Rococo Art and the Enlightenment

Salons were social gatherings of the French upper classes during the 18th century.
They served as centers of French culture and were emulated across Europe.
Salonnieres were upper-class women who hosted salons.
Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) was a salonniere who actively solicited courtiers and Philosophes for her salons.

Philosophes were intellectuals of the French Enlightenment.
- They emphasized rationality.
- Sought to establish a new social order based on ethics and morals.
Courtiers were pleasure-loving nobility of the court.
- They pursued decorative and erotic excesses.
Both groups frequented major salons, despite disagreeing with each other’s values, leading to clashes.

Rococo is an artistic style associated with decorative elaboration in all media.
- It's similar to ornate forms of Mexican religious art but is usually a secular decorative tradition.
- The term derives from the French word "rocaille," a type of decorative rockwork made from rounded pebbles and shells.
- Also partly derived from the Italian "barocco" (Baroque).

A fête galante is a painting depicting a gallant, amorous celebration by an elite group in a pastoral setting.
- Fêtes galantes epitomize rococo painting.
- Their subject matter is often frivolous.
- The composition is generally asymmetrical.
- The color range is light, emphasizing gold, silver, and pastels.
- Jean-Antoine Watteau was a successful painter of fêtes galantes.

Boucher was Madame de Pompadour’s favorite artist.
His paintings demonstrate Madame Pompadour in the dual roles of intellectual and erotic figure.
François Boucher, The Toilet of Venus, 1751, Oil on canvas.

Jean-Honore Fragonard was a student of Boucher.
He took Rococo principles into the next generation.
His most famous work, The Swing, suggests an erotic intrigue between young lovers, supposedly taken from King Louis XV and his mistress, Madame du Barry.
The composition allows the viewer to share the young man’s voyeuristic pleasure.
Symbols of sexuality are present throughout the painting.
The leaves on the trees are painted with enlivened excitement, as if affected by the energy and fun of the lovers.
Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, Oil on canvas

Pastel is a medium made by mixing pigments with gum and water, pressed into a dried stick form.
Works of art created with these pigments are also called Pastels.
Chalk is similar to pastel but more tightly bound.
A picture made with pastels can be called either a drawing or a painting.
The distinction depends on whether the image is more linear (drawing) or painterly (painting).
Rosalba Carriera, Self-Portrait Holding a Portrait of Her Sister, 1715, Pastel on paper.
Rosalba Carriera, King Louis XV, 1720-1721, pastel.
Rosalba Carriera, Self Portrait, 1740, Pastel on paper.

A 35-volume text, written between 1750 and 1772 by more than 180 writers.
It represents a fundamental principle of the Enlightenment: to accumulate, codify, and preserve human knowledge.
Funded by 4,000 subscribers, the Encyclopédie was probably read by 100 times that number.
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Portrait of Denis Diderot.
The Philosophes were great believers in natural law and were generally opposed to organized religion and monarchy
- Notable philosophes included:
  - Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
  - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
  - François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) (1694-1778)

Art Criticism was developed to help the upper class understand and appreciate the great works they saw on their “Grand Tours” of wealthy Parisian homes and events.
Denis Diderot critiqued Rococo artists and admired the still life and genre paintings of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.

Rococo Architecture is a refined and exaggerated form of its predecessor, Baroque architecture
- Rococo architecture includes:
  - S- and C-curves are ubiquitous
  - Shell, wing, scroll, and plant tendril forms decorate surfaces
  - Rounded, convex, often asymmetrical surfaces are surrounded by elaborate frames, called cartouches
Balthasar Neumann, Kaisersaal Residenz, 1719-1744
- The Residenz was the Episcopal Palace of the “prince-bishop” of Würzburg in Bavaria. It’s architect was Balthasar Neumann
- The white surface is covered with irregular cartouches and garlands with floral motifs
- Ribbonlike moldings rise from columns and pilasters are solely decorative, not architecturally functional
- Paintings in the Residenz are by Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who was known for his expertise in trompe d’loeil
Balthasar Neumann as architect and Giovanni Tiepolo (1696-1770) as painter created an elaborate realization of the Rococo style for the prince-bishop of Würzburg in Bavaria.