Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment: A Cultural History

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Description

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.

Reviews

The authors deal adroitly with a range of fascinating themes from globalisation to the body. They tell us important things about the spaces and stuff of everyday life, and crucially, about what these things meant to and did for their owners. * Jon Stobart, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK *
The rich and nuanced essays in this valuable guide advance new perspectives on interior space. Written by leading scholars, the volume offers numerous vantage points from which we can peer into the eighteenth-century interior. * Stephen Hague, Rowan University, USA *

Author Bio

Stacey Sloboda is Associate Professor of Art History and Paul H. Tucker Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA.