The Directoire style of the immediately preceding period aimed at a simpler, but still elegant evocation of the virtues of the
ancient Roman Republic: The
stoic virtues of Republican Rome were upheld as standards not merely for the arts but also for political behaviour and private morality.
Conventionels saw themselves as antique heroes. Children were named after
Brutus,
Solon and
Lycurgus. The festivals of the Revolution were staged by
David as antique rituals. Even the chairs in which the committee of
Salut Publique sat were made on antique models devised by David. ...In fact Neo-classicism became fashionable. Before the development of the Empire style there was a brief transitional Consulate style that formed under the
Consulate. This style introduced many of the motifs of Empire style, taking inspiration from military campaigns, including the
French campaign in Egypt and Syria, and was more formal and rectangular. The Empire style "turned to the florid opulence of
Imperial Rome. The abstemious severity of
Doric was replaced by
Corinthian richness and splendour". Two French architects, Percier and Fontaine, were together the creators of the French Empire style. The two had studied in
Rome and in the 1790s became leading furniture designers in
Paris, where they received many commissions from Napoleon and other statesmen. Architecture of the Empire style was based on elements of the
Roman Empire and its many archaeological treasures, which had been rediscovered starting in the eighteenth century. The preceding
Louis XVI and
Directoire styles employed straighter, simpler designs compared to the
Rococo style of the eighteenth century. Empire designs strongly influenced the contemporary American
Federal style (such as design of the
United States Capitol building), and both were forms of
propaganda through architecture. It was a style of the people, not ostentatious but sober and evenly balanced. The style was considered to have "liberated" and "enlightened" architecture just as the propaganda that Napoleon had "liberated" the peoples of Europe with his
Napoleonic Code. The Empire period was popularized by the inventive designs of
Percier and Fontaine, Napoleon's architects for
Malmaison. The designs drew for inspiration on symbols and ornaments borrowed from the glorious ancient Greek and Roman empires. Buildings typically had simple timber frames and box-like constructions,
veneered in expensive
mahogany imported from the
colonies. Biedermeier furniture also used
ebony details, originally due to financial constraints.
Ormolu details (gilded bronze furniture mounts and embellishments) displayed a high level of craftsmanship. General Bernadotte, later to become King
Karl Johan of
Sweden and Norway, introduced the Napoleonic style to Sweden, where it became known under his own name. The Karl Johan style remained popular in Scandinavia even as the Empire style disappeared from other parts of Europe. France paid some of its debts to Sweden in
ormolu bronzes instead of money, leading to a vogue for crystal
chandeliers with bronze from France and crystal from Sweden. After Napoleon lost power, the Empire style continued to be in favour for many decades, with minor adaptations. There was a revival of the style in the last half of the nineteenth century in France, again at the beginning of the twentieth century, and again in the 1980s. The style survived in Italy longer than in most of Europe, partly because of its Imperial Roman associations, partly because it was revived as a national style of architecture following the
unification of Italy in 1870.
Mario Praz wrote about this style as the Italian Empire. In the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, the Empire style was adapted to local conditions and gradually acquired further expression as the
Egyptian Revival,
Greek Revival,
Biedermeier style,
Regency style, and late-
Federal style. The more bombastic type of
Stalinist architecture is sometimes referred to as Stalin's, or Stalinist, Empire style, which the
Soviet Union exported to the wider
Soviet bloc - for the most prominent examples see
here. == Motifs and ornaments ==