The 18th Century/rococo

What is new about how changes happen in the 18th century?

Things start changing faster

• Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717

• King Louis dies when his son is too young to rule and so they have a regent for a while

• Now that they don’t have to keep Louis happy the aristocrats go back to Paris and spend lots of money on art and architecture for themselves - rococo (theatrical and drama like baroque but it tends to be fluffier/lighter/less religious and philosophical intensity - a lot about celebrating beautiful things)

• Cythera is an island in Greece that was sacred to Aphrodite - so this is basically a painting of aristocrats on a trip to love island lol

• Fancy kind of play-pilgrimage clothes, cupids flying around

• Very flowy and organic - compare this to Poussin’s Arcadia (not a lick of memento mori)

What was the political context of King Louis in the 18th c?

• King Louis dies when his son is too young to rule and so they have a regent for a while

• Now that they don’t have to keep Louis happy the aristocrats go back to Paris and spend lots of money on art and architecture for themselves - rococo (theatrical and drama like baroque but it tends to be fluffier/lighter/less religious and philosophical intensity - a lot about celebrating beautiful things

• Germain Boffrand, Salon de la Princesse, 1736

• White and gold are very rococo

• Everything is rounded, not lots of right angles

• Gustav Lundberg, Francoise Boucher, 1741

• Boucher is a painter

• Such a rococo portrait

• “Why hello” energy

• Francoise Boucher, Cupid a Captive, 1754

• Lots of diagonals, some sense of motion in the background as well as natural elements (so some similarity to Rubens although very different conceptually)

• Boucher, Venus Getting Ready (Toilette of Venus), 1754

• Just such a lax environment

• Morning after kind of vibes

• These are some of his more chaste paintings

• Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

• Kind of late for rococo

• Organic lines, flowing nature of the garden

• Atmospheric perspective, looks almost steamy

• Being pulled on a swing by her husband and her lover is below as she coquettishly kicks her shoe off - statue of cupid shushing, very rococo energy

• Scallopy shape of her dress

• Balthasar Neumann, Church of 14 Saints, Bavaria Germany, 1742-77

• German rococo - actually religious stuff (unlike French rococo paintings)

• White and gold, scallopy shapes

• Marble and painting and plaster, very multimedia

• Balthasar Neumann, Church of 14 Saints, Bavaria Germany, 1742-77

• Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717

• Francoise Boucher, Cupid a Captive, 1754

• Gustav Lundberg, Francoise Boucher, 1741

• Boucher, Venus Getting Ready (Toilette of Venus), 1754

• Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1767