Interiors in the age of Enlightenment: a cultural history

Abstract

"Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of interior design and interior spaces from 1700 to 1850. Considering the interior as material, social and cultural artefact, this volume moves beyond conventional descriptive accounts of changing styles and interior design fashions, to explore in depth the effect on the interior of the materials, processes, aesthetic philosophies and cultural attitudes of the age. From the Palace of Versailles to Virginia coffeehouses, and from Chinoiserie bathhouses to the trading exchanges of the West Indies, the chapters in this book examine a wide range of themes including technological advancements, public spaces, gender and sexuality, and global movements in interior designs and decorations. Drawing together contributions from leading scholars, this volume provides the most authoritative and comprehensive survey of the history of interiors and interior architecture in the long eighteenth century"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Preface -- Introduction: The Interior in the Age of Enlightenment / Stacey Sloboda -- 1. Beauty: Cultural Aesthetics in the Enlightenment Interior / Anne Nellis Richter -- 2. Technology: Cultural Transfer, Imitation, and Improvement of Materials and Surfaces of the Interior / Noémie Étienne -- 3. Designers, Professions, Trades: Conceiving and Making the Interior / Conor Lucey -- 4. Global Movements: Exoticism and Hybridity in the Globalized Interior / Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding -- 5. Private Spaces: Performing the Home / Mimi Hellman -- 6. Public Spaces: Staging Ritual and Shaping Identity / Laurel O. Peterson -- 7. Gender and Sexuality: The Desire of Decor / Michael Yonan -- 8. The Interior in the Arts: Literary and Visual Representations / Karen Lipsedge and Melinda McCurdy -- Bibliography -- Index.