Les Incroyables Et Les Merveilleuses, Engraving By Alexis Chataignier, 1797, Directoire Period

Satire on the Incroyables: two couples, one an Incroyable and Merveilleuse, the other of the Ancien Régime, mock each other. Satirical engraving of two couples, an Incroyable and a Merveilleuse, as well as a couple from the Ancien Régime, face each other and mock each other for their attire. The Incroyables and Merveilleuses were a fashion movement in Directory France characterized by its dissipation and extravagance, in reaction to the "egalitarian" style of the carmagnole, striped trousers and waistcoat, clogs and Phrygian cap popularized by the Jacobins. And so it is within this new worldly society that groups of men and women took extravagance to its maximum, favoring amusements and pleasures, as if to signify their superior indifference to the political, societal and cultural changes that France has experienced during this last decade.