Architecture of Percier and Fontaine and the Struggle for Sovereignty in Revolutionary France

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.

• Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgements 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 MissionsAn Etruscan Friendship Propulsion and Residue: Constructing the Revolutionary Interior Rome à Rebours Staging Antiquity and Austerity Revolutionary RearrangementsSeek, Record, DestroyThe Eternal Return of Luxury The Recueil de décorations intérieures: Furnishing a New Order Paper Studios Furnishing TechniquesStrategies of Redaction Consuming Desires Writing Against Fashion Between the Lines Empire Styles The Platinum Cabinet: Luxury in Times of UncertaintyPastoral Pastimes Incorruptible PrecisionFast Times in Consulate Paris Haunting Season Tent and Throne: Architecture in a State of Emergency Après CoupFantasies of the Ideal VillaA Permanent Work in ProgressLittle Pleasures The Moving BivouacPolitical TheologyDivorcing the PastCoda: Revolutionary Atonement

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