Rococo

also: style rocaille

style c. 1715-1775 France Europe

Rococo emerged in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the grand formality of Louis XIV's style, taking its name from rocaille, the shell-and-pebble ornament of grotto work. Where Baroque art aimed to overwhelm, Rococo aimed to charm: rooms became intimate, ornament fluid and asymmetrical, and painting turned to aristocratic leisure, pastoral play, and lighthearted romance. White and pastel fields, gilding, sculpted molding, and trompe-l'oeil frescoes dissolved walls into airy illusion. Beginning in domestic interiors, the style spread across northern Italy, Austria, southern Germany, and Russia, and was eventually adapted for churches, becoming in this form Central Europe's great contribution to the era. It touched painting, sculpture, furniture, silver, and music alike, and is often called the final expression of the Baroque - or Late Baroque - before Neoclassicism replaced it.

Interiors of the salon de la princesse , in the Hôtel de Soubise , Paris.
Interiors of the salon de la princesse , in the Hôtel de Soubise , Paris.CC BY-SA 3.0 (credit: NonOmnisMoriar) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Fluid C- and S-curves, asymmetry, and rocaille (shell-and-pebble) ornament
  • Intimate, small-scale settings designed for private pleasure
  • White and pastel colors accented with gilding
  • Trompe-l'oeil frescoes opening ceilings into airy, luminous sky
  • Playful themes: aristocratic leisure, pastoral romance, flirtation
  • Natural forms - shells, foliage, ripples - dissolving solid architecture

Key figures

  • Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) — Founded the fête galante and with it the Rococo's intimate, theatrical world
  • François Boucher (1703-1770) — Painter-décorator whose pastel mythologies and pastorals defined high Rococo
  • Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) — Master of buoyant, erotic play and swift, frothy brushwork
  • Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) — Portraitist who carried Rococo grace into the age of Neoclassicism
  • Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) — Venetian frescoist whose luminous ceilings spread the style across Europe

Example works

Sources

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