WOLF BURCHARD:
As we enter this space, looking at this wonderful Rococo sofa, we want to ask ourselves one question: If this sofa could talk, what would it say? As humans, we have this incredible intuition of bringing objects to life.

PAIGE O'HARA:
Both Rococo and Disney artists tapped into that intuition for anthropomorphism—or bringing inanimate objects to life. Telling stories from the perspective of an object became a literary trend in the 1740s.

One of the most popular novels in this vein was Le Sopha, or the Sofa. It was written by Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, whose father was romantically involved with Madame de Villeneuve, author of the original Beauty and the Beast. It told the story of a courtier, who is condemned to inhabit a series of sofas, like this one. He witnesses one amorous encounter after the next. Only when he finally witnesses true love, is he transformed back into a man.

WOLF BURCHARD:
The sofa is designed almost like a basket, which is supposed to cradle the people who sit on it, the right stage for a romantic encounter. We see this represented in a painting nearby, called The Declaration of Love.

The sofa was a relatively new piece of furniture, introduced to Paris interiors at the beginning of the 18th century. So, there's this connection between the history of French interiors, interior decoration, and stories of love.

We see the Disney animators saw this potential because in the original storyboards for the Beauty and the Beast, the first scene where Gaston and Belle met, they met sitting on a sofa next to each other, so there are wonderful// serendipities here.