Design for a Sofa Back Cover (?) with an Ornamental Frame Containing a Large Horizontal Garland of Flowers and Leaves with Musical Instruments and a Vase, Decorated with Acanthus Leaves and Two Fleurs de Lys

Rectangular sheet of paper with a design for a sofa back cover (?) from the second half of the nineteenth century, inspired on the style of Louis XVI, forming part of the Neo-Classical Revival that took place in France and Britain from the 1850s on. The style was part of the Classical and Renaissance Revival that took place from about 1850, where the interest on the art and architecture from Ancient Rome and the 15th and 16th centuries was propelled by archaeological discoveries in Greece, Italy and Egypt. Through this style, Classical and Renaissance pieces of art and design were reinterpreted in a variety of forms and motifs, and classical figures, scrolling decorations, strapwork, and grotesques and moresques, became central element in design. This Revival was characterized by the use of design motifs that alluded to Classical Antiquity, including vases and trophies with pastoral attributes, classical figures and cameos, a mixture of real and fantastic figures, and swags and festoons. These swags and festoons comprised garlands of fabric and ribbon, as well as thin bundles and garlands of flowers and husks colored with pastels. The scale of this design is clearly not true to life and it is not unlikely that this drawing was made for a sample book of an upholsterer, to be shown to the customer as one of many different styles to choose from.
The design is made up of an ornamental frame rendered with shades of cream and ocre to simulate a gold finish, decorated with leaves of anthemium of pastel shades of pink and carmine, bordered by aquamarine and grey. The upper part of the frame is decorated by a thin interlacing garland of blue and purple flowers and leaves, joined by a ribbon of pastel blue color in the middle, which holds a large horizontal garland of flowers and leaves containing a group of musical instruments and a vase. The bottom corners of the frame scroll to form stylized wheat ears of golden color and hhold garlands of flowers and leaves that float down from the large garland that hangs in the middle of the frame. The two upper corners of the frame are squared, each containing a small interlacing motif flanked by a fleur-de-lys. The flowers in the garlands are colored with pastel shades of pink, purple, orange, yellow and carmine; the leaves are colored with various shades of green. The design seems to have been paired with a strikingly similar style for a sofa seat, also labeled "Pon. 97" with accession number 49.50.194.