THE GILDED CAGE | Eclecticism and French Second Empire Style circa 1860 with Sylvia Sagona

Returning from a lifetime in exile, Napoleon III, vowed to reshape Paris and turn it into the City of Light; the political, cultural and fashion beacon of Europe. Based on scientific theories of the time which proved that Western civilization was at the summit of cultural evolution, the Eclectic style selected elements of all preceding artistic styles and combined them into a bombastic fanfare of ‘modernity’. An industrial age could now produce ‘fakes’ that everyone could afford, from the immense crinolines to jewellery, furniture and custom-made wallpaper. Paris became a theatre of power.

SYLVIA SAGONA is a Fellow of the School of Languages at the University of Melbourne specialising in 19^th century French art and society.