Rococo

The Rococo is a period of time that has always fascinated me. Sure, it is superficial and vain. But how much love was put into all of those ornaments, wallpapers, costumes, embroidery, decorations, interiors? In France, after the death of "sun" king Louis XIV in 1715 the court felt relief from the strict rules imposed by their ruler, people craved to retreat to their homes, to lead a more private life. That desire was expressed artistically by taking distance from the "perfect", geometric baroque by creating elegant, curved shapes that resembled the irregular forms of nature (the name comes from "rocaille", pebbles). And that's how this new artistic movement was born and then spread all over Europe. In every country, Rococo was different. In France, the leading painters of the movement - Watteau, Fragonard and Boucher used pastel colors and lose brush strokes depicting relaxed, frivolous people enjoying themselves in nature. In Italy, artist Giovanni Batista Tiepolo painted ceilings and murals in churches and palaces with historical and biblical topics in a dreamy and airy manner, while Giacomo Casanova lived the Rococo lifestyle and wrote about it in his autobiography. In Southern Germany, sacral and palace architecture exploded with rich details and gold undulations - something impossible to imagine in today's architecturally very modest Germany. In Russia, Queen Elizaveta Petrovna collected dresses and shoes (swore to never repeat a dress) and celebrated decadent parties. Portugal, Spain, Poland, Great Britain - all had their own variations. The Spanish and Portuguese also built Rococo buildings in Latin America, their former colonies. 

Jean-Honore Fragonard, "The Swing", 1767

Augstusburg Palace, Germany,
by Johann Balthasar Neumann, (1741-44)

St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv, Ukraine,
by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, 1744-67

Wuerzburg Residence, Germany,
fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1750-53

chairs by Louis Delanois, Biblioteque de l'Arsenal, Paris

Mariano Salvador Maella, "Carlota Joaquina,
Infanta of Spain and Queen of Portugal", 1785

Over time, the Rococo outfits really got out of control - the dresses were so wide, women had to get through the doors sideways, the hairdos were extremely high and demanded lots of fake hair and were decorated with all kinds of things - flowers, feathers, birds, ships... Women couldn’t obviously just change up a hairstyle like we do, they had to sleep with those monstrosities over many nights, hurting their necks and the dirt and mixture of hair products attracted unwanted creatures (hence the expression “rat’s nest” 🙊). Powder and makeup were used excessively by both genders.

Rococo was over before the French Revolution started, the decadence just got too much, the inequality of the people was extreme and many urged for systemic change (which really wasn't achieved anywhere until much much later); the Enlightenment movement pushed beyond superficialities and demanded a time of reflection; the reasonable, orderly Neoclassicism that's inspired by antiquity became fashionable around 1770. 

But what survived of Rococo until today? A couple nice details that make life very pretty like Chinoiserie, furniture styles we call "French country", masked balls, shell decor, porcelain, our love for champagne, the pouf (Hello Jersey Shore 😜), the wish to not repeat an outfit because of Instagram...😄

Here are some ideas to bring more Rococo splendor into our lives (affiliate links): 

Rococo movies:

Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Valmont (1988), Farinelli (1994), Amadeus (1984), Marie Antoinette (2006) and the Doctor Who's episode "The Girl in the Fireplace". There are also mini series I haven't seen yet but that are on my list: Maria Theresia (2017) and Casanova (2015).

Rococo books:

Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, The Story of my Life by Giacomo Casanova and

Rococo inspired fashion:

&

Rococo inspired home items:

PS: Check out my Instagram posts about Rococo under the hashtag #talketalksrococo

Thanks for reading!

Talk to you soon,

J.

PPS: All images are from WIkiCommons.