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Rococo

ROCOCO

1715 – 1789

  1. INTRODUCTION
  1. The Times
  1. After Louis XIV died in 1715, the aristocracy abandoned Versailles for Paris, where the salons (rooms) of their ornate townhouses epitomized the new Rococo style.
  2. The nobility lived a frivolous existence devoted to self-indulgence.
  3. Rococo also spread to the Spanish aristocracy.
  1. The Rococo Style
  1. Mood – playful, superficial, frivolous, and erotic
  2. Style – light, graceful, delicate, refined
  3. Colors – pastels: light pinks, greens, blues, white, silver, and gold
  4. Architecture – very ornate, extensive decoration – applied especially to interior design – an extreme version of Baroque
  1. Jean-Antoine Watteau
  1. Introduction
  1. Born in Flanders
  2. Arrived in Paris in 1702 and soon made a reputation as the inventor of a new artistic style known as FETE GALANTES (scenes of gallantry): paintings of festive gatherings, in which elegant men and women relax in outdoor settings.
  3. Watteau is recognized as the first great Rococo artist.
  4. Accepted into the RoyalAcademy of Painting in Paris. He also studied theater, which helped him avoid being pigeonholed into being merely an academic artist.
  5. Watteau suffered from tuberculosis and exhibited symptoms of chronic restlessness throughout his short life. It is assumed that the disease “infected” his paintings with an air of melancholy.
  6. Just before his death, Watteau met with a priest who persuaded him to burn all the nude paintings in his possession. Watteau died at the age of 37, tragically young for one so gifted.
  1. The Embarkation forCythera (G-801) (4 feet by 6 feet 4 inches)
  1. Cythera – an island in the Aegean Sea sacred to Venus, the goddess of love, who was said to have alighted there after her birth.
  2. Flowers of Venus – a man gathers roses from the forest as a gift for his lover. Roses are flowers of love and are sacred to Venus.
  3. Love Conquers All – Among the objects placed at the base of the statue are weapons, armor, a lyre, books, representing warfare, the arts, and learning. A putto pulls a laurel garland to place around Venus.
  4. Notice the extraordinary lifelike statue of Venus. In a strange visual irony, Watteau’s statues are endowed with all the fleshy reality of a nude painted from life.
  5. The language of fans – the girl plays with her fan. The way fans were held or moved was part of a secret language through which lovers communicated with each other.
  6. Last glance – The procession of lovers are goaded to the ship by the putti. Note the expression of the girl at the top of the hill as she glances longingly behind her. Her sad backward glance adds a poignancy to the moment when the lovers leave.
  7. The Ship of Love – The lovers return to the waiting boat that will transport the back to reality.
  1. FRANCOIS BOUCHER
  1. Brief Biography
  1. Follower of Watteau
  2. In 1723, the Academy awarded Boucher the Prix de Rome, which enabled him to spend three years studying in Rome.
  3. Upon his return, Boucher was accepted into the RoyalAcademy
  4. Painter of Madame de Pompadour, the influential mistress of Louis XV
  5. Through his influential patron, Madame de Pompadour, Boucher achieved the greatest artistic honors in France.
  6. Boucher’s work is famous for its blend of casual elegance and playful eroticism.
  1. Examples:
  1. Cupid a Captive (Gardner 802)
  • Lively and lighthearted
  • Exotic fantasy
  • Use of pastel colors
  • Delicate touch
  1. Blonde Odalisque (Back Nude of Mademoiselle O’Murphy)
  • “She possessed all the beauty that nature or the painter’s art could bestow upon her.”
  • The model is identified as Louis O’Murphy, the daughter of an Irish cobbler.
  • She modeled for Boucher, became a mistress to Louis XV, and is mentioned in memoirs from the time.
  1. Birth of Venus
  • Notice the light swirling associated with Rococo compositions
  • Notice the use of pastel colors
  • Notice the elegant arrangement blended with eroticism – appealing to the French aristocracy
  1. Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732 – 1806)
  1. Brief Biography
  1. Student of Boucher
  2. Studied in Rome – but bored with classical statues and art
  3. On his return to Paris, Fragonard gained membership into the RoyalAcademy. He specialized in lively erotic paintings which won him a secure market among the Parisian bourgeoisie.
  1. The Swing (Gardner 803)
  1. An unusual commission
  • I want you to paint Madame on a swing kept in motion by a bishop. Put me in it where I can see the legs of this pretty girl or even closer, if you want to make the picture even more pleasing.” Baron Saint-Julien
  1. Madame
  • Pink dress – the luxurious curves of her billowing dress, the delicate pastel colors, and the theme of youthful love are essential characteristics of Rococo style, which deliberately appealed more to the eye that the intellect.
  • The flying slipper – sums up the playfulness of the subject
  1. The Baron de. St. Julien
  1. A lover’s secret – the stone statue of Cupid catches the sunlight and seems to have come alive. He raises a finger to his lips as if warning us to keep the secret of the Baron hidden in the bushes.
  1. A Sad Ending for Fragonard
  1. Times change and styles change
  2. Died a poor and forgotten figure
  1. ELISABETH VIGEE-LE BRUN
  1. Woman patrons and artists thus far
  1. Isabella d’Este – Famous Renaissance patron, who was 60 years old when she asked Titian to portray her as a woman in her 20s.
  2. Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1653)
  • Italian Baroque painter
  • Heavily influenced by Caravaggio
  • Painted several versions of Judith Slaying Holofernes
  1. Judith Leyster
  • 17th century Dutch Baroque artist
  • Studied under Frans Hals
  • Best known for her self-portrait (Gardner 759)
  1. A Confident Self-Portrait
  1. Self-confident and independent
  2. Notice the Rococo qualities
  3. One of only two female students admitted to the RoyalAcademy (not allowed to study live male nudes like the male artists)
  4. A fascinating life-story
  1. Success and Failure
  1. Early success
  2. Poor choice of husband
  3. Painted 25 portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette
  • Marie Antoinette and Her Children
  • The Queen is depicted in an elegant room inside VersaillesPalace
  • Queen’s enormous feathered hat and satin gown
  • Emphasized her wealth and position
  • Queen is portrayed as a good mother. Note how one daughter nestles against her shoulder and a toddler squirms on her lap.
  • But the young son introduces a somber note as he pulls aside the crib cover to reveal the empty bed, denoting the death of one of Marie Antoinette’s children
  • Rewards
  • Danger
  1. Escape and Exile (1792 – 1804)
  1. Elisabeth and her daughter Julie escape (her husband was guillotined) becoming émigrés because of the French Revolution
  2. Travelled Europe painting portraits of famous aristocrats
  3. Wrote a memoirs
  4. A legacy of over 660 paintings!
  1. ADELAIDE LABILLE-GUIARD (1749 – 1803)
  1. Brief facts
  1. Classmate of Vigee-Le Brun’s at the RoyalAcademy
  2. Also painted portraits of French aristocracy
  1. Self-Portrait with Two Pupils (at the Met!)
  1. Artist with two pupils
  2. Her manner of dress indicates her status
  3. Note the pyramid shape of the three women
  4. Notice the classical portrait busts in the background – demonstrates how female students learned in the RoyalAcademy (male students studied both classical statues and live nudes)
  1. CLODION
  1. Brief facts
  1. Rococo sculptor
  2. 1759 – won the grand prize for sculpture at the RoyalAcademy of Painting (and Sculpture)
  3. 1762 – travelled to Rome to study
  4. Invited by Catherine the Great of Russia to come to St. Petersburg, but he returned to Paris
  5. Exhibited frequently at the Salon but never was admitted to the RoyalAcademy as a member
  6. Worked mostly in terracotta creating small sculptures (1 – 2 feet tall) of nymphs and satyrs in erotic poses
  7. Temporarily left Paris because of the Revolution, but eventually adapted himself to the Neoclassical style
  1. Examples:
  1. Nymph and Satyr (Gardner 804)
  • At the Met!
  1. Amor and Psyche
  1. A TASTE FOR THE NATURAL IN FRANCE
  1. Tastes in France changed
  1. With the Enlightenment and the writings of Rousseau, tastes began to change in France toward painting of common people
  2. Rise in French bourgeoisie (affluent, middle-class business people) and their growing interest in art affected the popularity of Rococo
  3. Rococo declined during the mid-18th century
  4. Jean-Jaques Rousseau played a role in the decline of Rococo art
  • Wrote about what he called the “natural man.”
  • Natural man is by nature good. In their natural state, people are innocent and happy.
  • Rousseau criticized the artifice of French society
  • He believed that French society perverted and depraved the natural man
  • Rousseau’s attacks on the artificiality of French society found widespread support. Rousseau’s views, popular and widely read, were largely responsible for the decline of Rococo and the formation for the taste of the ‘natural’
  1. Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Rural Sentimentality (Gardner 808)
  1. Village Bride
  • A sentimental narrative
  • The setting: an unadorned room in a rustic dwelling
  • The elderly father is on the right. He is passing his daughter’s dowry to her youthful-husband-to-be. He blesses the pair. A notary on the right records the event.
  • Note the young couple. They gently take each others’ arms.
  • Note the mother. She tearfully gives her daughter’s arm a farewell caress while the youngest sister melts into in tears on her sister’s shoulders.
  • Rosey-faced healthy children play around the scene.
  • The picture’s story is simple – the happy climax of a rural romance.
  • The painting has a moral – Happiness can be found in the natural state of humans.
  • This painting was one of the most popular paintings at the Salon of 1761. Denis Diderot, who compiled the Encyclopedia and reviewed Village Bride for the newspaper, declared that the painting was difficult to get close to because of its throng of admirers.
  1. Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin
  1. Background
  • Son of a carpenter and was planning on becoming a carpenter
  • Trained a still-life painter by studying Dutch and Flemish paintings in private collections – a brave decision because still-life had a low reputation and was very poorly paid
  • His 1728 masterpiece The Skate won such acclaim that Chardin was admitted as a full member of the Academy, an unprecedented honor for a still-life painter
  • Was Treasurer of the RoyalAcademy for 20 years
  • Moved toward scenes of common people with moral values – it appealed more to bourgeois tastes
  1. Grace at Table (Gardner 809)
  2. Chardin came to specialize in domestic scenes and portraits of common people