ambitious scheme to relate Napoleon to Emperor Augustus as the French government was transformed from a republic into an empire.

There is no distinct Empire style of architecture.

The style was largely inspired by Napoleon's architects Percier and Fontaine.

Napoleon's green room

In 1798, Napoleon returned triumphant from his Egyptian campaign. The victory launched a program of intense scientific research, prompted by the large numbers of archaeological discoveries collected in Egypt by the throng of scholars accompanying the expedition. The worlds of fashion and the applied arts also took up the Egyptian theme, with motifs such as sphinxes, winged lions, lotus blossoms, caryatids and scarabs appearing everywhere. All over Europe, Egyptian motifs, as well as those drawn from Ancient Greece and Rome, were to become prominent features of the sumptuous Empire style of decoration.




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