Rococo style in European art of the 18th century. Rococo - gloss of the XVIII century

- (French rococo, from rocaille, rocaille - a decorative motif in the shape of a shell), a style trend in European art of the 1st half of the 18th century. Rococo is characterized by hedonistic moods, withdrawal into the world of illusory and idyllic theatrical play, addiction to idyllic-pastoral and sensual-erotic plots. Rococo, which arose in France, in the field of architecture, was mainly reflected in the nature of the decor, which acquired emphatically elegant, sophisticated and sophisticated forms; spreading in the architecture of other European countries (the buildings of Georg Knobelsdorff, Balthasar Neumann, partly Matthäus Daniel Pöppelman), Rococo often acted as a local version of the late Baroque.
Rococo painting rich in subtle tints of color and at the same time somewhat faded in color (paintings and murals by Francois Boucher, Giovanni Antonio Guardi, Nicola Lancret, Giovanni Pellegrini, Jean Honore Fragonard) had a predominantly decorative character. Rococo painting, closely associated with the interior of the hotel, was developed in decorative and easel chamber forms. Landscapes, mythological and modern gallant themes prevailed in the paintings of plafonds, walls, door panels (dessudeport), tapestries, depicting the intimate life of the aristocracy, the pastoral genre (shepherd scenes), an idealized portrait depicting a model in the image of a mythological hero. The image of a person lost its independent meaning, the figure turned into a detail of the ornamental decoration of the interior.
Rococo artists were characterized by a subtle culture of color, the ability to build a composition with continuous decorative spots, the achievement of general lightness, emphasized by a light palette, a preference for faded, silvery-bluish, golden and pink hues. Simultaneously with the development of Rococo painting, the role of the realistic trend increased; reached the peak of the portrait, still life, everyday genre, landscape. One of the founders of the Rococo style was the talented painter Antoine Watteau, who gave the most perfect embodiment of the principles of this style. Emotionality and melancholic dreaminess give the characters of the characters in Watteau's paintings a special sophistication. The immediate followers of the master, who for the most part turned Watteau's style into an exquisite and superficial fashion, were the artists Nicola Lancret, Jean Baptiste Pater, Quillard and other painters. Francois Boucher, a student of the historical genre artist Lemoine, a master of entertaining love stories, a great colorist and draftsman, became the greatest master of rocaille art proper. Boucher's painting dictated the laws of a whole galaxy of masters (Charles-Joseph Natoire, the Vanloo brothers, Antoine Coypel, partly Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, and others) and this influence lasted until the French Revolution of 1789. Among the significant Rococo masters were artists of the most diverse talents, who turned to the most diverse genres of painting: Francois-Hubert Drouet, Louis Toque, Louis-Michel Vanloo, Maurice Quentin de Latour, Jean-Marc Nattier, Jean-Baptiste Perrono. The last major painter of the Rococo was Jean Honore Fragonard, a subtle portrait and landscape painter, like Watteau, who did not fit into the framework of a mere fashionable style.
Rococo sculpture in France is less significant and original than painting. Portrait busts and small sculptural groups or statues of bathers, nymphs, cupids were widely spread in the art of Rococo and throughout the 18th century; they were placed in the park, arbors, salons, and baths were decorated with them. Major Rococo sculptors: Jean Baptiste Lemoine, Etienne Maurice Falcone, Augustin Pajou, Claude Michel Claudion. The Rococo sculpture of other European countries was also dominated by reliefs and statues designed to decorate interiors, small figurines, including those made of terracotta and porcelain (products of the German sculptor, master of porcelain plasticity Johann Joachim Kändler). Whimsical elegance of decoration, frequent borrowing of exotic decorative motifs from Chinese art, virtuoso identification of the expressive possibilities of the material are inherent in rocaille arts and crafts.

Rococo (“quaint”, “capricious”; French rococo from rocaille - fragments of stones, shells) - a style direction that dominated European art during the first three quarters of the 18th century; was not so much an independent artistic phenomenon as a phase, a certain stage of the pan-European baroque style. The term "rococo" arose in France at the end of the 18th century, during the heyday of classicism, as a contemptuous nickname for all mannered and pretentious art of the 18th century: a curved, capricious line resembling the outlines of a shell is its main feature. Rococo art is a world of fiction and intimate experiences, decorative theatricality, sophistication, sophisticated sophistication, there is no place for heroism and pathos in it - they are replaced by a game of love, fantasy, lovely trinkets. The heavy and pathetic solemnity of the Baroque is being replaced by a chamber fragile decorative effect. The slogan of the short, short-lived "century" of Rococo is "art as pleasure", the purpose of which is to excite light, pleasant emotions, entertain, caress the eye with a bizarre pattern of lines, exquisite combinations of light elegant colors, which was especially expressed in the architectural decoration of interiors, with the new requirements of which Rococo painting also took shape.

The most common form of painting has become a decorative panel, mostly oval, round or intricately curved; The composition and drawing are based on a softly curved line, which gives the work a pretentiousness and elegance that is obligatory for this style. In their coloristic searches, the rocaille masters came from Rubens, Veronese and the Venetians, but they preferred not their rich, rich colors, but pale undertones: red becomes pink, blue becomes blue, lemon yellow, faded blue, pink, lilac colors appear, even fictional - like "the color of the thigh of a frightened nymph." One of the founders of the Rococo style was the talented Antoine Watteau, who gave the most perfect embodiment of the principles of this style. Emotionality and melancholy dreaminess give the characters of Watteau's images a special sophistication, which the immediate followers of the master no longer achieve, who turned his motives and manner into an exquisite and superficial fashion (Lancret, Pater, Quillar).
Francois Lemoine's student Francois Boucher, a master of entertaining love stories, an excellent colorist and draftsman, became the greatest master of rocaille art proper. Boucher's painting dictated the laws to a whole galaxy of masters (Natoire, the Vanlo brothers, Antoine Coypel, etc.) and this influence lasted in France until the Revolution of 1789. Among the significant Rococo masters were artists of the most diverse talents, who turned to the most diverse genres of painting: J. M. Nattier, Drouet, Tocque, Louis-Michel Vanleau, Latour, Perroneau. The last major Rococo painter was Jean Honore Fragonard, a subtle portrait and landscape painter, like Watteau, who did not fit into the confines of a mere fashionable style.
Rococo sculpture is less significant and original than painting. Portrait busts and small sculptural groups or statues of bathers, nymphs, cupids were widely spread in the art of Rococo and throughout the 18th century; they were placed in the park, arbors, salons, baths were decorated with them. Major rococo sculptors: J. B. Lemoine, Pigalle, Pajou, Falcone, Clodion.
Rococo architecture is characterized by the fact that the architect's main attention was focused on the interior. In France, the classicism of the 17th century continued to dominate in the interpretation of the facade. Only a number of minor changes softened the severity of the architectural image. The sculptural detail used to decorate the facade becomes more convex, acquires a self-contained meaning, no longer obeying the main architectural lines. Flat pilasters of a large order are replaced by convex semi-columns, giving the wall a more picturesque look. Rococo building plans are mostly asymmetrical and often built on round, oval and octagonal rooms; a sharp right angle is avoided even between the wall and the ceiling, and the connection line is masked by a relief ornament, the fixed plane of the wall is crushed, deepened, thus the rooms get an even more elegant bizarre shape. The walls are painted in light, airy colors and decorated with picturesque panels, carved panels, mirrors in elaborate gilded frames. The largest French Rococo architects: Robert Decotte, Gabriel, Boffrand, Oppenor, Delmer, Meissonier.
France was the legislator of Rococo aesthetics; European countries were unevenly captured by this trend. Rococo was most widespread in Germany, especially in Prussia at the court of Frederick II. The architect Knobelsdorf created in Potsdam one of the most famous rocaille ensembles (Sans Souci). The largest representatives of the Rococo in Germany are the architects Balthasar Neumann and Knobelsdorff, the painters Zick, Maulberch, Dietrich, the sculptor Donner. In Russia, Rococo developed under the direct influence of visiting French and German masters (Tokke, Roslin, Falcone); under this strong influence, such masters as Rastrelli (in small architectural forms) came to the fore in Russia,

S. M. Daniel, a well-known St. Petersburg art historian, Doctor of Art History, professor at the European University and the Institute named after I. E. Repin of the Russian Academy of Arts, who wrote several excellent books, including the first Russian monograph dedicated to the art of Rococo. Does this name mean anything to Internet lovers? Unlikely. Those rehashes that I see on the theme of “The Rococo Age” (on others as well) cause irritation with their primitiveness, misrepresentation, repetition of a mistake made by one of the not very educated users. What can we learn from these repetitive materials on different sites - fly schemes, confusion in historical hairstyles, the same pictorial portrait under different names?! We forgot that there are books written by scientists, researchers, professional educators who have devoted many years to this. I'm not specifically judging anyone (with the exception of the state, which has forgotten what "enlightenment" is), I just want to advise: look for good books. Almost all of them are posted online. Do not disdain libraries, where you can find unique materials on a topic of interest. Collect books for your profession. An educated and knowledgeable professional is always in demand. He is authoritative and respected, his work is always well paid. And most importantly, he is interested in life. A.A.Churya.

Rocaille (fr.rocaille) Let's start with this word. So long ago in France they called decorations in the form of roughly processed stones and shells, which were used to decorate garden grottoes and fountains. Back in the 16th century, the masters of this business were known as rockillers. Later, this word began to denote all kinds of forms resembling decorations of this kind. Gradually, the word acquired a specific, inherent only to it, concept: a whim of nature, a whim of the imagination, something unusual, bizarre, pretentious. Hence the term rococo. (S.M. Daniel "Rococo. From Watteau to Frogonard")

In world history and the history of art, the 18th century is counted from 1715, from the day of the death of Louis XIV. In the last years of the Sun King, Versailles, once immersed in luxury and entertainment, fell silent. Instead of balls, masquerades and card games, solemn worship services and religious disputes were now held until dawn. The courtiers were languishing and bored, frozen in anticipation. The king is dead. The Duke Philip of Orleans, the uncle of the 9-year-old heir to the throne, became the ruler of France - the regent, until the coming of age of the future Louis XV, a bright, controversial, intelligent, cynical, ambitious man. A new age has begun.

The Reading from Moliere, c.1728. Jean Francois de Troy

The style of art that arose in France in the first half of the 18th century, during the reign of the regent Philip of Orleans, partly continues the features inherited from the Baroque, but greatly modifies them. The Rococo style arose during the crisis of absolutism, reflecting the hedonistic moods characteristic of the aristocracy, the tendency to escape from reality into the illusory and idyllic world of theatrical play. Rococo is the product of an exclusively secular culture, the court, the French aristocracy. Nevertheless, it managed not only to leave a mark on art, but also to influence its further development.

The Duke of Orleans did not like official ceremonies, crowded festivities, despised etiquette, preferred to spend time with close friends, knew a lot about food and drink. The epicurean taste (the main interest for the epicureans is the sensual world, therefore their main ethical principle is pleasure) of the regent was embodied in the bright and intimate interiors of the Palais Royal, a new Parisian residence. The decoration in the Regency style was not so much impressive as it was a pleasure and amusement. Soft, inviting furniture with rounded corners has replaced massive oak cabinets and ebony bureaus. The novelty of the new style - silk screens, created intimate corners, and small sofas for two promised a pleasant conversation, porcelain dishes delighted the eye with the most delicate colors and elegant shapes. Family mansions, as examples of a new taste, were furnished accordingly: bathrooms and toilet rooms, oval offices and dining rooms in Chinese style appeared.

The center of the formation of a new culture of the XVIII century was not the palace front interior, but the salon. Instead of huge baroque ceremonial halls, small elegant rococo salons appear. The Rococo style did not introduce any new constructive elements into architecture, but used the old ones, not embarrassing itself in their use by any traditions and having in mind, mainly, the achievement of decorative showiness. Rococo architecture strives to be light, welcoming, playful at all costs; she does not care about the expediency of the forms of the parts of the structure, but disposes of them as she likes, at the behest of a whim, avoiding strict symmetry.

Hidden pavilions, Chinese houses, secluded grottoes. The intimacy and coziness of the Rococo premises was created due to much smaller sizes and special decoration. The characteristic features of Rococo are sophistication, great decorative loading of interiors and compositions, graceful ornamental rhythm, great attention to mythology, erotic situations, and personal comfort. The priority colors in this period are muted, pastel, whitened: pearl, silver, pale ocher, mother-of-pearl, light blue and greenish, pastel pink. The combination of openwork forms, complex ornamentation and transparent, light colors created a festive, truly enchanting spectacle.
The world of miniature forms found its main expression in applied art - in furniture, dishes, bronze, porcelain, and in architecture mainly in the nature of the decor, which acquired a mannered, refined, emphatically elegant and complicated look. The important thing in the interior now was not lush and majestic, but pleasant and comfortable. Buildings constructed during this period, as a rule, are strictly classical in appearance. Inside, the walls are broken with panels, niches, richly decorated with paintings, stucco, gilding, small plastic, decorative fabrics, bronze, porcelain, mirrors.

Most window openings, mirrors and decorative panels above the windows also had a round or oval shape. Much attention is paid to curtains. Since the walls were covered with expensive imported fabrics, the curtains were made from the same fabrics. Rococo is a style based on detail. The buzzword is "bagatelle" (French trifle, trinket). Under Louis XV, the walls of the chambers began to be covered with carved patterns of unprecedented elegance, a web of ornaments, painted with flower garlands, figures of birds, animals, frisky cupids, shepherdesses, and intricately curled shells. Chamber style - no frightening trophies, no halberds, muskets and swords. If an arrow - then the god Cupid, if a bird - a dove, the messenger of the goddess Venus. The frivolous epoch looked with pleasure at itself in the mirror reflecting the illusion of an eternal holiday. Magnificent Venetian and French mirrors were hung on walls, placed on ceilings, shutters, chests of drawers. The floor was polished to a mirror finish.

Art XVIIIcentury. Rococo (rocaille, Louis styleXV).

The 18th century is called the Age of Enlightenment, the Gallant Age. The development of European art of the XVIII century. difficult and uneven. In Italy, deprived of national unity, the highest achievements are associated with the Venetian school. In France, the evolution from Rococo (since 1720) to the art of a program-civil nature can be traced. In the arts, and especially in the literature of England, the characteristic features of the realism of a developed bourgeois society are already emerging. Young Goya in Spain, with all his work, prepared the romanticism of the new century. In the art of the XVIII century. manifests itself in the proper sense of a private phenomenon, a single person, a separate corner of nature, but, as a rule, they act in conjunction with the world of fantasy, in a theatrical game, on the stage. Only the 19th century I dared to deduce the particular, the individual, the isolated as significant in itself, not in need of contours.

The powerful spatial dynamics, the plastic play of Baroque forms are replaced by a style that, as it were, translates the curvilinear construction of the Baroque into a new register. Leaving facades unattended, Rococo plays ornamental symphonies on the walls and ceilings of interiors, weaves lace patterns, achieving in this virtuosity, grace, brilliance, but completely losing baroque monumentality, solidity and strength. Rococo is the first orderless style. Rococo does not have its own positive philosophy and its scope is limited. The style reached its greatest development in the field of applied art. In other areas, it manifests itself most strongly where the artist has to solve primarily decorative and design tasks: in architecture - not in the construction of the building, but in the planning and design of the interior; in painting - not in the easel painting, but in decorative panels and murals.

Rococo art is a smiling, melancholic art. It is characterized by artsy inlaid furniture in the interiors, decorative panels, mirrors, fractional forms, complex ornament, built on curved lines. Asymmetrical compositions create a sense of unease - a playful, mocking, artsy, teasing feeling. The plots of paintings and murals are love, erotic. The heroines of the paintings are nymphs, Bacchantes, Diana, Venus, making their toilets and triumphs. These are “shepherd's skits”, “gallant festivities”. At this time, there is an interest in subtle, intimate experiences, this is a step towards sentimentalism.

The Rococo style is not characterized by the use of an order in the decor. At the same time, the interiors are decorated with panels and mirrors. Ceiling rosettes are decorated with ornaments (motifs of acanthus leaf, shell, sea wave, trellis mesh). Sometimes Chinese motifs are used in the ornament. Constructive logic, a clear correlation of load-bearing and carried parts, which spoke of the strict laws of being, of the heroism of duty, gave way to whimsical weaves of the ornament, masking the true dimensions and configuration of the interior, the boundaries of the walls and ceiling. Small rooms, while maintaining comfort, do not seem cramped, because architecture and painting create a kind of playful space, the limits of which are not felt. It melts in mirrors, huge windows and panels, is repeatedly reflected, refracted in picturesque images. The ornament forms, as it were, a through form, enveloping cornices, mirrors and windows, dividing and at the same time connecting real and imaginary space. A favorite coloristic effect is also connected with this: the color is decorative, it lies on the plane of the canvas or wall, decorates it, and at the same time denotes an infinite, indefinite depth, a foggy distance. The color range consists of whitened, muted tones: pearl gray (gris de perle), bluish (pervanche), crab meat (somon), pale ocher (beige) and others. The new style became the style of poor houses.

In the XVIII century. The theater has been especially developed. The feeling of transience, the illusiveness of life takes possession of a person.

Private life, intimate feelings, human emotions are opposed to cold formality, false solemnity. In England, a synthetic type of portrait arises, which takes from ceremonial portraits an expression of the social value of a person, and from intimate ones - an interest in his individual being.

In landscape painting, the “mood landscape” is developing, which played a significant role in Watteau, and then in Gainsborough and Guardi.

The development of classicism is associated with the name of the German aesthetician Johann Joachim Wingelmann. The article "Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture" of 1755 raised classical tendencies to the level of the program. The concepts of “strict taste”, “taste for the ideal” appeared. Wingelman at this time wrote the first art history textbook, The History of the Art of Antiquity. He contributed to the evolutionary movement in the direction of understanding the phenomena of art.

Classicism of the 18th century perceived as a "lightweight" classicism of the previous century. It has more archaeological accuracy than the predecessor, more grace, invention, variety. But there is also a lack of weight and strength. Classicism of the 18th century rejects ancient classical norms.

German architecture of the 18th century. develops within the framework of classicism. The Brandenburn Gate (1781-1791) by the architect K. Langansen resembles the Propylaea of ​​the Acropolis of Athens.

The following countries are in the focus of attention: Italy, France, England, Spain.

Fashion of the 18th century is a fashion for youth, luxury and carelessness. - this is the fashion of the last carefree years of the French aristocracy, and the aristocracy of all Europe as well. The 19th century will go down in history as a century of revolutions, one of the first, at the end of the 18th century, its crown, and at the same time the French king will lose his head.

Miniature depicting Marie Antoinette (sitting on the right) and her sisters
Marie Antoinette - the last French queen, trendsetter in the Rococo style

But until the XVIII century, the time of balls and salons. The time of dresses with incredibly puffy skirts, in such dresses it is difficult to pass through doorways, and unimaginably high hairstyles. With such hairstyles, sometimes you have to ride in open carriages, since the roofs of the carriages are small for rococo hairstyles. After all, at this time, a whole ship could be worn on the head.

As for costumes, the fashion of the 18th century in clothing adhered to three main principles:

Portrait of Louis XVI - husband of Marie Antoinette, last king of France (before the French Revolution)

The first is youth. Both men and women had to look as young as possible. Men did not wear beards and mustaches. They whitened and blushed their faces. They put small ones on their heads, gathered in small tails or knots.

Women tightened their waists with corsets as much as possible, also at that time small breasts were considered beautiful. There were even special tablets that women put under the bodice of the dress in order to reduce their breasts. Faces were whitened and blushed, eyes and lips stood out. As before, as in the 17th century, artificial moles-flies were worn.

By the way, in the 17th century, at the French court, on the contrary, magnificent female forms were valued - magnificent breasts, rounded hips, but the waist was thin. The 17th century can be called the time when a mature woman was considered the standard of beauty, the 18th century is the opposite, now the ideal of beauty is a young girl.

The same thing happened with the colors of clothes. If in the 17th century saturated dark blues and reds prevailed, then in the 18th century both men's and women's costumes were sewn from fabrics of pastel shades. And this is the second principle of fashion of the XVIII century - your clothes should be as delicate as possible: light green, white, pink, blue. Blue and pink were the favorite colors of the rococo style.

Portrait of Francois Boucher - French artist of the XVIII century

The third principle is as many bows, ribbons and lace as possible. And especially in menswear. Both in the 17th century and in the 18th century, French fashion more than ever before and never later brought the male costume closer in its decorativeness, silhouette and complexity to the female one. The men not only used makeup, they also wore bows, lace and stockings.

Looking like a man in the 18th century meant wearing a white undershirt with lace cuffs, stockings, over short trousers (culottes) decorated with bows, shoes with heels and a bow at the toe.

The outerwear was originally a justocor, which came in the 18th century from the 17th century. Justocor is a long men's caftan, tailored to the figure, without a collar (the lace collar of the lower shirt was laid out on it) and with pockets, decorated with a large number of buttons and belted with a wide belt.

With a justocor they wore a white neckerchief - the prototype of a modern tie. During the baroque, the style of the 17th century, the justocor was of dark colors, during the rococo period they begin to wear blue and even pink justocor.

18th century caricature of high hairstyles

However, the frock coat soon replaced the justocor. The 18th century frock coat is fitted, flared to the hips, with pleats and a narrow line of shoulders and sleeves. The coat was sewn from velvet, satin, silk, and decorative buttons.

At the end of the 18th century, a new type of clothing appeared - a tailcoat. The first tailcoats were sewn from silk and velvet fabrics of various colors and decorated with embroidery.

Women also wear undershirts decorated with lace. Then a whalebone corset and a frame under the skirt of the dress. Frames at this time are made on fizhma.

Figma - a frame for a skirt in the form of sewn-in whalebone plates or willow twigs. It is believed that for the first time figs appeared in England in 1711. By the middle of the 18th century, oval panties began to be worn under the petticoat, and a complex hinged mechanism for lifting the skirt appeared. Now a very wide skirt for passing through the doorway can be narrowed and then straightened again.

Antoine Watteau. two cousins
Watteau pleat dress

There are different types of dresses. Kuntush dress becomes the most fashionable. A kuntush dress (or a dress with a Watteau pleat) is a narrow-shouldered dress with a rather large neckline, its main feature being wide pleats (“Watto pleats”) on the back of the dress.

These folds are named after the rococo artist Watteau, in whose paintings one can find images of the kuntush dress. Also in this dress you can see the sleeves typical of rococo dresses - narrow, widening to the elbow, decorated with a cascade of lush lace.

Francois Bush. Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour

Details of the dress of the Marquise de Pompadour

Also in the 18th century, a negligee dress appears. This dress could be worn at home. The negligee was worn without a frame and a rigid corset. From above, they often put on a karako - a kind of female tailcoat or a jacket with long sleeves, short tails and lapels on the chest.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette by her court painter Vigée-Lebrun

Details of Marie Antoinette's dress (one of the portraits of Marie Antoinette Vigee-Lebrun)

At the end of the 18th century, England began to exert an increasing influence on the fashion of Europe, including France. In the 19th century, England will push France into the background and the European fashion of the 19th century will be shaped under the influence of English fashion.

Francois Bush. Portrait of Madame Bergeret

So, from England at the end of the 18th century, the fashion for the polonaise dress came to France. The polonaise dress was considered a morning dress, while it could be both home and ceremonial. The hem of the polonaise dress was selected in the form of semicircles in such a way that the petticoat was visible from under it.

Portrait of Mrs. Oswald

A large role in the Rococo women's costume was played by various accessories - fans, ribbons that were tied around the neck, hats, combs and brooches, handbags. For example, the pompadour handbag, it got its name in honor of the favorite of the French king, Madame de Pompadour. A pompadour handbag is a small handbag in the form of a velvet, cloth or lace bag.

Vigée-Lebrun. Viscountess Vaudreuil
The neckline of the dress is covered under the influence of English fashion.

Also, ladies of the 18th century could wear very specific jewelry, for example, flea caps. Fleas were not uncommon at that time, and hygiene problems in palaces have existed since the Middle Ages.

European aristocrats did not like to wash (and there were no conditions - there were no baths in the palaces) and therefore preferred to use perfume in large quantities. So flea-catchers were both an ornament and quite a necessary thing from a practical point of view. They looked like a fork with movable teeth-antennae. Secular ladies wore flea caps as a decoration around their necks.

Ring given by Marie Antoinette to her daughter Sophie.