Rococo

Question 1

Answer 1

Germain Boffrand, Salon de la Princesse, room in the Hotel de Soubisse, Paris, 1740

Rococo= rocaille (pebble) + coquilles (shell); initially an interior decorative style, heavily ornamented, repeated shell motif, gilt stucco, arabesques

exuberant design, celebration of senses, eye drawn from walls to ceiling seamlessly, no differentiation b/w ceiling and wall; free interplay like jazz- architects= basic design, craftsman=elaboration

distinguish from controlled interior of Versailles

Question 2

Answer 2

Antoine Watteau, Return from Cythera, 1717-19

reception piece for French Academy; aristocrats in rustic attire enjoying romance & love on island of Cypress/Cythera (Venus’s island)

very popular- became new genre: fete galante/fete champete; new power of aristocrats, freed from Louis XIV, able to enjoy land owning and leisure time

Venetian tradition- landscape/gardens= romantic setting

jouissance= celebration of sensual pleasure

unlike Poussin (tectonic classicism)- instead organic fluidity and serpentine rhythms

Question 3

Answer 3

Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1766

straightforward secular scene, intrigue painting, draws viewer into scene of illicit rendevous in garden setting

patron- Gabriel Francois Doyen- asked for painting to show bishop setting swing in motion, with ability to see up her skirt; below her are 2 wrestling cupids

cupid behind patron draws attention to illicit nature with finger to lips, indicated by her kicked off shoe

very small painting, meant to be seen in private setting

wooded scene reminiscent of Watteau’s Cythera