NARRATOR: This palatial reception room epitomizes the start of the glorious era of French Rococo. This ornate style of great delicacy and refinement flourished in the mid-eighteenth century, while Louis XV was King. And some of the Museum’s most extraordinary objects from his reign are displayed here.

This opulent painted and gilded paneling once decorated the walls of the Hôtel de Varengeville, a grand townhouse in Paris. Its exuberant high-relief carving typifies early Rococo décor. The term derives from rocaille and coquillage, or decoration with irregularly shaped stones and shells. And here are such characteristic motifs as swirling S-scrolls, palmettes, and sprays of foliage. Curator Danïelle Kisluk-Grosheide.

DANIËLLE KISLUK-GROSHEIDE: Particularly noteworthy are the birds on either side of the top of the mirrors and at the top of the panels, with their necks sticking out quite three-dimensional, away from the background.

NARRATOR: Mirrors—a highly expensive commodity—punctuate the white-and-gold paneling. They serve to reflect limited light, as well as expand the sense of objects and space. Not everyone was smitten with Rococo interiors. To hear more, press play.