Fashion beyond Versailles: Consumption and Design in Seventeenth-Century France

3. Regularité: Color Schemes and Matched Sets

56 Regularité C O L O R S C H E M E S A N D M AT C H E D S E T S O ne hallmark of the French style of interior decoration was the concept of regularité, the harmonious, unified effect found in a room, indeed within a residence, and achieved by a deliberate use of color and matched sets of furnishings. By the eighteenth century, this philosophy directed interior decoration in Paris and the provinces to the extent that rooms were painted and their furnishings upholstered in a single color and a single fabric, embellished often with gold. The effort to create harmony and unity through color and reiteration of design and textiles began in the seventeenth century and by the eighteenth century was convention . Such uniformity and repetition had not always existed in French interiors but attained a popularity that would not be limited to France. The concept of regularité served philosophically more than any other trait é to define a French national style to domestic and international elite audiences . Certainly, this included many critics and detractors, who responded negatively to its formulaic character,1 but the audience also included an international population of moneyed elements whose homes became a place in which to showcase their taste and fluency in the French mode. The French style before Versailles was largely defined by the Marquise de Rambouillet. Thornton attributes tremendous influence to the interior that the marquise very carefully constructed at her hôtel. The remodeling of Hôtel de Rambouillet began in 1619, and the marquise took an active 57 Regularité: Color Schemes and Matched Sets part in its design. The principles that guided her choices included efforts to create a unified, harmonious effect, equivalent to one of the central goals of Italian architects during the Renaissance. By the early seventeenth century Italian design principles had gained sway in France and elsewhere in Europe . Having spent her youth in Italy, the marquise was clearly influenced by Italian designs and arrangements of interior spaces. To achieve the kind of harmony and unity she sought, extensive use was made of a single color or color scheme or single textile. Best known was the famous Chambre bleue, where she hosted salons. This setting was distinguished by its uniformity of color—the walls were painted blue and covered in blue fabric, and the chair covers and other textiles were in the same shade of blue. The use of such color schemes became closely associated with French design, and it apparently distinguished Rambouillet’s interiors in the eyes of her guests, including Marie de Medici. Contemporaries commented admiringly about the regularité of the interior of her hôtel, an attribute that came to mark French style.2 An awareness of the decorative possibilities and effects of color helped to define interiors of the seventeenth century. Designs now made a much more consistent use of color and color schemes, and designers began to introduce new colors to the decorative palette. Over the course of the century unfolded an increasing reliance on color as a primary decorative feature. What came before Rambouillet was darker, more somber, and anything but studied in its use of color. Walls were covered in tapestries or leather hangings and furnishings upholstered in somber shades of red and brown. “The general impression had to be one of intimacy but also austerity .” In striving for greater harmony and unity, what the marquise achieved at Rambouillet was to produce an interior that was light, airy, and more lively than what had come before.3 If Rambouillet set in motion the beginning of a revolution in style, as many have argued, Simon Vouet was a revolutionary whose ideas inspired additional change. The painter’s return to France from Italy in 1627 marked the beginning of the decorative style in which color played a primary role. Alain Mérot argues for Vouet’s importance and stresses the formative role of the years he spent in Italy. Vouet and his disciples preached the use of colors that were lighter, yet strong and even brilliant. His work popularized Fashion beyond Versailles 58 gold accents and the sort of nuanced palette associated with French design. This is not to suggest that suddenly all French interior decoration shifted to his preferred lighter palettes. Actually, Mérot maintains that at midcentury there was a resurgence of stronger colors, which he attributes to the tastes...