As the official architects of Napoleon, Charles Percier (1764 1838) and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine (1762 1853) designed interiors that responded to the radical ideologies and collective forms of destruction that took place during the French Revolution. The architects visualized new forms of imperial sovereignty by inverting the symbols of monarchy and revolution, constructing meeting rooms resembling military encampments and gilded thrones that replaced the Bourbon lily with Napoleonic bees. Yet in the wake of political struggle, each foundation stone that the architects laid for the...
As the official architects of Napoleon, Charles Percier (1764 1838) and Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine (1762 1853) designed interiors that respon...