History
The first meaning of the Renaissance term refers to the rediscovery of Antiquity. With its Greco-Roman heritage medieval Italy turn page as soon as the fifteenth century with Florence as the first creative center. The French Renaissance will appear in the sixteenth century Fontainebleau as a major reference.
Among decorative elements we note the acanthus rinceaux treated lightly, putti, pilasters covered with arabesques, vases and ornamental medallions in a real ornmental disorder And above all, the grotesque originally were written "grottesque" to evoke grottesques painting caves, those inspired the artists of the Renaissance with excavations of the Golden Villa of Nero.
The grotesques consist of foliage or chimeras inhabited arabesques, putties, small animals mixing laugh and fantasy. The patterns transposed in stencil all come from real sets or decorators projects of the Italian Renaissance, French or Flemish.