Encyclopedia of

INTERIORDESIGN

Baroque: gallery, Palazzo Colonna, Rome, 1572

floral decorative vocabulary of Baroque art in the ProtestantNetherlands and in England. Baroque architecture, too,displayed this sense of drama with its boldly massed classicalforms and powerful silhouettes. Interiors were dominated by acarefully planned sequence of rooms, each with a particularsignificance. Controlled contrasts of size, shape, colour andtexture were at the heart of the effect of the formal Baroquestate chamber.

The rapid development of trade with non-western culturesduring the ijth century resulted in a flood of new and exoticmaterials to European cities which were quickly adopted bycraftsmen to achieve the effects of novelty and surprise thatwere much prized during this period. For example, the Englishwriter Aphra Behn, who possibly travelled to the Dutch Pacificcolony of Surinam in the i66os, described in her best-knownwork, Oroonoko (1688), the wonder felt by Europeans at theirdiscovery of the richly coloured woods of the tropics: "Thevery wood of all these trees have an intrinsic value abovecommon timber; for they are, when cut, of different colours,glorious to behold, and bear a price considerable to inlaywithal."

The undoubted centre of the Baroque was Rome, where theCatholic Church used this powerful new style as a means ofreasserting its authority in the wake of the challenge of theProtestant Reformation. However, while the emergence of aBaroque style in painting began in Italy late in the i6thcentury, the development of Baroque interiors can be traced toRome during the 16105, a decade that also saw the beginningsof the Baroque interior in France and the Netherlands.Therefore, although the influence of the Roman Baroqueremained strong throughout the zyth century, even in theProtestant countries, each region developed its own version ofthe style. Indeed, in most cases Roman Baroque forms wereused for their classical references, Rome having long been thecentre of the antique world, rather than for their Catholicassociations.

Among the early promoters of the Baroque in Rome werethe Barberini family, whose most prominent member wasUrban VIII, elected Pope in 162.3. He was the principal patronof the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose genius for creatingdramatic architectural spaces and whose powerful modellingof the human form were to influence designers all over Europe.

Encyclopedia of

INTERIORDESIGN

"Contemporary" Style: living room, Rose Seidler House, Sydney, Australia, 0.1950

such as three-legged chairs and tables, were not uncommoneither.

However, the impulse towards the organic did not exclu-sively determine the form of furniture in the 19505. Betweenthe turn of the I9th century when the organic and naturalisticArt Nouveau style had dominated design, and the middle ofthe zoth century when organic abstract "Contemporary"design developed, the Modern Movement had intervened.Modernism had an enduring impact on the thinking of thearchitects and designers who were working during the 19505,many of whom had been trained during the inter-war years.Rectilinear forms in buildings and furniture were an expressionof Modern Movement principles, as was the desire to perfectstructures that were modular and which could be made fromprefabricated components. These impulses influenced thedevelopment of storage furniture during the late 19405 and19505, in particular the unit furniture and the Storage wallshelving systems devised by George Nelson and CharlesEames. Interestingly it was these designers who were at thesame time creating such strongly organic seating designs forHerman Miller, including the moulded fibreglass swaggedlegged chair designed by Nelson, and the bent wire chairsdesigned by Eames. One of the most interesting characteristicsof 19505 design was this counterpoint and interplay betweenthe creation of geometric structures and buildings, and organicfurniture and accessories.

Although there were common characteristics which

pervaded the "Contemporary" style internationally, it wasinterpreted in a highly distinctive way and given very differentemphases in each individual country depending on the circum-stances which prevailed. In Britain the "Contemporary" stylewas playful and somewhat quirky. It was strongly coloured bythe fact that it was associated with an attitude of determinedgaiety as the country struggled to break out of a demoralisingperiod of post-war austerity, and self-consciously endeavouredto raise its spirits. Even the Government admitted that theFestival of Britain of 1951 was a propaganda exercise intendedto act as "a tonic to the nation". The furnishing fabricsdesigned by Lucienne Day for firms such as Heal's during the19505 typify the spirit of the time, especially Calyx, producedfor the Festival, and it was in the field of surface pattern design- wallpapers, plastic laminates and carpets included - thatBritain made its most original contribution to the developmentof the "Contemporary" style. The bold progressive abstractpatterns commissioned by the wallpaper firm, John Line, andthe textile manufacturer, David Whitehead, from leadingBritish artists and designers of the day were particularly signif-icant, and were much favoured by architects for use in"Contemporary" interiors.

The Italian interpretation of the "Contemporary" style was,if anything, even more idiosyncratic than that of the British.Isolated during the 19305 because of the political situationwhich prevailed, Italian architects and designers made a vigor-ous recovery after the war, re-establishing contacts with the