Now we repeat that Charles Cressent was a true and also a very great sculptor, as capable of turning out a good bust to order, such as the one of Philip of Orleans, originally in the fine cabinet of medals of the Abbey of St. Genevieve, now in the Biblio-theque Nationale, as with boasting-tool and burin to improvise garlands of flowers, singeries after Gillot, and espagnolettes after Watteau.

Plate XLI. CORNER CUPBOARD. Epoch Louis XV. Greffuhle Collection.

It has been said, and with justice, that until the reaction set in in favour of the straight line - known as the Louis XVI. style - all designers of furniture were but the pupils of Cressent. Unfortunately, as often happens, these pupils exaggerated into faults what were the distinctive qualities of the master. One of them was Juste Aurele Meissonnier, born at Turin in 1695, who brought with him to Paris, in addition to his Italian cleverness, the decadent taste of his fellow countrymen for lavish and distorted decoration. As designer to the King he used his extraordinary gift of invention to produce a great variety of works, often pleasing enough in spite of the confusion of curves and convolutions, the principle of which, if principle there be, it is difficult to make out, and it is of him and of his imitators that we generally think when the term rocaille is used; that style was, however, originated in Italy long before the birth of Meissonnier and passed into France with the masters of the seventeenth century, such as Bernini, but it was not until the end of the Regency that, to use a common but expressive term, it really "took on." Rocaille-work was everywhere in great demand, and Meissonnier was ready enough to supply it, as proved by his engravings of designs.

He not only designed furniture for the King, but woodwork of all kinds for the genera] public, especially tables, candelabra, sheaths for swords, snuff-boxes, handles of walking-sticks, scissors, inkstands, tombs, altars, sledges, fireworks, etc.

Plate XLII. WRITING-TABLE AND CABINET. Louis XV. Mahogany, inlaid with Sevres Plaques.

After his death, in 1750, the post of Dessinateur de la Chambre et Cabinet du Rot was held successively until 1764 by the three brothers Slodtz, the sons of a sculptor of Antwerp and the daughter of Cucci. It is quite as impossible to discriminate the share taken by each of these brothers in the work left behind them, as it was in the case of the Martins. They may, indeed, have collaborated - an hypothesis of great probability. True followers of Cressent in the ornamentation of furniture, carrying truth of draughtsmanship almost to the point of frigidity, they indulged in their designs for jewellery in a complicated intricacy greater even than that of Meissonnier, and exceeded only by the style of Thomas Germain, a sculptor and chaser who, like themselves, was in the employ of the Court. We need not dwell now upon their works. We will content ourselves with noting that the brothers were gifted with a refined imagination, that they skilfully wielded the chisel of the sculptor and were thoroughly imbued with the French traditions of the preceding century, to which they often turned for inspiration.

Their masterpiece is unquestionably a large cabinet for medals, once a treasure of the Palace of Versailles, and now, with the corner-cupboards supplementing it, in the Bibliotheque Nationale. The reproduction we give here makes it unnecessary to dwell either upon the graceful floral arabesques combined with medallions, or upon the general charm of the composition, which, if compared with the commode of Cressent figured above, cannot fail to show that a reaction in favour of simplicity was about to set in. We shall recur to this in our next chapter.

To complete the list of the great sculptors in bronze for the decoration of furniture of the Rocaille period, we have still to speak of the most fantastic and also the cleverest of them all - Jacques Caffieri, fifth son of the Caffieri who worked for Louis XIV. and father of Philippe, the third of that name of this great family of artists, who collaborated with him in all his work until his own death in 1755.

Some critics, struck with the comparative soberness of the earlier works of Jacques Caffieri, in which he seems to be an admirer of Robert de Cotte, and with the unbridled imagination of his later productions, in which he greatly exceeds the audacity even of Meissonnier, have conceived the idea that the latter may be attributed to Philippe, and may have been produced during the seven years he survived his father. It is perhaps unnecessary to go so far for an explanation that is founded on no document. The Italian birth of the ebenist of Louis XIV. is quite enough to account for the eagerness with which Jacques Caffieri took up the Rocaille style, which gave full scope to his extraordinary dexterity. It was said of his second son Jean Jacques, author of the admirable bust of Rotrou at the Comedie-Francaise, that he kneaded marble, and of him it might equally well be asserted that he kneaded bronze. In the end he used completely to cover over the furniture he produced with brass decorations; his beautiful commode in the Wallace Collection is of an almost austere simplicity compared with the bureau in black lacquer of the Ministere de la Justice, the drawers of which are disguised in a complicated casing of copper, whilst the supports down to the very feet are nothing but drooping masses of flowers; or still more compared with the famous table with a set of pigeonholes owned by the Metternich family of Vienna, surmounted by a perfect pyramid of rocks and figures, and with complicated supports without any wood in them at all.

It would be impossible to go further in this direction; the art of Caffieri was the culminating effect, the final flare-up, of the lavish style of decoration encouraged by the patronage of Louis XIV. and Madame de Pompadour, which charms in spite of its complicated extravagance. Nor is it, after all, quite fair to criticise this furniture, which would, of course, be out of place in modern rooms, but was quite appropriate in the lofty salons of the time, with their carved wainscots and richly decorated ceilings.

Plate XLIII. LOUIS XV COMMODE. By Jacques Caffieri, in the Wallace Collection.

The designers of decorative sculpture so dominated the Louis XV. period that the names of the ebenists who collaborated with them are no longer known to the public. It is really unjust not to remember Gaudreaux, who not only made the cabinet for medals designed by the Slodtzs, but also a great number of pieces of furniture for the Court of the chief favourite of the King; Joubert, who was the author of the corner-cupboard supplementing it; Migeon, who showed so much taste in the toilette furniture of Madame de Pompadour that she rewarded him with a pension of a thousand crowns; Sulpice, Arnoult and Loriot, who devoted themselves to making the mechanical tables which obviated the necessity of having servants to wait at meals, arm-chairs that could be taken to pieces, and tables with springs, all proofs of the attention then given to comfort. Already, however, all documents relating to these men are lost, and even less is known of a large number of artists who have left nothing but their signatures, or sometimes only their initials, to tantalise in vain the curiositv of the amateur, on pieces of furniture of undoubted charm.

The following are a few of such names: I. P. Latz, L. Boudin, J. Dubois, Gillet, Bernard, Pierre Pionnier, Etienne Levasseur, Nicolas Petit, Francois Bayer, Claude Choquet, Guesnon, Pierre Denizot, J. B. Hedouin, Pierre Gamier, Jean Pierre Lathuile, Jacques Dautriche, Filleul, C. L. de la Roue, Le Blanc, Voisin, Jabodot, Hebert, Delorme, Lazare, Duvaux, Pleney, Robert Victor la Croix, and Pineau.

Plate XLIV. CHEST OF DRAWERS. Epoch Louis XV. In the Prefecture of Indre-et-Loire.

Plate XLV. MEDAL CABINET. By Slodtz. From the private apartments of Louis XV at Versailles.

Plate XLVI. LOUIS XV SECRETAIRE. With Marqueterie inlaid with Sevres panels. South Kensington Museum.

Every one will recognise better than we can describe in our brief space the appropriateness of the Regency style, succeeded by the Rocaille, to the manners of the half-century during which reigned the thoughtless but artistic prince, to whom his people too hastily gave the name of the Well-Beloved.The literature of the time is still widely read, and paintings and engravings representing the life of the aristocracy and middle classes are everywhere disseminated. Watteau, whose lovers in theatrical costumes wander about in melancholy-looking, conventional landscapes, caught the very spirit of the society, which delighted in combining jesting with philosophy, and was willing to allow the very greatest artists to spend their whole lives in designing such trifles as furniture of various kinds.

Plate XLVII. LOUIS XV WRITING TABLE Mahogany inlaid with Sevres Plaques. South Kensington Museum.