PRESERVATION OF WALLPAPERS AS PARTS OF INTERIORS

Historic types of wallpaper and decorative schemes of interiors
The new style was mainly influenced by the discovery and
excavation of two ancient cities: Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Various specialists, such as antiquarians, architects and art
historians, took part in the excavations and documented the finds.
As a result, several publications containing engraved designs,
patterns and reproductions of classical masterpieces were published.
One of the most celebrated of them, Recueil des Antiquités
Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Greques et Gauloises (1752), was a
periodical series compiled by the Comte de Caylus. 77 These and
similar publications, such as Fragments et principes du dessins
(1778) 78 and Oeuvre de différents genres, 79 with multiple illustrations,
served as role models for many architects and contemporary
decorative artists.
Reproductions of the Greek and Roman archaeological finds
were put to use by several artists and architects who dominated
the development of Neo-Classicism. The most outstanding of
them were the ceramicist Josiah Wedgewood, the cabinet-maker
Thomas Chippendale, the architect Robert Adam 80 and his two
brothers, James and John.
The principal reason for the success of the three Adam brothers
was their frequent collaboration on architectural projects. 81 A
synthesis of fashions, old and new, which could be applied to all
types of buildings and everyday objects, was provided by Robert
Adam, 82 who is the most celebrated of the three. In Adam’s interiors,
as well as those directly or indirectly inspired by Adam, major
architectural features were less pronounced than formerly. The
rooms had an overall treatment in which the surfaces were treated
with decorative schemes of low relief, and all the details, even the
furniture, were included in the overall treatment of the room. 83
Since the aesthetic essence of Neo-Classicism was clarity and
truthfulness, the inherent illusionistic character of Rococo was
77
Blakemore, History of Interior Design and Furniture, 207.
78
Peter Jessen, Der Ornamentstich.Geschichte der Vorlagen des Kunsthandwerks seit
dem Mittelalter (Berlin: Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft GmbH, 1920), 345.
79
Ibidem.
80
Steven Parissien, Adam Style (Hong Kong: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996) 14.
81
Ibid., 41.
82
Ibid., 44.
83
Ibid., 51.
46