curtain

interior decoration
Print Cite Share Feedback
Alternate titles: drapery
By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Edit History

curtain
See all media
Related Topics:
 
interior design portiere vacuum cleaner
See all related content →

curtain, in interior design, decorative fabric commonly hung to regulate the admission
of light at windows and to prevent drafts from door or window openings. Curtains,
usually of a heavy material, arranged to fall straight in ornamental folds are also called
draperies. Portieres are heavy curtains hung in a doorway.

From the evidence of excavations at Olynthus, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, portieres

appear to have been used as room dividers in classical antiquity. Mosaics of the Early
Christian period (c. 2nd–6th century AD) show curtains suspended from rods spanning
arches.

In medieval illuminated manuscripts, curtains are shown knotted or looped up at

doorways. Until the end of the Middle Ages, window openings were covered with
utilitarian wooden shutters or a heavy cloth. Beds were curtained on all sides and
covered with a tester, or canopy. By day, when the beds were used as couches and seats,
the curtains were neatly looped up in the form of a bag.
Dutch paintings of the 17th century show simple dwellings in which windows are shaded
with half- or full-length curtains, and beds are curtained with plain fabrics, some of
them undoubtedly homespun and woven, and probably of wool. In Italy beds, which
were placed in alcoves, were furnished with curtains of rich velvet and damask.

In France, during the reign of Louis XIV, much of the ritual and pomp of court society
centred around the monarch’s state bedchamber, where the bed furniture included layer
upon layer of curtains and valances. During the reign of Louis XV, bed and matching
window curtains were designed in a wide variety of fanciful Rococo forms, laden with
ribbons, cords, braid, tassels, and bows.

In the early 19th century the Directoire style and the Empire style in France and
the Regency style in England drew motifs from ancient works, especially Greek and
Egyptian. Growing romanticism led to other new fashions inspired by styles as
geographically remote as those of India and the Orient or as remote in time as the
Gothic. The tops of single windows were ornamented by carved birds or bunches of
grapes that held up the drapery. The bay of several full-length windows was spanned by
a stiff valance with separate curtains falling to the floor. Plain, light-coloured silks were
preferred, since they could be hung to good effect in swags and loops.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe

Now

In the Victorian age eclecticism carried curtain design to an extreme. Doors and

windows were heavily filtered by portieres and curtains that further confined the already
crowded rooms, busy with floral and scroll patterns on the walls, carpets,
and upholstery.

The major 20th-century innovation in curtain fabric was the use of synthetics such as

fibreglass (for its insulating qualities) and polyester (for its washability). Mechanical
systems for drawing and closing curtains simplified their installation and use.