Within his reign, Louis XIV design leadership overcame Italian influences to form the first purely French style. The widespread popularity of the decorative arts, which proliferated in every phase of court culture, had allies such as Charles Le Brun (president of the Royal Academy) who were essentially tastemakers whose designs, opinions, and social interactions cued the artist and the aristocrat in the manner of proper presentation. Stimulated by the Parisian court, the most fully developed masterpieces of "the art of the frame" appeared here between the 17th century and the Napoleonic era. These design conventions eventually became determinative for all of Europe.
The most typical and widely produced frame patterns of the Louis XIV period may be broadly divided by their silhouettes into two types: straight-sided and straight-sided with projecting cartouches. Although the underlying sections were basically the same as in the Louis XIII frame, they were decoratively quite different. The straight-sided moulding was now carved with a complex but symmetrical rhythm of facing foliate C-scrolls, linked with strapwork and flower heads on a crosshatched ground. These patterns demonstrate the extraordinary skill and dedication of the woodcarvers, who brought this miniaturized web of tiny shells and leaves and flowers to life; the skill of the répareurs, who sharpened all of the detail after the frame had been gessoed and hatched the backgrounds; and of the gilders, who highlighted defining elements of the strapwork and auxiliary mouldings. The curling foliage and the textured grounds are particularly reminiscent of late-seventeenth century silks and brocades.
The corner-and-center frame that resulted from the addition of projecting cartouches to the straight-sided design became the most regularly employed type, synonymous with the Baroque style of Louis XIV; it became the dominant formula for portraiture. The cartouches contained shells, leaves, anthemia or fleur-de-lis accentuated by a broadly hatched ground (quadrillage). The main variation, heralding the Regency style, had an ogee section and introduced a three-quarter rail between the corners and centers.
A charming outgrowth of the influence of the court was the development in the countryside of provincial versions of the Louis XIV style. Contrary to the Parisian carvings, which were carefully plotted in their symmetry and scaled finely in detail, these provincial interpretations were noted for their elegant simplicity and casual artistry. The asymmetry and variation of detail is a signature of this style, which conveys spontaneity, much as true French Provincial furniture offers a comfortable escape from the formal.