Rococo

For other uses, see Rococo (disambiguation).

"Rocaille" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Rocailles.

Pair of lovers group ofNymphenburg porcelain, c. 1760, modelled by Franz Anton Bustelli

The Rococo Basilica at Ottobeuren(Bavaria): architectural spaces flow together and swarm with life.

Rococo (/rkoko/ or /rokko/), less commonly roccoco, or "Late Baroque", is an 18thcentury artistic movement and style, affecting many aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture,
architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music, and theatre. It developed in the early 18th
century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry, and strict regulations of
the Baroque, especially of the Palace of Versailles.[1] Rococo artists and architects used a more
jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours,
asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and
witty themes. The interior decoration of Rococo rooms was designed as a total work of art with
elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing
architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings.
By the end of the 18th century, Rococo was largely replaced by the Neoclassic style. In 1835
the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo "usually covers the kind of
ornament, style and design associated with Louis XV's reign and the beginning of that of Louis XVI".
It includes therefore, all types of art from around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word

is seen as a combination of the French rocaille (stone) and coquilles (shell), due to reliance on these
objects as decorative motifs.[2] The term may also be a combination of the Italian word "barocco" (an
irregularly shaped pearl, possibly the source of the word "baroque") and the French "rocaille" (a
popular form of garden or interior ornamentation using shells and pebbles) and may describe the
refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe in the 18th century. [3] Owing to
Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts, some critics used the term to
derogatively imply that the style was frivolous or merely modish. When the term was first used in
English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning "old-fashioned". The style received harsh
criticism and was seen by some to be superficial and of poor taste, [4][5] especially when compared to
neoclassicism; despite this, it has been praised for its aesthetic qualities, [4] and since the mid-19th
century, the term has been accepted by art historians. While there is still some debate about the
historical significance of the style to art in general, Rococo is now widely recognized as a major
period in the development of European art.

Historical development

Rococo-style House of the Good Shepherd in Bratislava (Slovakia) - an example of the 18th
centurybourgeoisie house.

Although Rococo is usually thought of as developing first in the decorative arts and interior design,
its origins lie in the late Baroque architectural work of Borromini (15991667) mostly in Rome
and Guarini (16241683) mostly in Northern Italy but also in Vienna, Prague, Lisbon, and Paris.
Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic (Southern)
Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, bishops and prince-bishops. Inspired by their
example, regional families of Central European builders went further, creating churches and palaces
that took the local German Baroque style to the greatest heights of Rococo elaboration and
sensation.

An exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIV's
succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the king's
long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves and natural
patterns. These elements are obvious in the architectural designs of Nicolas Pineau. During
the Rgence, court life moved away from Versailles and this artistic change became well
established, first in the royal palace and then throughout French high society.

Franois Boucher, Le Djeuner, (1739, Louvre), shows a rocaille interior of a French bourgeois family in the
18th century. The porcelain statuette and vase add a touch of chinoiserie.

The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is often seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses
of Louis XV's reign.[6]
The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France. The style had spread beyond
architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine
Watteau and Franois Boucher. Rococo still maintained the Baroque taste for complex forms and
intricate patterns, but by this point, it had begun to integrate a variety of diverse characteristics
including asymmetric compositions. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved
publications.
In Great Britain, Rococo was always thought of as the "French taste" and was never widely adopted
as an architectural style, although its influence was strongly felt in such areas as silverwork,
porcelain, and silks, and Thomas Chippendale transformed British furniture design through his
adaptation and refinement of the style. William Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for
Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of
Beauty (1753) that the undulating lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace

and beauty in art or nature (unlike the straight line or the circle in Classicism). The development of
Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have been connected with the revival of interest in Gothic
architecture early in the 18th century.
The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and JacquesFranois Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality and degeneracy of the art. Blondel
decried the "ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants" in contemporary
interiors.[7] By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order and
seriousness of Neoclassical artists like Jacques-Louis David. In Germany, late 18th century Rococo
was ridiculed as Zopf und Percke ("pigtail and periwig"), and this phase is sometimes referred to
as Zopfstil. Rococo remained popular in the provinces and in Italy, until the second phase of
neoclassicism, "Empire style", arrived with Napoleonic governments and swept Rococo away.
There was a renewed interest in the Rococo style between 1820 and 1870. The British were among
the first to revive the "Louis XIV style" as it was miscalled at first, and paid inflated prices for secondhand Rococo luxury goods that could scarcely be sold in Paris. But prominent artists like Eugne
Delacroix and patrons like Empress Eugnie also rediscovered the value of grace and playfulness in
art and design.

Rococo in different artistic modes[edit]

Furniture and decorative objects[edit]

Rococo mirror and stuccowork inSchloss Ludwigsburg reflect the style's characteristic anti-architectural
integration of materials and forms

The lighthearted themes and intricate designs of Rococo presented themselves best at a more
intimate scale than the imposing Baroque architecture and sculpture. It is not surprising, then, that
French Rococo art was at home indoors. Metalwork, porcelain figures and especially furniture rose
to new pre-eminence as the French upper classes sought to outfit their homes in the now
fashionable style.

Italian mirror showcasing typical Rococo design with Asymmetricalpatterns

Rococo style took pleasure in asymmetry, a taste that was new to European style. This practice of
leaving elements unbalanced for effect is called contraste.
During the Rococo period, furniture was lighthearted, physically and visually. The idea of furniture
had evolved to a symbol of status and took on a role in comfort and versatility. Furniture could be
easily moved around for gatherings, and many specialized forms came to be such as the fauteuil
chair, the voyeuse chair, and the berger en gondola. Changes in design of these chairs ranges from
cushioned detached arms, lengthening of the cushioned back (also known as "hammerhead") and a
loose seat cushion. Furniture was also freestanding, instead of being anchored by the wall, to
accentuate the lighthearted atmosphere and versatility of each piece. Mahogany was widely used in
furniture construction due to its strength, resulting in the absence of the stretcher as seen on many
chairs of the time. Also, the use of mirrors hung above mantels became ever more popular in light of
the development of unblemished glass.
In a full-blown Rococo design, like the Table d'appartement (c. 1730), by French designer J. A.
Meissonnier, working in Paris (illustration, below), any reference to tectonic form is gone: even the
marble slab top is shaped. Apron, legs, stretcher have all been seamlessly integrated into a flow of
opposed c-scrolls and "rocaille." The knot (noeud) of the stretcher shows the asymmetrical
"contraste" that was a Rococo innovation.

Design for a table by Juste-Aurele Meissonnier, Paris ca 1730

Most widely admired and displayed in the "minor" and decorative arts its detractors claimed that its
tendency to depart from or obscure traditionally recognised forms and structures rendered it
unsuitable for larger scale projects and disqualified it as a fully architectural style.

An encoignure by royal cabinetmaker Jean-Pierre Latz circa 1750 is richly ornamented

withmarquetry and ormolu.

Dynasties of Parisian bnistes, some of them German-born, developed a style of surfaces curved
in three dimensions (bomb), where matched veneers (marquetry temporarily being in eclipse)
orvernis martin japanning was effortlessly complemented by gilt-bronze ("ormolu") mounts: Antoine
Gaudreau, Charles

Cressent, Jean-Pierre

Risamburghare the outstanding names.

Latz, Jean-Franois

Oeben, Bernard

II

van

Abstract and asymmetrical Rococo decoration: ceiling stucco at the Neues Schloss, Tettnang

Designers such as the Belgian Franois de Cuvillis, the French Nicolas Pineau and the
ItalianBartolomeo Rastrelli exported Parisian styles in person to Munich and Saint Petersburg, while
Turin-born Juste-Aurle Meissonier found his career at Paris. The guiding spirits of the Parisian
rococo were a small group of marchands-merciers, the forerunners of modern decorators, led by
Simon-Philippe Poirier.
In French furniture the style remained somewhat more reserved, since the ornaments were mostly of
wood, or, after the fashion of wood-carving, less robust and naturalistic and less exuberant in the
mixture of natural with artificial forms of all kinds (e.g. plant motives, stalactitic representations,
grotesques, masks, implements of various professions, badges, paintings, precious stones).
British Rococo tended to be more restrained. Thomas Chippendale's furniture designs kept the
curves and feel, but stopped short of the French heights of whimsy. The most successful exponent of
British Rococo was probably Thomas Johnson, a gifted carver and furniture designer working in
London in the mid-18th century.
The word 'Rococo' is derived from the French "rocaille", a word used to describe the rock and shell
work of the Versailles grottoes. Many pieces of carved furniture dating from the 18th centuryin
particular, mirror framesdepict rocks, shells, and dripping water in their composition, frequently in
association with Chinese figures and pagodas.[8]

Garden design[edit]

The Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo is one of the northernmost Rococo buildings

The Queluz National Palace in Portugal was one of the last Rococo buildings to be built in Europe.

Main: Garden la franaise

Examples designed by Andr Le Ntre:

Gardens of Versailles

Vaux-le-Vicomte
Chteau de Chantilly

Architecture[edit]
Rococo architecture, as mentioned above, was a lighter, more graceful, yet also more elaborate
version of Baroque architecture, which was ornate and austere. Whilst the styles were similar,
there are some notable differences between both Rococo and Baroque architecture, one of them
being symmetry,[9] since Rococo emphasised the asymmetry of forms, [9] whilst Baroque was the
opposite.[10]The styles, despite both being richly decorated, also had different themes; the
Baroque, for instance, was more serious, placing an emphasis on religion, and was often
characterized by Christian themes [11] (as a matter of fact, the Baroque began in Rome as
a responseto the Protestant Reformation);[12] Rococo architecture was an 18th-century, more
secular, adaptation of the Baroque which was characterized by more light-hearted and jocular
themes.[11] Other elements belonging to the architectural style of Rococo include numerous
curves and decorations, as well as the usage of pale colours. [13]
There are numerous examples of Rococo buildings as well as architects. Amongst the most
famous include the Catherine Palace, in Russia, the Queluz National Palace in Portugal,
the Augustusburg

and

Falkenlust

Palaces,

Brhl,

the Chinese

House

(Potsdam) theCharlottenburg Palace in Germany, as well as elements of the Chteau de

Versailles in France. Architects who were renowned for their constructions using the style

include Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, an Italian architect who worked in Russia [14] and who
was noted for his lavish and opulent works, Philip de Lange, who worked in both Danish and
Dutch Rococo architecture, or Matthus Daniel Pppelmann, who worked in the late Baroque
style and who contributed to the reconstruction of the city of Dresden, in Germany.
Rococo architecture also brought significant changes to the building of edifices, placing an
emphasis on privacy rather than the grand public majesty of Baroque architecture, as well as
improving the structure of buildings in order to create a more healthy environment. [13]

Interior design[edit]

A Rococo interior in Gatchina.

Solitude Palace in Stuttgart and Chinese Palace in Oranienbaum, the Bavarian church
of Wies and Sanssouci in Potsdam are examples of how Rococo made its way into European
architecture.
In those Continental contexts where Rococo is fully in control, sportive, fantastic, and sculptured
forms are expressed with abstract ornament using flaming, leafy or shell-like textures in
asymmetrical

sweeps

and

flourishes

and

broken

curves;

intimate

Rococo

interiors

suppress architectonic divisions of architrave, frieze, and cornice for the picturesque, the
curious, and the whimsical, expressed in plastic materials like carved wood and above
all stucco (as in the work of the Wessobrunner School). Walls, ceiling, furniture, and works of
metal and porcelain present a unified ensemble. The Rococo palette is softer and paler than the
rich primary colors and dark tonalities favored in Baroque tastes.

Integrated rococo carving, stucco and fresco atZwiefalten

A few anti-architectural hints rapidly evolved into full-blown Rococo at the end of the 1720s and
began to affect interiors and decorative arts throughout Europe. The richest forms of German
Rococo are in Catholic Germany (illustration, above).
Rococo plasterwork by immigrant Italian-Swiss artists like Bagutti and Artari is a feature of
houses by James Gibbs, and the Franchini brothersworking in Ireland equalled anything that
was attempted in Great Britain.
Inaugurated in some rooms in Versailles, it unfolds its magnificence in several Parisian buildings
(especially

the Htel

Soubise).

(Cuvillis, Neumann, Knobelsdorff,

the Amalienburg near Munich,

In

Germany,

etc.)

effected
and

Belgian
the

and

dignified

German

artists

equipment

the

of

castles

of Wrzburg, Potsdam, Charlottenburg, Brhl, Bruchsal, Solitude (Stuttgart), and Schnbrunn.

In Great Britain, one of Hogarth's set of paintings forming a melodramatic morality tale
titled Marriage la Mode, engraved in 1745, shows the parade rooms of a stylish London house,
in which the only rococo is in plasterwork of the salon's ceiling. Palladian architecture is in
control. Here, on the Kentian mantel, the crowd of Chinese vases and mandarins are satirically
rendered as hideous little monstrosities, and the Rococo wall clock is a jumble of leafy branches.
In general, Rococo is an entirely interior style, because the wealthy and aristocratic moved back
to Paris from Versailles. Paris was already built up and so rather than engaging in major
architectural additions, they simply renovated the interiors of the existing buildings.

Painting[edit]
Though Rococo originated in the purely decorative arts, the style showed clearly in painting.
These painters used delicate colors and curving forms, decorating their canvases with cherubs
and myths of love. Portraiture was also popular among Rococo painters. Some works depict a
sort of naughtiness or impurity in the behavior of their subjects, indicating a departure from the
Baroque's church/state orientation. Landscapes were pastoral and often depicted the leisurely
outings of aristocratic couples.

Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera (1717, Louvre) captures the frivolity and sensuousness
of Rococo painting.

Jean-Antoine Watteau (16841721) is generally considered the first great Rococo painter. He
had a great influence on later painters, including Franois Boucher (17031770) and JeanHonor Fragonard (17321806), two masters of the late period. Even Thomas Gainsborough's
(17271788) delicate touch and sensitivity are reflective of the Rococo spirit. lisabeth-Louise
Vige-Le Brun's (17551842) style also shows a great deal of Rococo influence, particularly in
her portraits of Marie Antoinette. Other Rococo painters include:Jean Franois de Troy (1679
1752), Jean-Baptiste van Loo (16851745), his two sons Louis-Michel van Loo (17071771)
and Charles-Amde-Philippe van Loo (17191795), his younger brother Charles-Andr van
Loo (17051765),

and Nicolas

Lancret (16901743).

Both Jean-Baptiste-Simon

Chardin (16991779) and Jean-Baptiste Greuze (17251805), were important French painters
of the Rococo era who are considered Anti-Rococo.
During the Rococo era Portraiture was an important component of painting in all countries, but
especially in Great Britain, where the leaders were William Hogarth (16971764), in a blunt
realist style, and Francis Hayman (17081776), Angelica Kauffman who was Swiss, (1741
1807), Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds (17231792), in more flattering styles
influenced by Anthony van Dyck (15991641). While in France during the Rococo era JeanBaptiste Greuze was the favorite painter of Denis Diderot (17131785),[15] andMaurice Quentin
de La Tour (17041788), Alexander Roslin(17181793) lisabeth Vige-Lebrun were highly
accomplished portrait painters and history painters.

Sculpture[edit]
Sculpture

was

another

area

where

the

Rococo

was

widely

adopted. tienne-Maurice

Falconet (17161791) is widely considered one of the best representatives of French Rococo. In
general, this style was best expressed through delicate porcelain sculpture rather than imposing
marble statues. Falconet himself was director of a famous porcelain factory at Svres. The themes
of love and gaiety were reflected in sculpture, as were elements of nature, curving lines and
asymmetry.
The sculptor Edm Bouchardon represented Cupid engaged in carving his darts of love from the
club of Hercules (illustration); this serves as an excellent symbol of the Rococo stylethe demigod
is transformed into the soft child, the bone-shattering club becomes the heart-scathing arrows, just
as marble is so freely replaced by stucco. In this connection, the French sculptors, Jean-Louis
Lemoyne, Jean-Baptiste

Lemoyne, Robert

Le

Lorrain, Louis-Simon

Boizot, Michel

Clodion,

and Pigalle may be mentioned in passing.

Music[edit]
A Rococo period existed in music history, although it is not as well known as the earlier Baroque and
later Classical forms. The Rococo music style itself developed out of baroque music both in France,
where the new style was referred to as style galante ("gallant" or "elegant" style), and in Germany,
where it was referred to as empfindsamer stil ("sensitive style"). It can be characterized as light,
intimate music with extremely elaborate and refined forms of ornamentation. Exemplars include Jean
Philippe Rameau, Louis-Claude Daquin and Franois Couperin in France; in Germany, the style's
main proponents wereC. P. E. Bach and Johann Christian Bach, two sons of the renowned J.S.
Bach.
An insight into the French term "galante" can be seen through Boucher's painting Le
Djeuner (above), which provides a glimpse of the society which Rococo reflected. "Courtly" would
be pretentious in this upper bourgeois circle, yet the man's gesture is gallant. The stylish but cozy
interior, the informal decorous intimacy of people's manners, the curious and delightful details
everywhere one turns one's eye, the luxury of sipping chocolate: all are "galante."
In the second half of the 18th century, a reaction against the Rococo style occurred, primarily against
its perceived overuse of ornamentation and decoration. Led by C.P.E. Bach(an accomplished
Rococo composer in his own right), Domenico Scarlatti, and Christoph Willibald Gluck, this reaction
ushered in the Classical era. By the early 19th century, Catholic opinion had turned against the
suitability of the style for ecclesiastical contexts because it was "in no way conducive to sentiments
of devotion".[16]

Gallery[edit]

Architecture[edit]

Igreja de So Francisco de Assis inSo Joo del Rei, 17491774, by the Brazilian master Aleijadinho

Czapski Palace in Warsaw, 17121721, reflects rococo's fascinations oforiental architecture

St. Andrew's Church in Kiev, 17441767, designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli

The Rococo staircase of Gruber Palace in Ljubljana

Zwinger in Dresden

Eszterhza in Fertd, Hungary, 17201766, sometimes called the "Hungarian Versailles"

The Rococo Branicki Palace in Biaystok, sometimes referred to as the "Polish Versailles"

Electoral Palace of Trier

Engravings[edit]

Unknown artist. Allegories of astronomy and geography. France (?), ca. 1750s

A. Avelin after Mondon le Fils. LHeureux moment. 1736

A. Avelin after Mondon le Fils. Chinese God. An engraving from the ouvrage Quatrieme livre des
formes, orne des rocailles, carteles, figures oyseaux et dragon1736

Rococo painting[edit]

Antoine Watteau, Pierrot, 17181719

Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera , 17181721

Jean-Baptiste van Loo, The Triumph ofGalatea, 1720

Jean Franois de Troy, A Reading ofMolire, 1728

Francis Hayman, Dancing Milkmaids, 1735

Charles-Andr van Loo, Halt to the Hunt, 1737

Gustaf Lundberg, Portrait of Franois Boucher, 1741

Franois Boucher, Diana Leaving the Bath, 1742

Franois Boucher, The Toilet of Venus, 1751

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Death of Hyacinth, 1752

Franois Boucher, Marie-Louise O'Murphy, 1752

Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Full-length portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, 17481755

Franois Boucher Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour, 1756

Jean-Honor Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

Jean-Honor Fragonard, Inspiration, 1769

Jean-Honor Fragonard, Denis Diderot, 1769

Jean-Honor Fragonard The Meeting (Part of the Progress of Love series), 1771

lisabeth Vige-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette la Rose, 1783

Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin, Still Life with Glass Flask and Fruit, c. 1750

Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1750

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Spoiled Child, c. 1765

Joshua Reynolds, Robert Clive and his family with an Indian maid, 1765

Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of David Garrick, c. 1765

Louis-Michel van Loo, Portrait of Denis Diderot, 1767

REFERENCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo