Rococo style

Rococo style is a type of French design that was popular in the mid-eighteenth century and used in European decoration, furnishings, art, and architecture. It is highly ornate and characterized by curves, scrollwork, an asymmetrical design, and gilded or painted wood to create a sense of elegant movement and drama. Rococo style was viewed by critics as being overly theatrical, degenerate, and illogical but loved by its devotees for its lack of compliance to the rules defining the earlier Classical style. Rococo style also has a cheerful and relaxed approach, and its lightness and playfulness challenged the formal and monumental late Baroque style characteristic of the reign of French Emperor Louis XIV. The whimsy and gracefulness of the Rococo style changed the fields of design, architecture, art, and music, leaving a legacy that extends well beyond its eighteenth-century beginnings.

Background

The Rococo style began in the 1730s in France as an alternative to the formal and heavier Baroque style seen at the Palace of Versailles after the death of Louis XIV. While it transitioned to its own style, Rococo style can also be seen as the final expression of the Baroque style, since it incorporates many elements of Baroque design. It was developed primarily by designers and artisans, so it was initially expressed in furniture, ceramics, and silver design. Later, it transitioned into architecture and art and became the calling card of the French nobility and then the upper urban class.

During its height of popularity, the style was referred to as rocaille, which was the term for the decoration of seashells and rocks set in cement that was common in the grottoes and fountains in Renaissance Europe. By the seventeenth century, rocaille took on a broader meaning of any motif of carved or molded ornamental seashells, leaves, or other curved elements. Later forms of the Baroque style used by French nobility began to embrace this design, and eventually, the seashells and leaves took on ornate curved and scrolling designs. The use of the word Rococo was first seen in print in an 1825 journal to describe the out-of-date, overly ornamental style of the previous century and was meant to be a humorous variant of the word rocaille.

As the eighteenth century progressed, the decoration and architectural design using the Rococo style became even more intricate and curvaceous, although the shapes still retained some natural elements. Elegant C- and S-shaped scrolling work was often interlaced in asymmetrical patterns, and the reflection of light was part of the design by using pastel colors, gold, and mirrors. Buildings, furniture, and housewares all began to be made in the Rococo style. Painting and sculpture of the mid-eighteenth century also began to be influenced by the design features, with artwork showing light-hearted and intimate details, naturalism, and texture.

The Rococo style soon began to spread to other European countries. First, it was seen in southern Germany and Austria, where it was integrated into the ornament design used in churches. It also spread to Italy, where it became especially popular in Venice and used in large-scale paintings. Russia began to embrace the Rococo style when Empress Catherine the Great became an admirer of the style. Frederick the Great of Prussia also developed his own form of the Rococo style called Frederician Rococo. Although slower to influence British design, Rococo became popular in the mid-eighteenth century and could be seen in scrolling mahogany woodwork in furniture design as well as silver decorative household items.

By the 1750s, the style was beginning to fall into decline in France. The excessive and fluid nature of the style led the way for the more serious design and art of Neoclassicism. A desire for classical design was also reinvigorated in the 1760s when the brother of Louis XV’s mistress returned from a visit to Italy to study architecture and art and was given the position of director general of the kings’ buildings. He brought with him several classical artists who likewise criticized the superficial style of Rococo. By the 1780s, the style had lost all popularity in France and was on its way out in the rest of Europe, and the Rococo era was considered to have ended. Although the Rococo style fell out of fashion by the end of the eighteenth century, it remained an important part of the French history of style.

Overview

The characteristics of the Rococo style can be seen in many types of decorative items, furniture, and architecture of the Rococo era. The style is characterized by carved or molded asymmetrical curves and scrolls. It features ornate details, pastel colors, gilding, and scenes of playfulness and nature.

Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier is considered one of the foremost furniture designers of the Rocco era. He was a multi-talented artist who worked for the French royal household of Louis XV and designed furniture and decorative items for royal households in Portugal and Poland. Items that displayed the Rococo style were generally not meant for heavy utilitarian use but for the enjoyment of observing their extravagant decoration. These items included consoles with heavily gilded scrollwork, inlaid woodwork, painted scenes, and vases, mirrors, or clocks incorporated into sculptures.

The Amalienburg Palace, built in 1739 in Munich, Germany, is a prime example of the German-Austrian Rococo architectural style. It is pastel pink and lushly decorated on the exterior with plaster moldings. Inside, it features massive panels of intricately scrolled gild-work and mirrors that endlessly reflect the light. The furnishings also feature bold pastel upholstery and delicately carved curved frames. Porcelain vases with pastel-painted idyllic scenes framed in gilded scrolls and boldly contrasting glaze also capture the Rococo aesthetic.

Porcelain was used as a medium for Rococo housewares that frequently served only a decorative purpose. Small-scale sculpted scenes of formally dressed people in garden-like settings and animals painted in pastels were commonly placed on tables as centerpieces. Themes often included love or merriment and incorporated birds, flowers, and a sense of movement. European factories began producing porcelain ware at a reasonable price, thus making the figurines wildly popular among the growing middle class who could afford these small luxury goods.

Rococo paved the way for Impressionist art in the late nineteenth century by building off the darker and illustrative Baroque period artwork, which emerged at the end of the French Early Renaissance and Italian High Renaissance. Rococo style introduced lighter pastel colors into the artist’s palate, along with scenes in nature often described as frivolous, whimsical, or playful with an idyllic or ethereal feel to them.

Jean-Antoine Watteau is considered the father of Rococo-style paintings and fête galante-style paintings, which featured costumed or formally attired people in garden settings. This can be seen in his 1717 famous painting The Embarkation for Cythera. Jean-Honoré Fragonard is another famous Rococo-era painter who incorporated motion and lush forest scenes into his works, such as The Swing from 1767 to 1768, which features a young woman wearing a hat while swinging carelessly in an extravagant pink gown in the middle of a forest garden.

Sculpture, too, was heavily influenced by the Rococo style and was often integrated into furnishings, paintings, and architecture. Sculptures' figures featured soft curves and the illusion of movement. They could be seen everywhere, from palaces and churches to gardens and fountains. Rococo-style sculptors include Guillaume Coustou, who was popular during the Baroque era, and his student Edmé Bouchardon, who fully embraced the Rococo style. Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and Nicolas-Sébastien Adam were also known for their fountain sculpture at the Palace of Versailles and later for a fountain sculpture for Sanssouci Palace in Prussia. Antonio Corradini is considered among the leading sculptors of the Rococo style in Italy, creating skilled works of women with light veils covering their faces.

The Rococo style also extended to music, which, like other forms of art, developed out of the Baroque style. It was referred to as style galant in France and empfindsamer stil in Germany for its elegance and sensitivity. Like the visual design, the instrumental music featured a light sound and a sense of elaborateness. Popular French composers included Jean-Philippe Rameau, Louis-Claude Daquin, and François Couperin. The sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach, were also popular in Germany. In Russia, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed The Variations on a Rococo Theme, Opus 33, for cello and orchestra in 1877 as a celebration of the Rococo style and its influence on music.

Fashion was also influenced by the Rococo style, featuring voluminous fabrics and intricate detailing in pastel colors and gold threading. Formal gowns for women featured tight bodices with low-cut necklines and wide hoops that extended the hips and were draped in lavish fabrics. Frills, ruffles, bows, and lace, both in women’s and men’s wardrobes, became common as trimmings displayed the Rococo playfulness and elaborateness.

The Rococo style made its way to the American colonies through engraved designs in print series and books, imported objects, and immigrant artisans. Although Boston, New York, and Philadelphia saw the development of an American Rococo style, it truly thrived in Charleston, South Carolina.

Bibliography

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