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The publication of the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1752 renewed awareness of the Classical grotesque. Artists again sought inspiration in Rome, where they looked not only at the Classical examples but also at the work of Raphael. Engravings of the Vatican Loggia had been published in the 16th and 17th centuries, but a new publication in 1772 by Giovanni Battista Volpato was followed in 1776 by a set of engravings of the Domus Aurea itself by Lodovico Miri. Ornamentalists and artists throughout Europe took up the style again. In France Jules-Hughes Rousseau and his brother Jean-Simeon Rousseau de la Rottière adapted it for the Petits Appartements of Marie-Antoinette at Versailles in 1783 and at Fontainebleau in 1786, achieving ensembles of great elegance and refinement.
The photo shows the Boudoir de la Reine at Fontainebleau, designed by Jean-Siméon Rousseau for Queen Marie Antoinette. The trough table is by Jean-Henri Riesener, chair is a copy of the original by Georges Jacob, but the foot stool is original by Georges Jacob.
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