Beginning with the courts of fifteenth-century Flanders, Burgundy and Italy, furniture design reflected contemporary architectural forms and ornament from the late Gothic period into the classical Renaissance. During the seventeenth century, the magnificence of Baroque art was echoed in the design of luxurious suites of furniture to serve the imperatives of absolute rulers like Louis XIV at the Palace of Versailles, whose fashions were widely imitated at other courts. With the eighteenth century came an interest in creating more intimate spaces such as the private salon, and furniture design responded accordingly. Early in the nineteenth century, the classicism of Napoleonic France and the eclecticism of Regency England gave rise to an explosion of new forms, styles, ornaments and techniques in furniture and interiors. This eclecticism continued throughout the nineteenth century in multiple stylistic revivals, finally ending in new, more modest styles of design aimed at a middle-class audience, as with the widely influential Arts and Crafts Movement.
Formal lectures each week provide the course structure during the first half of the class; students have an opportunity to discuss concepts and examples in the less formal second half of class. In addition to background reading, students are asked to develop visual analytical skills through looking at examples of furniture and interiors in museums and historic houses. More technical aspects of furniture-making such as materials and techniques will also be considered, and students will have practice in descriptive writing before a class visit to the galleries of the Ashmolean Museum. The written assignment will ask students to combine visual analysis with historical context.