The early modern world
Rococo
c. 1715–1780
A light, playful and ornamental style made for aristocratic interiors.
Overview
Rococo emerged in Paris after the death of Louis XIV in 1715, as the aristocracy left Versailles for elegant town houses. Painters turned from grand historical subjects to scenes of flirtation, music and leisure in garden settings, painted in pastel colors with a quick, feathery touch.
The style extended to furniture, porcelain and whole rooms covered in curving gilded ornament, and it reached a spectacular late form in the churches and palaces of southern Germany and Austria. By the 1760s critics were attacking it as frivolous, which opened the way for Neoclassicism.
What defines it
- Pastel colors and soft, diffuse light
- Curving, asymmetrical ornament based on shells and foliage
- Themes of love, leisure and pleasure
Works to know
- Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera
- Madame de Pompadour
- The Swing