Rococo in France

Baroque French Classicism and the Rococo 17th to 18th Centuries

These two
paintings are both
Baroque
renderings of
aristocrats from
the 1600 to
1700's. One of
them represents
the older more
autocratic
traditions of
Europe but both
are the results of
the
"Enlightenment."

The way in
which they are
portrayed are
important clues
as to how each of
these rulers ruled
there people and
how they saw the
world. You will
be given an
assignment in
which you will
be asked to
compare and
contrast these two
paintings and
come up with
some conclusions
as to how each
ruler is portrayed
formally and
iconographically.
You will be
asked what this
might mean
about each ruler
and the manner
in which they
governed.
Antoine Watteau. L' Indifferent 1716 Hyacinthe Rigaud Louis XIV 1701
Oil on canvas 10''x7'' Located in Louvre, Paris Oil on canvas 9'2''x7'' Located in Louvre,

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Rococo in France

French Rococo Paris

French Baroque

Context: This painting was executed

just before Louis XIV came into his
prime. It represent both formally and
iconographically a point of view that
is in some ways similar but still
different than the Rococo period. In
some ways classical images from the
Baroque were a bit more "platonic" in
nature than during the Rococo.

Form: This painting is Baroque and in

some ways it is the model for the
paintings of the Rococo period. This
painting incorporates intense or
saturated colors and a full use of
chiaroscuro, linear perspective and
atmospheric perspective and the
pastoral or arcadian landscape. The
composition of this image recalls
friezes from ancient Roman and Greek
buildings and Poussin's figures are
also dressed and modeled after
classical figures.

Iconography: The iconography of this

painting is also somewhat the model
for the Rococo paintings that follow.
It is the kind of image that Poussin
might have seen in Italy either on a
classical frieze or a pot. Even though
the image is "classical" it seems to me
to be an almost sarcastic or moralizing
way in which to depict it. This
Nicolas Poussin, Bacchanal before a Statue of Pan 1631-33 painting seems almost to be a warning
Oil on canvas, 100 x 142,5 cm. National Gallery, London. against hedonism.
French Baroque
The theme this story that this painting
portrays is a bacchanal.

According to Webster's,

[Link] n, pl
bacchanalia [L, fr.
Bacchus] (1591) 1 pl, cap:
a Roman festival of
Bacchus celebrated with
dancing, song, and revelry

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Rococo in France

2: orgy 2, 3 --
[Link] adj or n

The Rococo style is a substyle of the French Baroque and really only exists from about 1716 to the
1770's at which time it fell out of style. Webster's defines rococo as,

[Link] n (1840): rococo work or style ²rococo adj [F, irreg. fr. rocaille rocaille] (1841) 1
a: of or relating to an artistic style esp. of the 18th century characterized by fanciful curved
asymmetrical forms and elaborate ornamentation b: of or relating to an 18th century
musical style marked by light gay ornamentation and departure from thorough-bass and
polyphony 2: excessively ornate or intricate

In terms of its form, the Rococo style is uses a lot of pastel colors which are various pale or light
colors, such as powder blue, peaches and pinks. The brushwork in many Rococo style paintings tends
to be feathery and or rough. Usually the paintings look a bit more like oil sketches and have a rough
or unfinished look to them. The compositions also tend to be a bit looser and not very symmetrical.

In terms of iconography and subject matter, Rococo paintings do deal with classical themes but the
stories emphasize less dignified themes such as love and romantic indiscretion, in short, the
"Dangerous Liaison."   Stokstad points out that one of the main subjects of the Rococo style was the
fête galante.

¹fete n [ME fete, fr. MF, fr. OF feste--more at feast] (15c) 1: festival 2 a: a lavish often
outdoor entertainment b: a large elaborate party ²fete vt [Link] ; [Link] (1819) 1: to honor or
commemorate with a fete 2: to pay high honor to
fete [Link] n, pl fetes champetres [F, lit., rural festival] (1774): an outdoor
entertainment

Many of the images in Rococo art are borrowed from opera and Commedia dell'arte. According to the
Brittanica,

Around the mid-16th century, there emerged in Italy a lively tradition

of popular theatre that fused many disparate elements into a vigorous
style, which profoundly influenced the development of European
theatre. This was the legendary commedia dell'arte ("theatre of the
professionals"), a nonliterary tradition that centred on the actor, as
distinguished from the commedia erudita, where the writer was
preeminent. Although the precise origins of the commedia dell'arte
are difficult to establish, its many similarities with the skills of the
medieval jongleurs, who were themselves descendants of the Roman
mimes, suggest that it may have been a reawakening of the fabula
Atellana, stimulated and coloured by social conditions in Italy during
the Renaissance.

In spite of its outwardly anarchic spirit, the commedia dell'arte was a

highly disciplined art requiring both virtuosity and a strong sense of
ensemble playing. Its special quality came from improvisation.
Working from a scenario that outlined the plot, the actors would
improvise their own dialogue, striving for a balance of words and

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Rococo in France

actions. Acrobatics and singing were also used, as well as the lazzi
(special rehearsed routines that could be inserted into the plays at
convenient points to heighten the comedy). Because the actors stayed
together in permanent companies and specialized in playing the same
role for most of their professional lives, they achieved a degree of
mastery that had been hitherto unknown on the Italian stage and that
must have made the rest of the theatre seem all the more artificial.
Another reason for the impact of the commedia dell'arte was that it
heralded the first appearance in Italy of professional actresses (the
best known being Isabella Andreini), though the female characters
were never as sharply developed as their male counterparts. Most of
the characters were defined by the leather half-masks they wore
(another link with the theatre of antiquity), which made them instantly
recognizable. They also spoke in the dialect of their different
provinces. Characters such as Pantalone, the miserly Venetian
merchant; Dottore Gratiano, the pedant from Bologna; or Arlecchino,
the mischievous servant from Bergamo, began as satires on Italian
"types" and became the archetypes of many of the favourite characters
of 17th- and 18th-century European theatre.

From humble beginnings, setting up their stages in city squares, the

better troupes--notably Gelosi, Confidenti, and Fedeli--performed in
palaces and became internationally famous once they traveled abroad.
The commedia dell'arte swept through Europe. It was particularly
popular in France, where resident Italian troupes were established
before the end of the 16th century. Local variations on the characters
appeared in the 17th century. The cheeky servant Pedrolino became
the melancholy Pierrot in France, while Pulcinella became Punch in
England. By the 18th century the commedia dell'arte was a lost art,
though its spirit lived on through the work of the dramatists it
inspired, among whom were Molière (stage name of Jean-Baptiste
Poquelin), Carlo Goldoni, and William Shakespeare.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Contextually the Rococo style occurred mainly at a time when the aristocracy was fairly indifferent to
ruling and more interested in having fun and enjoying the pleasures of life. These excesses of the
aristocracy ultimately lead to the downfall of the aristocratic class in France and the overthrow of the
French monarchy in 1789.

Form: Watteau's palette consists mainly of

pastel colors which are various pale or light
colors, such as powder blue, peaches and
pinks. The brushwork is feathery and or rough
and the composition is asymmetrical.

The main line of figures that moves across the

foreground are arranged almost musically in
uneven undulating intervals that weaves in and
out of the Baroque diagonal created by the

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Rococo in France

landscape they inhabit.

Iconography and Context according to the

Brittanica,

Jean Antoine Watteau. Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera. Watteau's Cythera.

1717 oil/canvas 4'3"x6'4" Louvres, Paris In 1712 Watteau tried once more to
French Rococo go to Italy. He did not succeed, but
he was accepted by the Académie
as a painter of fêtes galantes--
outdoor entertainments in which the
courtiers often dressed in rural
costumes--for his presentation of a
scene depicting actors in a garden.
Between 1710 and 1712 he had
painted the first of his three
versions of the "L'Embarquement
pour l'île de Cythère." The myth of
the island of Cythera, or of love,
has distant roots in French and
Italian culture, in which the journey
is depicted as a difficult quest.
Watteau's Cythera, by comparison,
is a paradise wavering in the
ephemeral and in artifice; it
represents an invitation to delights
Nicolas Poussin Echo and Narcissus 1630 amid the enchantment of nature. It
French Baroque is an island toward which the
pilgrims embark but never arrive,
Compare Watteau's painting of a pastoral and classical image to preserving it preserves its light
Poussin's only if it remains far on the
treatment of the same kind of image. Think about how the form horizon.
and the subject
matter are at once different and the same. Why do you think Watteau's first version of the
these differences subject is anecdotal: it illustrates a
exist? comedy motif in a vaguely
Venetian ambience. The second--
Read the two poems below and see if you can find any parallels which is the most beautiful--has the
between the aspect of a profane ritual in an
two poems and the two paintings. How are they alike and how unreal, immense, and almost

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Rococo in France

are frighteningly empty landscape. In

they different? the third, in which cherubim flutter
around a golden gondola, the
subject has become vulgarized.
Common to all three versions is a
theatrical, almost scenographic,
composition, a chromatic
transposition of all that is suggested
in the theatrical universe. The
wonderlands of opera, romance,
and epic are all evoked by
Watteau's Cythera, which
represents the country of the
impossible dream, the revenge of
madness on reason, and of freedom
on rules and morality. According to
one hypothesis, the theme was
suggested to Watteau by a prose
play, Les Trois Cousines (1700), by
Florent Dancourt, in the finale of
which a group of country youths,
disguised as pilgrims of love,
prepare to embark on the voyage to
the island of Cythera. Since this
story of rustic millers is parodistic
in intent and quite different from
the refined scene that Watteau set
in an unreal Venice, it is more
probable that Watteau was inspired
by an opéra ballet of Houdar de la
Motte, La Vénitienne (1705), in
which the invitation to the island of
love includes not only the pilgrims
of Cythera but also the stock
characters of the commedia
dell'arte--that is, both of the great
themes that Watteau pursued all his
life.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
Christopher Marlowe c 1600 Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)

Come live with me and be my love, If all the world and love were young,
And we will all the pleasures prove And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, These pretty pleasures might me move
Woods, or steepy mountain yields. To live with the and be thy love.

And we will sit upon the rocks, Time drives the flocks from field to fold
Seeing the shepherds feeds their flocks, When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
By shallow rivers to whose falls And Philomel becometh dumb;

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Melodious birds sing madrigals. The rest complains of cares to come.

And I will make thee beds of roses The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
And a thousand fragrant posies, To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A cap of flowers, and a kittle A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

A gown made of the finest wool Thy gowns, the shoes, thy beds of roses,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Thy cap, the kirtle, and thy posies
Fair lined slippers for the cold, Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten--
With buckles of the purest gold' In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

A belt of straw and ivy buds, Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs: Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
And if these pleasures may thee move, All these in me no means can move
Come live with me, and be my love. To come to thee and be thy love.

The shepherd' swains shall dance and sing But could youth last and love still breed,
For thy delight each May morning: Had joys no date nor age no need,
If these delights thy mind may move, Then these delights my mind might move
Then live with me and be my love. To live with thee and be thy love.

Form: Fragonard's palette is almost exactly the same as

Watteau's. It too consists mainly of pastel colors which
are various pale or light colors, such as powder blue,
peaches and pinks. The brushwork is feathery and or
rough and the composition is asymmetrical.

The main line of figures that moves across the foreground

are arranged almost musically in uneven undulating
intervals that weaves in and out of the Baroque diagonal
created by the landscape they inhabit.

Iconography: Fragonard uses a combination of

contemporary 18th century eroticism and classical
themes. The scene here is almost one that you might find
in a movie or novel such as Moll Flanders, Dangerous
Liaisons, or the Affair of the Necklace.

The painting The Swing was commissioned by

the treasurer et the French clergy. The client
wanted a scene in which a lover - who can be
seen amongst the rose bushes in the left
foreground - would have an opportunity to look
under the skirts of his mistress; originally the
swing was supposed to be pushed by a bishop.
But when, owing to its piquant nature, the
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing 1766
commission was given to Fragonard, he
Oil on canvas 35''x32'' Wallace Collection, London
replaced the bishop with a gardener.
French Rococo
(quoted from
[Link]

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Rococo in France

The sculpture of Cupid and the two putti that hide in the
bushes are an attempt in some ways to "dress up" the
images with a classical touch. The cupid presses his
fingers to his lips as if to warn the young woman to be
less obvious as she kicks her shoe off playfully.

Fragonard also attempts to show his knowledge not just of

classicism but also of art history with his playful nod to
Michelangelo's Adam echoed in the pose of the young
man who looks up his lover's skirts.

Form: In terms of form, this image is a perfect example of the

Rococo style according to Stokstad's description of it.

Iconography: The works symbolism is almost completely clear even

if one is not familiar with the exact story expressed by the series the
Love of the Shepherds. Here is a typical "dangerous liaison" as
expressed in the two poems above by Marlowe and Raleigh. The
scene is a pastoral one, in fact the boy in red silk is the shepherd
who vaults lightly over the low wall to meet his wary girlfriend.
Above them, almost in a decaying state because it is so overgrown,
is a statue of Venus and Cupid.

The imagery is taken from a variety of literary, theatrical, and

operatic sources. In many of the novels of the period, such as in
Dangerous Liaisons, letter writing is an important plot element and
in this painting we see that the young woman holds a love letter in
her hand. The young man has just climbed a ladder is a reference to
many of Shakespeare's balcony scenes from Romeo to Cyrano as
well as scenes from operas such as Mozart's Don Giovanni and
Commedia dell'arte.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1732-1806 Context: Fragonard is the last of the great Rococo painters. His
The Meeting, from Love of the Shepherds style, which represents the last style developed by Louis XVI during
1771-73 o/c 10'x7' New York, Frick his reign (1774-93) of Louis XVI, according to the Brittanica,
Museum

was actually both a last phase of Rococo and a first phase

of Neoclassicism. The predominant style in architecture,
painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts was
Neoclassicism, a style that had come into its own during
the last years of Louis XV's life, chiefly as a reaction to
the excesses of the Rococo but partly through the
popularity of the excavations at ancient Herculaneum and
Pompeii, in Italy, and partly on the basis of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's call for "natural" virtue and honest sentiment.
One of the most dramatic episodes in the stylistic
oscillation from Rococo to Neoclassicism was played out
in 1770 at Mme du Barry's Pavillon de Louveciennes. A

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series of large painted canvases by the Rococo painter

Jean-Honoré Fragonard depicting the "Progress of Love"
were removed almost as soon as they were installed and
replaced with a series commissioned from Joseph-Marie
Vien, a Neoclassicist. Vien's pupil Jacques-Louis David
was the most important painter of the reign of Louis XVI;
his severe compositions recalling the style of the earlier
painter Nicolas Poussin are documents extolling
republican virtues. During the Revolution, David was a
deputy and voted for the execution of the King.

Form: These are small paintings in which

Boucher demonstrates his ability to paint the
textures of skin, fabric and porcelain.

Iconography: Titian in his The Venus of Urbino,

1538 offers the male viewer a classisizing excuse
for gazing on the female form, however, Boucher
makes no such excuse for his painting. This is
most obviously this is a semi pornographic
painting meant for a male audience. Despite the
fact that images like this have been defended as
beautiful renderings of the human form, these
images are overtly meant to be small erotic works
that would have been hung in the bedroom to
stimulate the sexual appetites of the occupants.

What is more interesting about these two images is

that they also juxtapose the eroticized female form
François Boucher, Brown Odalisk 1745 Oil on canvas with commodities or luxury items. By playing the
Musée du Louvre, Paris textures and body of the female against expensive
persian carpets, fabrics, jewels and porcelain, the
artist is also making the human female form
another commodity which can be bought and sold.
In this way, the wealth of the patron is also
eroticized. This device is played off again and
again throughout the history of art.

Context: These two images are also historical

artifacts that document two facts. The first is that
Marie-Louise O' Murphy was one of the many
mistresses of Louis XV and the brown odalisk is a
reference to the French penchant for exotic
women.

According to the O'Murphy surnames website:

The most notable woman bearing the

Murphy name was the famous courtesan

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Rococo in France

François Boucher, Girl Reclining (Louise O'Murphy) 1751 Marie Louise O Murphy (1737 - 1814),
Oil on canvas, 59,5 x 73,5 cm fifth daughter of an Irish soldier who
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne had taken up shoemaking in Rouen,
France. After his death, their mother
brought the family to Paris where she
traded in old clothes while finding her
daughters work as actresses or models.
Marie Louise posed for Boucher, a
painter at court. He painted her so
attractively that she came to the notice
of Louis XV, who soon appointed her
his mistress. Their child is supposed to
have been General de Beaufranchet.
She married three times and was
divorced by her third husband, who was
thirty years her junior. For a period
during the reign of terror, she suffered
imprisonment because of her royal
connections.

This is one of the first instances that I know of that

an artist has painted an odalisk in France. An
odalisk or odalisque is a Turkish harem girl.
Images of asian or oriental nude harem girls
become the fashion in French art from this point
forward. We'll see many more of these white
European male's fantasies of eroticized asian
women from now on.

Images of the odalisque most likely symbolize the

male French view of the world and in some ways
both justify and inflame their desire to colonize
the so called "orient."

[Link] adj, often cap (1589) 1: idyllically pastoral; esp: idyllically innocent, simple, or
untroubled 2 a: of or relating to Arcadia or the Arcadians b: of or relating to Arcadian
[Link] n (1590) 1 often not cap: a person who lives a simple quiet life 2: a native or
inhabitant of Arcadia 3: the dialect of ancient Greek used in Arcadia

According to the Brittanica,

Modern Greek ARKADHÍA, mountainous region of the central Peloponnesus of ancient

Greece. The pastoral character of Arcadian life together with its isolation partially explains
why it was represented as a paradise in Greek and Roman bucolic poetry and in the
literature of the Renaissance. The region is not exactly coextensive with the present-day
nomós (department) of Arkadhía, which extends on the east to the Gulf of Argolis. The
capital of the nomos is Trípolis.

[Link] also [Link] adj (1823) 1: of, relating to, or being an autocracy: absolute
<an ~ government> 2: characteristic of or resembling an autocrat: despotic <an ~ ruler> --

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Rococo in France

[Link] adv

fete n [ME fete, fr. MF, fr. OF feste--more at feast] (15c) 1: festival 2 a: a lavish often
outdoor entertainment b: a large elaborate party ²fete vt [Link] ; [Link] (1819) 1: to honor or
commemorate with a fete 2: to pay high honor to
fete [Link] n, pl fetes champetres [F, lit., rural festival] (1774): an outdoor
entertainment

[Link] n [Gk hedone pleasure; akin to Gk hedys sweet--more at sweet] (1856) 1: the
doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life 2: a way of life based on
or suggesting the principles of hedonism -- [Link] n -- [Link] adj --
[Link] adv

[Link] or [Link] adj (1877): of, relating to, or constituting a revival or

adaptation of the classical esp. in literature, music, art, or architecture -- [Link] n -
- [Link] n or adj

[Link] n [F, fr. Turk odalik, fr. oda room] (ca. 1681) 1: a female slave 2: a concubine
in a harem

[Link] adj [ME, fr. L pastoralis, fr. pastor herdsman] (15c) 1 a (1): of, relating to, or
composed of shepherds or herdsmen (2): devoted to or based on livestock raising b: of or
relating to the countryside: not urban c: portraying or expressive of the life of shepherds or
country people esp. in an idealized and conventionalized manner <~ poetry> d: pleasingly
peaceful and innocent: idyllic 2 a: of or relating to spiritual care or guidance esp. of a
congregation b: of or relating to the pastor of a church -- [Link] adv -- [Link] n
²pastoral n (1584) 1 a: a literary work (as a poem or play) dealing with shepherds or rural
life in a usu. artificial manner and typically drawing a contrast between the innocence and
serenity of the simple life and the misery and corruption of city and esp. court life b:
pastoral poetry or drama c: a rural picture or scene d: pastorale 1b 2: crosier 1 3: a letter of
a pastor to his charge: as a: a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese b: a letter of the
house of bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church to be read in each parish

trompe l’oeil - (French: "deceive the eye"), in painting, the representation of an object with
such verisimilitude as to deceive the viewer concerning the material reality of the object.
This idea appealed to the ancient Greeks who were newly emancipated from the
conventional stylizations of earlier art. Zeuxis, for example, reportedly painted such realistic
grapes that birds tried to eat them. The technique was also popular with Roman muralists.
Although trompe l’oeil never achieved the status of a major artistic aim, from the early
Renaissance on, European painters occasionally fostered illusionism by painting false
frames out of which the contents of a still life or portrait appeared to spill, or by creating
window-like images suggesting actual openings in the wall or ceiling. (Brittanica)

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