The Challenge of Decoration: Design, Execution, Collaboration in the 18th Century

Abstract

The article analyses the practices of design collaboration in 18th-century interior decoration.  Through French and Piedmontese case studies, the research aims to consider the conceptual contribution of wood sculptors in the artistic societies of the Ancien Régime, with a careful consideration of territorial and chronological contexts. The leitmotif of the discussion is the role of drawing as the pivot of the design process. Can the degree of freedom that emerges from certain case studies be interpreted as representative of the general picture or, on the contrary, is it an anomaly of a specific context? A closer examination of the documentary series on 18th-century ornamental building sites reveals different degrees of collaboration.