In 18th-century France, the neoclassicism of the Louis XVI style reflected a definite reaction against over-elaborate rococo and baroque designs; and with Napoleon's assumption of power late in the century, there came a deliberate artistic attempt to re-create the aura of Imperial Rome to give a sense of legitimacy and permanence to the new "empire." This French neoclassicism was soon reflected in many stylebooks published in England during the period. The present volume comprises a selection of 43 plates from one of these extremely rare British collections. It provides artists and illustrators with a host of elegant, royalty-free fine line illustrations depicting cherubs astride lions, gods and goddesses at play, figures draped in classical robes, cartouches, busts, and a wealth of other designs, all ready to add a touch of timeless classical elegance to a wide variety of print projects as well as numerous art and craft activities.

In the arts, Neoclassicism is a historical tradition or aesthetic attitude based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity. The movement started around the 18th-century, age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th-century The general credo associated with the aesthetic attitude of Classicism was that art had to be rational and therefore morally better. Neoclassicists also believed that art should be cerebral, not sensual and therefore characterised by clarity of form, sober colours and shallow space. It was a reaction against both the surviving Baroque and Rococo styles, and a desire to return to the perceived ""purity"" of the arts of Rome. The important artists of the movement include the sculptors Antonio Canova,Jean-Antoine Houdon and Bertel Thorvaldsen, and the painters J.A.D. Ingres, Jacques-Louis David and Anton Raphael Mengs.