Description of the Empire style in the interior:

The Empire style in the interior  is, first of all, a continuation of the classicism style of the eighteenth century, its appeal to antique themes, but with greater brilliance and less rigor and straightforwardness. 

Empire style in the interior can be called the final culmination of classical austerity, the style of the Napoleon Bonaparte era, which wants to show its grandeur and spectacle against the backdrop of classical forms. The design in the Empire style is characterized by bright, eye-catching red, blue, white - the colors of the Napoleonic flag. The frequent combination of white with gold and purple shows wealth and prosperity. The ornaments include circles, ovals, rhombuses, lush borders made of oak branches, Napoleonic bees and stars made of gold and silver brocade on a scarlet, crimson, blue or green background. Peace, orderliness, strict symmetry and complete balance of parts reign in the Empire style interior. 

 

Empire-style walls: Empire-style walls create the effect of a bright silk fabric that covers the wall, for example, with the help of fights (textile or imitating this effect). The second option is painting the walls. Choose saturated colors, do not be afraid of the gloss effect. The Empire decor uses ancient architectural forms: consoles, friezes, columns, pilasters, cornices. In the case of fresco, it is better to choose grisaille, and try not to disturb the overall symmetry of the composition.

Empire style ceiling: More often rich white in the Empire design, ivory / pale cream is also used. The image is complemented by stucco in a small amount. Try to be clear and rigorous.

Empire style floor: The parquet floor is predominantly for the Empire style, and artistic parquet with an abundance of used tree species is more suitable. If you choose a plain parquet floor, match the color of the wood on the furniture. In the bedroom and living room, you can add a short pile carpet. Also, one of the options can be the effect of a marble floor.

Empire style furniture: In the Empire style interior, massive, with smooth polished surfaces, decorative bronze reliefs, details in the form of cornices, columns, lion paws, similar to architectural structures. In the interior in the Empire style, preference is given to hard furniture. Bedside tables in the form of pedestals, tables for washing in the form of tripods, silk upholstery of furniture woven with gold. Empire furniture is lush, somewhere even losing in ease of use.

Chairs are somewhat simpler than armchairs, their backs are often given the shape of a lyre. A factory sofa or a bookcase is indispensable here; fine work of human hands is needed. There should be a lot of furniture in the Empire style interior - these are various slides, shelving, bar counters with marble tops, bookcases and round tables. An important detail for women will be a dressing table with carvings and a large mirror.

Empire style decor items: The centerpiece for the Empire style in the interior is occupied by marble boxes, silver candy bowls and fruit baskets, collectible figurines, porcelain dinnerware sets, delicate crystal.

To emphasize the Empire style in the interior, candelabra and paintings of that era are used (antique themes, cityscapes, portraits in the spirit of the 19th century). The windows are framed with heavy curtains, which can be transformed if desired. Light falls from pompous crystal chandeliers with a mass of pendants and light bulbs.

 

 

Pro Tips:

1. In the Empire style, there is a clear rigor, symmetry, solemn peace. The Empire through numerous attributes and symbols asserted the idea of imperial greatness. The style is more suitable for country houses, making their interior palatial. For apartments, the Empire style is appropriate with a sufficient area and ceiling height, which does not fetter or infringe on the imperial scope.

2. The Empire style is a continuation of classicism, which means its sustained rigor, correctness of form and clarity of planning. Often used centric or ray composition, when objects flow from one to another. No wonder they say that this style disciplines residents.

3. To enhance the effect of the imperial style, complement the interior with the warlike spirit of the era: all kinds of weapons, torches, laurel wreaths. Egyptian motifs are also used (pyramids, hieroglyphs, sphinxes), but a little less often. Etruscan vases, Pompeian murals, Greek and Roman decor, Renaissance frescoes and consonant ornaments of Empire furniture and bronze products, stylized in the spirit of furnishings of a rich ancient Roman residential building, will serve as an addition to the Empire style design. The Napoleonic Empire is in many ways hard and cold.

4. Successfully emphasize the majestic interior of the Empire style fireplace. In the Empire style, it is inlaid with natural stone or made entirely of marble. As well as the whole style, it is strict and has a reflection of antiquity. Decorate such a fireplace with images of sphinxes, lions or eagles.

5. The main highlight of the interior in the Empire style are mirrors, which hang an unusually large amount. In addition to their usual places - above the fireplace, between the windows - they appeared above the beds, on the doors, and even hid near the floor between the legs of the furniture. In the middle of the boudoir, a psyche mirror was placed, similar to an arch in human height. A whole illusory world was formed from individual mirror reflections.

6. Another distinguishing feature when you create Empire style will be a bed. Even the most modest and comfortable beds at that time were majestic and strict. On a high mahogany pedestal was an imperial-style box topped with a magnificent canopy. It stood along the wall (and not perpendicular to it, as in the 17th-18th centuries) and did not have ordinary legs, but rested on cubes or flattened balls. The bed was "guarded" by sphinxes or lions carved in the corners. The Empire style bed was a kind of luxurious pedestal that elevated a person above the rest of the world, which best suited the spirit of the Napoleonic era.

 

 

History of the Empire style:

Empire (from French empire - empire) - a style in architecture and art of the first three decades of the 19th century, completing the evolution of classicism. This monumental style developed in France during the heyday of Napoleon's empire (1799-1815). The main trend of the time was to imitate the art forms of late Rome. The Empire style is solemn, official, sometimes theatrical. It manifested itself most clearly in the design of the residences of Napoleon and his retinue, from where he quickly penetrated into the aristocratic milieu of France and the courts of major European monarchs.

Having proclaimed himself emperor, Napoleon seeks to exalt his rule by creating a ceremonial style, as once, long before him, Louis XIV. The new imperial (Empire) style develops the traditions of French neoclassicism, but with an emphasis on solemnity.

Like classicism, the Empire style draws inspiration from antiquity, repeating its power and strength. Porticos and military emblems were borrowed in architecture and interior decoration (lictor bundles, military armor, laurel wreaths, eagles, etc.). The Empire also included individual ancient Egyptian architectural and plastic motifs (large undivided planes of walls and pylons, massive geometric volumes, Egyptian ornament, stylized sphinxes, etc.).

There are many fundamental differences between Empire and Classicism. In place of the soft harmony of the art of the period of Louis XVI and democratic rigor, they replaced the ceremonial pathos and theatrical splendor of the “First Empire Style”. Napoleon strove for the splendor and halo of glory of the Roman emperors. If the freely emerging Classicism was oriented towards the democratic Athens of the Classical period of the Age of Pericles, then the artists of the French Empire were strictly instructed to take the art form of ancient Rome as a model.

Along with Roman motifs, after the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon, Egyptian architectural and plastic motifs are also used - large undivided wall planes, massive rectilinear volumes, Egyptian ornament and relief, stylized sphinxes. The French Empire is characterized by direct borrowing and copying of the works and forms of antiquity (the arch erected in Paris on Carousel Square in 1806 repeats exactly the Roman arch of the North). Most of the works of this period are characterized by eclecticism. The influence of French art of this period was reflected in the architecture and applied arts of Germany and Italy.

Among the most prominent painters of that era, one can single out Jacques Louis David, who appeared on the eve of the Great French bourgeois revolution. In his work, ancient traditions, the aesthetics of classicism merged with the political struggle, organically merged with the politics of the revolution, and this gave rise to a new phase of classicism in French culture - "revolutionary classicism". "The genius of art must be worthy of the people to whom he dedicates", "Love for humanity, freedom, equality, inspire my brush!" These words belong to Jacques Louis David and were uttered by the artist in the stormy year of 1793.

Despite the “monopoly” of the Empire style as a French style, one cannot fail to say about its variety - “Russian Empire” (it is more correct to take this definition in quotation marks). It was softer, freer and more plastic than French, and is divided into two branches: metropolitan and provincial. The “Russian Italian” K. Rossi is considered the creator of the St. Petersburg Empire style, and he softened the excessive rigidity of the Napoleonic style with his Russian-Italian taste, which is why this style is called “Italianizing classicism”. Another prominent architect of the same style was V. Stasov.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Empire was replaced by various eclectic movements, which marked a crisis in the artistic system of classicism.