Influenced by Greek art, the works from the Directoire era have more geometric forms, flat tops, and straight lines. The ornamentation on the furniture was more discreet than the Louis XVI style. Wood veneer, marquetry, and gilt bronze were no longer used. Painted wood is characteristic of the style. The interiors were embellished with highly contrasting intense colours: purple, brown, navy blue, and red. The use of fan-shaped designs was very common.
This ‘neoclassical’ style combined the tradition of Graeco-Roman decorations with an English influence. These sources of inspiration influenced the ornamental vocabulary: squares, lozenges, striped rectangles, sphinxes, and mermaids. The revolutionary motifs were widely used in sculptures: trophies, rosettes, Victories surmounted by lyres, and so on.
