Rococo ppt

ART HISTORY 132

Rococo

(c. 1725-1775)

Rococo: French

context: 18th century FR
political: Louis XV (1710-1774)
life-span corresponds roughly to length of Rococo
patronage: powerful aristocratic families
themes: aristocratic romantic pursuits
artistic style: reaction against Baroque Classicism
18C example of battle between “designo”/“colore”
shift away from Poussin’s emphasis on “grand manner”
more of an interest in Rubens’ sensual color scheme
lighter, airy
delicacy & refinement
Antoine Watteau
(1684-1721)

biography: died from TB at age of 36
Flemish native
Prix de Rome  FR Academy (1712)
career: invented scenes of bucolic & idyllic charm (“fete galantes”)
patrons: never aristocratic; instead, bourgeois (e.g., bankers)
significance: revives “colore” tradition
reaction against official art of Louis XIV's reign
Rubens  W’s source admiration
studied R’s Marie de Medici series at Luxembourg Palace
brushwork: painterly
Watteau’s Pilgrimage to Cythera
(1717)

François Boucher
(1703-1770)

Venus Consoling Love (c. 1750)
training: began by copying W
career:
Director of Royal Academy
1st Painter to King of FR
patron: King’s mistress (Madame de Pompadour)
decorated her quarters at Versailles
aesthetic: “colore” tradition
figure: idealized
pose: erotic frontality
composition: dynamic
color: pastel
light/shadow: even distribution
narrative: carried along by gazes
surface textures: material richness
Boucher

Odalisque (1745)
patron: King Louis XV
theme: reclining nude/Orientalism
setting: interior
pose: erotic
composition: diagonal thrust
color: pastel
light/shadow: even distribution
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
(1732-1806)

The Swing (c. 1765)
patron: FR Receiver (Treasurer)
cultural significance: ancien regime on eve of FR Revolution
narrative: hedonism
patron watching as mistress pushed by Cardinal
turbulence of movement pushes her skirt up
shoe slips off  sexual pun
cult of Venus:
statue at left
rose bed
composition: dynamic
color: pastel
light/shadow: even distribution
perspective: limited aerial
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
(1699-1779)

biography:
born in Paris; son of cabinetmaker
admitted to Royal Academy & exhibited regularly @ Salon
Louis XV granted C a studio and living quarters in Louvre
patrons: rising middle-class
subject matter:
still-life
genre
themes: moralizing, yet not w/ symbolic messages
affirms social order & values
hard work
frugality
honesty
devotion to family