rococo

 

  • Furniture and decoration The ornamental style called rocaille emerged in France between 1710 and 1750, mostly during the regency and reign of Louis XV; the style was also
    called Louis Quinze.

  • Painting Elements of the Rocaille style appeared in the work of some French painters, including a taste for the picturesque in details; curves and counter-curves; and dissymmetry
    which replaced the movement of the baroque with exuberance, though the French rocaille never reached the extravagance of the Germanic rococo.

  • His work is well known today because of the enormous number of engravings made of his work which popularized the style throughout Europe.

  • Early Rococo or Rocaille sculpture in France sculpture was lighter and offered more movement than the classical style of Louis XIV.

  • Another important figure in British furniture was Thomas Johnson, who in 1761, very late in the period, published a catalogue of Rococo furniture designs.

  • [25] German architects adapted the Rococo style but made it far more asymmetric and loaded with more ornate decoration than the French original.

  • Cochin became an important art critic; he denounced the petit style of Boucher, and called for a grand style with a new emphasis on antiquity and nobility in the academies
    of painting and architecture.

  • The furniture of Thomas Chippendale was the closest to the Rococo style, In 1754 he published “Gentleman’s and Cabinet-makers’ directory”, a catalogue of designs for rococo,
    chinoiserie and even Gothic furniture, which achieved wide popularity, going through three editions.

  • [45] Porcelain A new form of small-scale sculpture appeared, the porcelain figure, or small group of figures, initially replacing sugar sculptures on grand dining room tables,
    but soon popular for placing on mantelpieces and furniture.

  • [28] Britain In Great Britain, rococo was called the “French taste” and had less influence on design and the decorative arts than in continental Europe, although its influence
    was felt in such areas as silverwork, porcelain, and silks.

  • • Design for a State Bed by Thomas Chippendale (1753–1754) • Proposed Chinese sofa by Thomas Chippendale (1753–1754) • Design for Commode and lamp stands by Thomas Chippendale
    (1753–1754) • Side chair; Thomas Chippendale; circa 1755–1760; mahogany; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City) • Design for candlesticks in the “Chinese Taste” by Thomas Johnson (1756) • Chippendale chair (1772), Metropolitan Museum •
    Brazier by silversmith Charles Friedrich Kander (1735), Metropolitan Museum Russia The Russian Empress Catherine the Great was another admirer of the Rococo; The Golden Cabinet of the Chinese Palace in the palace complex of Oranienbaum near
    Saint Petersburg, designed by the Italian Antonio Rinaldi, is an example of the Russian Rococo.

  • The Rococo music style itself developed out of baroque music both in France, where the new style was referred to as style galant (“gallant” or “elegant” style), and in Germany,
    where it was referred to as empfindsamer Stil (“sensitive style”).

  • [17] Differences between Baroque and Rococo Rococo has the following characteristics, which Baroque does not: • The partial abandonment of symmetry, everything being composed
    of graceful lines and curves, similar to Art Nouveau • The huge quantity of asymmetrical curves and C-shaped volutes • The wide use of flowers in ornamentation, an example being festoons made of flowers • Chinese and Japanese motifs (see also:
    chinoiserie and Japonisme) • Warm pastel colours[18] (whitish-yellow, cream-coloured, pearl greys, very light blues)[19] France The Rocaille style, or French Rococo, appeared in Paris during the reign of Louis XV, and flourished between about
    1723 and 1759.

  • Before entering the Rococo, British furniture for a time followed the neoclassical Palladian model under designer William Kent, who designed for Lord Burlington and other
    important patrons of the arts.

  • [24] • Ceiling of church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, by Piazzetta (1727) • Juno and Luna by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1735–45) • Murano glass chandelier at the Ca
    Rezzonico (1758) • Ballroom ceiling of the Ca Rezzonico with ceiling by Giovanni Battista Crosato (1753) Southern Germany In church construction, especially in the southern German-Austrian region, gigantic spatial creations are sometimes created
    for practical reasons alone, which, however, do not appear monumental, but are characterized by a unique fusion of architecture, painting, stucco, etc., often completely eliminating the boundaries between the art genres, and are characterised
    by a light-filled weightlessness, festive cheerfulness and movement.

  • The period also saw the arrival of Chinoiserie, often in the form of lacquered and gilded commodes, called falcon de Chine of Vernis Martin, after the ebenist who introduced
    the technique to France.

  • [11] The term rococo was first used in print in 1825 to describe decoration which was “out of style and old-fashioned”.

  • [37] By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order and seriousness of Neoclassical artists like Jacques-Louis David.

  • His work included the sensual Toilette de Venus (1746), which became one of the best known examples of the style.

  • The church features, like much of the rococo architecture in Germany, a remarkable contrast between the regularity of the facade and the overabundance of decoration in the
    interior.

  • [4] Although originally a secular style primarily used for interiors of private residences, the Rococo had a spiritual aspect to it which led to its widespread use in church
    interiors, particularly in Central Europe, Portugal, and South America.

  • Though not mentioning rococo by name, 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).

  • [8][9] In the late 17th and early 18th century, rocaille became the term for a kind of decorative motif or ornament that appeared in the late Style Louis XIV, in the form
    of a seashell interlaced with acanthus leaves.

  • Falconet was most famous for his statue of Peter the Great on horseback in St. Petersburg, but he also created a series of smaller works for wealthy collectors, which could
    be reproduced in a series in terracotta or cast in bronze.

  • • The Music Lesson, Chelsea porcelain, Metropolitan Museum (c. 1765) • High altar of the Karlskirche in Vienna (1737) • Cup with saucer; circa 1753; soft-paste porcelain with
    glaze and enamel; Los Angeles County Museum of Art • Mezzetin, by Kaendler, Meissen, c. 1739 • Harlequin and Columbine, Capodimonte porcelain, c. 1745 • Pair of lovers group of Nymphenburg porcelain, c. 1760, modelled by Franz Anton Bustelli
    • Figure of a cheese seller by Bustelli, Nymphenburg porcelain (1755) Music A Rococo period existed in music history, although it is not as well known as the earlier Baroque and later Classical forms.

  • Their work had an important influence on the German Rococo style, but does not reach the level of buildings in southern Germany.

  • While there is still some debate about the historical significance of the style, Rococo is now often considered as a distinct period in the development of European art.

  • They were made by master craftsmen including Jean-Pierre Latz and also featured marquetry of different-coloured woods, sometimes placed in draughtsboard cubic patterns, made
    with light and dark woods.

  • Boucher participated in all of the genres of the time, designing tapestries, models for porcelain sculpture, set decorations for the Paris opera and opera-comique, and decor
    for the Fair of Saint-Laurent.

  • [3] It also came to influence the other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware, glassware, painting, music, and theatre.

  • [12] Capital of the Engelszell Abbey, from Austria (1754-1764) In the 19th century, the term was used to describe architecture or music which was excessively ornamental.

  • Tiepelo travelled to Germany with his son during 1752–1754, decorating the ceilings of the Würzburg Residence, one of the major landmarks of the Bavarian rococo.

  • [17] • Desk for the Münchner Residenz by Bernard II van Risamburgh (1737) • Clock-chest for Frederick the Great (1742) • A Chinese porcelain bowl and two fish mounted in gilded
    bronze, France (1745–49) • An encoignure by royal cabinetmaker Jean-Pierre Latz (circa 1750) • Lacquered Commode in Chinoiserie style, by Bernard II van Risamburgh, Victoria and Albert Museum (1750–1760) British Rococo tended to be more restrained.

  • These include furnishings based on rather fantastic Chinese and Indian motifs, including a canopy bed crowned by a Chinese pagoda (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum).

  • In that building the stairway led the visitors up through a stucco fantasy of paintings, sculpture, ironwork and decoration, with surprising views at every turn.

  • Decline and end The art of Boucher and other painters of the period, with its emphasis on decorative mythology and gallantry, soon inspired a reaction, and a demand for more
    “noble” themes.

  • 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.

  • [1] The Rococo style began in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the more formal and geometric Louis XIV style.

  • Venetian commodes imitated the curving lines and carved ornament of the French rocaille, but with a particular Venetian variation; the pieces were painted, often with landscapes
    or flowers or scenes from Guardi or other painters, or Chinoiserie, against a blue or green background, matching the colours of the Venetian school of painters whose work decorated the salons.

  • While also making large-scale works, he became director of the Sevres Porcelain manufactory and produced small-scale works, usually about love and gaiety, for production in
    series.

  • [20] The style was used particularly in salons, a new style of room designed to impress and entertain guests.

  • The characteristics of French Rococo included exceptional artistry, especially in the complex frames made for mirrors and paintings, which were sculpted in plaster and often
    gilded; and the use of vegetal forms (vines, leaves, flowers) intertwined in complex designs.

  • Rococo (/rəˈkoʊkoʊ/, also US: /ˌroʊkəˈkoʊ/), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration
    which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and trompe-l’œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama.

  • [49] A style that appeared in the early eighteenth-century was the robe volante,[47] a flowing gown, that became popular towards the end of King Louis XIV’s reign.

  • Religious sculpture followed the Italian baroque style, as exemplified in the theatrical altarpiece of the Karlskirche in Vienna.

  • While the Rococo continued in Germany and Austria, the French Academy in Rome began to teach the classic style.

  • [27] Another notable example of the early German Rococo is Würzburg Residence (1737–1744) constructed for the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg by Balthasar Neumann.

  • Rococo remained popular in certain German provincial states and in Italy, until the second phase of neoclassicism, “Empire style”, arrived with Napoleonic governments and
    swept Rococo away.

  • The Prince-Bishop imported the Italian Rococo painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo in 1750–1753 to create a mural over the top of the three-level ceremonial stairway.

  • One of the earliest examples was the Hôtel Soubise in Paris (1704–05), with its famous oval salon decorated with paintings by Boucher, and Charles-Joseph Natoire.

  • The Rococo began to make an appearance in England between 1740 and 1750.

  • In Austria and Southern Germany, Italian painting had the largest effect on the Rococo style.

  • [26] The Belgian-born architect and designer François de Cuvilliés was one of the first to create a Rococo building in Germany, with the pavilion of Amalienburg in Munich,
    (1734-1739), inspired by the pavilions of the Trianon and Marly in France.

  • He turned official French architecture toward the neoclassical.

  • Thomas Chippendale’s furniture designs kept the curves and feel, but stopped short of the French heights of whimsy.

  • He preferred sentimental themes and made several skilled works of women with faces covered by veils, one of which is now in the Louvre.

  • [22] Mahogany made its appearance in England in about 1720, and immediately became popular for furniture, along with walnut wood.

  • Italy was another place where the Rococo flourished, both in its early and later phases.

  • Floor plans of churches were often complex, featuring interlocking ovals; In palaces, grand stairways became centrepieces, and offered different points of view of the decoration.

  • [22][23] The Rocaille style lasted in France until the mid-18th century, and while it became more curving and vegetal, it never achieved the extravagant exuberance of the
    Rococo in Bavaria, Austria and Italy.

  • It was most commonly found in the interiors of churches, usually closely integrated with painting and the architecture.

  • The style particularly influenced François Lemoyne, who painted the lavish decoration of the ceiling of the Salon of Hercules at the Palace of Versailles, completed in 1735.

  • The sculpture was closely integrated with the architecture; it was impossible to know where one stopped and the other began.

  • The discoveries of Roman antiquities beginning in 1738 at Herculaneum and especially at Pompeii in 1748 turned French architecture in the direction of the more symmetrical
    and less flamboyant neo-classicism.

  • In the second half of the 18th century, a reaction against the Rococo style occurred, primarily against its perceived overuse of ornamentation and decoration.

  • It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.

  • [24] The Venetian Rococo also featured exceptional glassware, particularly Murano glass, often engraved and coloured, which was exported across Europe.

 

Works Cited

[‘1. Hopkins 2014, p. 92.
2. ^ Ducher 1988, p. 136.
3. ^ “What is Rococo?”. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
4. ^ “Rococo style (design) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia”. Britannica.com. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
5. ^ Gauvin
Alexander Bailey, The Spiritual Rococo: Decor and Divinity from the Salons of Paris to the Missions of Patagonia (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Dictionary On-Line
7. ^ Monique Wagner, From Gaul to De Gaulle: An Outline of French
Civilization. Peter Lang, 2005, p. 139. ISBN 0-8204-2277-0
8. ^ Larousse dictionary on-line
9. ^ Marilyn Stokstad, ed. Art History. 4th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.
10. ^ de Morant 1970, p. 355.
11. ^ Renault 2006, p. 66.
12. ^
“Etymology of Rococo” (in French). Ortolong: site of the Centre National des Resources Textuelles et Lexicales. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
13. ^ Ancien Regime Rococo Archived 11 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Bc.edu. Retrieved on 2011-05-29.
14. ^
Rococo – Rococo Art. Huntfor.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-29.
15. ^ Graur 1970, pp. 193–194.
16. ^ Graur 1970, p. 194.
17. ^ Jump up to:a b Ducher 1988, p. 144.
18. ^ Graur 1970, pp. 160–163.
19. ^ Graur 1970, p. 192.
20. ^ Lovreglio, Aurélia
and Anne, Dictionnaire des Mobiliers et des Objets d’art, Le Robert, Paris, 2006, p. 369
21. ^ Hopkins 2014, pp. 92–93.
22. ^ Jump up to:a b de Morant 1970, p. 382.
23. ^ Kleiner, Fred (2010). Gardner’s art through the ages: the western perspective.
Cengage Learning. pp. 583–584. ISBN 978-0-495-57355-5. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
24. ^ Jump up to:a b c de Morant 1970, p. 383.
25. ^ de Morant 1970, pp. 354–355.
26. ^ Ducher 1988, pp. 150–153.
27. ^ Ducher 1988, p. 150.
28. ^ Jump up
to:a b c Prina & Demartini 2006, pp. 222–223.
29. ^ “Würzburg Residence”. Bavaria. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018.
30. ^ Field, B.M. (2001). The World’s Greatest Architecture: Past and Present. Regency House Publishing Ltd.
31. ^
Ducher 1988, p. 152.
32. ^ Cabanne 1988, pp. 89–94.
33. ^ “The Rococo Influence in British Art – dummies”. dummies. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
34. ^ Locker, Tobias (2017). “Frederician Rococo at the Service of the German Empire: The 1900 Paris
World’s Fair and the Decorative Arts”. ACTA ARTIS: Estudis d’Art Modern (4–5): 89–97. doi:10.1344/actaartis.4-5.2017.19634. ISSN 2014-1912.
35. ^ Michael Scherf; Hans Bach; Joan Clough (2012). Sanssouci Palace (2nd ed.). Berlin. ISBN 978-3-422-04036-6.
OCLC 796240061.
36. ^ Cabanne 1988, p. 106.
37. ^ “UB Heidelberg: Die aufgerufene Seite existiert nicht auf dem Server”. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
38. ^ Cabanne 1988, p. 102.
39. ^ Jump up to:a b
c Cabanne 1988, p. 98.
40. ^ Jump up to:a b Cabanne 1988, p. 104.
41. ^ Duby & Daval 2013, pp. 789–791.
42. ^ Duby & Daval 2013, p. 819.
43. ^ Duby & Daval 2013, pp. 781–832.
44. ^ Duby & Daval 2013, pp. 782–783.
45. ^ Duby & Daval 2013,
pp. 802–803.
46. ^ Rococo Style – Catholic Encyclopedia. Newadvent.org (1912-02-01). Retrieved on 2014-02-11.
47. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Fukui, A. & Suoh, T. (2012). Fashion: A history from the 18th to the 20th century.
48. ^ “Baroque/Rococo
1650-1800”. History of Costume.
49. ^ Coffin, S. (2008). Rococo: The continuing curve, 1730-2008. New York.
50. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Marie Antoinette’s Style Revolution”. National Geographic. November 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
51. ^ Jump
up to:a b Glasscock, J. “Eighteenth-Century Silhouette and Support”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
2. Cabanne, Perre (1988), L’Art Classique et le Baroque, Paris: Larousse, ISBN 978-2-03-583324-2
3. de Morant, Henry
(1970). Histoire des arts décoratifs. Librarie Hacahette.
4. Droguet, Anne (2004). Les Styles Transition et Louis XVI. Les Editions de l’Amateur. ISBN 2-85917-406-0.
5. Duby, Georges; Daval, Jean-Luc (2013). La Sculpture de l’Antiquité au XXe
Siècle. Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-4483-2. (French translation from German)
6. Ducher, Robert (1988), Caractéristique des Styles, Paris: Flammarion, ISBN 2-08-011539-1
7. Fierro, Alfred (1996). Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris. Robert Laffont.
ISBN 2-221–07862-4.
8. Graur, Neaga (1970). Stiluri în arta decorativă (in Romanian). Cerces.
9. Prina, Francesca; Demartini, Elena (2006). Petite encylopédie de l’architecture. Paris: Solar. ISBN 2-263-04096-X.
10. Hopkins, Owen (2014). Les
styles en architecture. Dunod. ISBN 978-2-10-070689-1.
11. Renault, Christophe (2006), Les Styles de l’architecture et du mobilier, Paris: Gisserot, ISBN 978-2-877-4746-58
12. Texier, Simon (2012), Paris- Panorama de l’architecture de l’Antiquité
à nos jours, Paris: Parigramme, ISBN 978-2-84096-667-8
13. Dictionnaire Historique de Paris. Le Livre de Poche. 2013. ISBN 978-2-253-13140-3.
14. Vila, Marie Christine (2006). Paris Musique- Huit Siècles d’histoire. Paris: Parigramme. ISBN 978-2-84096-419-3.

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shaireproductions/3971662839/’]