The restraint of the later Louis XV style presaged the strong reaction of the Louis XVI [Louis Seize] (1774–93) period, during which simplicity replaced excess and the classic revival influenced decorative motifs and brought a return to straight lines and symmetry. Info source: www.restorations.net
Classic revival, a style that had come into its own during the last years of Louis XV’s life, chiefly as a reaction to the excesses of the Rococo but partly through the popularity of the excavations at ancient Herculaneum and Pompeii, in Italy, and partly on the basis of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s call for “natural” virtue and honest sentiment