ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the design of Barry and Pugin's new building was used to construct two intersecting schemes of decoration. One follows the ceremonial functions of the house, leading from the Victoria Tower entrance through the Robing Room and the Royal Gallery. The second scheme, comprising thematized portrayals of historical political struggles, follows from the Westminster Hall entrance, up St Stephen's Hall to the central lobby and fans out into three separate corridors, leading to the Commons and Lords chambers, and straight ahead from the Hall. The artist and critic George Foggo supported the use of fresco, but from a very different political position. Foggo adopted the familiar distinction between the luxury of Venetian colourism and the discipline of the Florentine drawing. Critical discussion of Louis-Philippe's programme of commissions and decorations has tended to centre on the issue of the so-called 'juste milieu'.
