Design for Ceiling Decoration 1870

This is an anonymous design for ceiling decoration on paper. We can see the visual codes of luxury, aspiration and status that were crucial to the culture of the time. It was likely made in Europe, where interior design became newly important in the 17th and 18th centuries. The centralized state was consolidating, and the court was becoming a social and cultural model for the country. Aristocrats eager to be in royal favor would construct lavish palaces that drew on classical themes in their decoration, with elaborate moldings and plasterwork like those depicted here. Royal Academies of art, such as the French *Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture,* were defining the canons of taste, which spread through Europe via pattern books and the education of architects and designers. To understand this image better, we can look at archives of interior design and architectural treatises, as well as consider the political structures that shaped artistic production. After all, the meaning of art is contingent on its social context.