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88-518: Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (called Lagrenée l'aîné , Lagrenée the elder) (30 December 1724 – 19 June 1805) was a French rococo painter and student of Carle van Loo . He won the Grand Prix de Rome for painting in 1749 and was elected a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1755. His younger brother Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (called Lagrenée le jeune , Lagrenée

176-520: A chantourné painting showing an easel holding a painting. Chantourné literally means 'cutout' and refers to a trompe-l'œil representation designed to stand away from a wall. The Dutch painter Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten was a master of the trompe-l'œil and theorized on the role of art as the lifelike imitation of nature in his 1678 book, the Introduction to the Academy of Painting, or

264-424: A board, or a person might appear to be climbing out of the painting altogether—all in reference to the contest of Zeuxis and Parrhasius . Perspective theories in the 17th century allowed a more fully integrated approach to architectural illusion, which when used by painters to "open up" the space of a wall or ceiling is known as quadratura . Examples include Pietro da Cortona 's Allegory of Divine Providence in

352-613: A deck of playing cards might appear to be sitting on the table. A particularly impressive example can be seen at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire , where one of the internal doors appears to have a violin and bow suspended from it, in a trompe-l'œil painted around 1723 by Jan van der Vaart . Another example can be found in the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College , Greenwich, London. This Wren building

440-597: A dome representing the heavens crowded with colourful Biblical figures. Other notable pilgrimage churches include the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers by Balthasar Neumann (1743 – 1772). Johann Michael Fischer was the architect of Ottobeuren Abbey (1748 – 1766), another Bavarian Rococo landmark. The church features, like much of the rococo architecture in Germany, a remarkable contrast between

528-599: A flourishing new financial community as well as submitting regular entries to the Paris salon exhibitions. His reputation caught the attention of Elizabeth Petrovna , Empress of Russia, who, in 1760, appointed him to the offices of the director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and that of her principal court painter . After only two years in Russia, he returned to Paris to take up the appointment of professor-rector at

616-767: A large painting - The Abduction of Deianira by the Centaur Nessus (Musée du Louvre ) - which, when finished in 1755, was the reception piece which earned him a membership in the Royal Academy, by a unanimous vote. By this time, he was already considered something of a celebrity. On Monday the 10th of July 1758, at the age of 33, he married 16-year-old Anne-Agathe Isnard. Fifty-five years later, on 19 June 1805, his death certificate recorded that they were still married. His career blossomed in Paris, by completing many commissions for eminent patrons and members of

704-401: A larger room. A version of an oft-told ancient Greek story concerns a contest between two renowned painters. Zeuxis (born around 464 BC) produced a still life painting so convincing that birds flew down to peck at the painted grapes. A rival, Parrhasius , asked Zeuxis to judge one of his paintings that was behind a pair of tattered curtains in his study. Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to pull back

792-576: A perfect architectural trompe-l'œil is the illusionistic dome in the Jesuit church, Vienna, by Andrea Pozzo , which is only slightly curved, but gives the impression of true architecture. Trompe-l'œil paintings became very popular in Flemish and later in Dutch painting in the 17th century arising from the development of still life painting. The Flemish painter Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts created

880-563: A real wall. Then he runs towards what appears to be a hallway, but when he runs up this as well we realize that it is a large trompe-l'œil mural. More recently, Roy Andersson has made use of similar techniques in his feature films. Matte painting is a variant of trompe-l'œil , and is used in film production with elements of a scene are painted on glass panels mounted in front of the camera. Elsa Schiaparelli frequently made use of trompe-l'œil in her designs, most famously perhaps in her Bowknot Sweater , which some consider to be

968-767: A renaissance since around 1980. Significant artists in this field are the German muralist Rainer Maria Latzke , who invented, in the 1990s, a new method of producing illusion paintings, frescography , and the English artist Graham Rust . OK Go 's music video for " The Writing's on the Wall " uses a number of trompe-l'œil illusions alongside other optical illusions, captured through a one-shot take. Trompe-l'œil illusions have been used as gameplay mechanics in video games such as The Witness and Superliminal . Japanese filmmaker and animator Isao Takahata regarded achieving

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1056-519: A sense of trompe-l'œil to be important for his work, stating that an animated world should feel as if it "existed right there" so that "people believe in a fantasy world and characters that no one has seen in reality." Tourist attractions employing large-scale illusory art allowing visitors to photograph themselves in fantastic scenes have opened in several Asian countries, such as the Trickeye Museum and Hong Kong 3D Museum . Recently

1144-650: A sense of movement in every direction. It was most commonly found in the interiors of churches, usually closely integrated with painting and the architecture. Religious sculpture followed the Italian baroque style, as exemplified in the theatrical altarpiece of the Karlskirche in Vienna. Early Rococo or Rocaille sculpture in France sculpture was lighter and offered more movement than the classical style of Louis XIV. It

1232-464: A theatrical exuberance. On the walls of new Paris salons, the twisting and winding designs, usually made of gilded or painted stucco, wound around the doorways and mirrors like vines. One of the earliest examples was the Hôtel Soubise in Paris (1704 – 1705), with its famous oval salon decorated with paintings by Boucher, and Charles-Joseph Natoire . The best known French furniture designer of

1320-468: Is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and trompe-l'œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement. The Rococo style began in France in the 1730s as a reaction against

1408-561: Is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil . Rococo remained popular in certain German provincial states and in Italy, until the second phase of neoclassicism, " Empire style ", arrived with Napoleonic governments and swept Rococo away. The ornamental style called rocaille emerged in France between 1710 and 1750, mostly during the regency and reign of Louis XV ; the style was also called Louis Quinze . Its principal characteristics were picturesque detail, curves and counter-curves, asymmetry, and

1496-627: The Palazzo Barberini and Andrea Pozzo 's Apotheosis of St Ignatius on the ceiling of the Roman church of Sant'Ignazio in Campo Marzio . The Mannerist and Baroque style interiors of Jesuit churches in the 16th and 17th centuries often included such trompe-l'œil ceiling paintings, which optically "open" the ceiling or dome to the heavens with a depiction of Jesus', Mary 's, or a saint's ascension or assumption. An example of

1584-508: The Sevres Porcelain manufactory and produced small-scale works, usually about love and gaiety, for production in series. A Rococo period existed in music history , although it is not as well known as the earlier Baroque and later Classical forms. The Rococo music style itself developed out of baroque music both in France, where the new style was referred to as style galant ("gallant" or "elegant" style), and in Germany, where it

1672-751: The commedia dell'arte , city street vendors, lovers and figures in fashionable clothes, and pairs of birds. Johann Joachim Kändler was the most important modeller of Meissen porcelain , the earliest European factory, which remained the most important until about 1760. The Swiss-born German sculptor Franz Anton Bustelli produced a wide variety of colourful figures for the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory in Bavaria, which were sold throughout Europe. The French sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716 – 1791) followed this example. While also making large-scale works, he became director of

1760-498: The porcelain figure, or small group of figures, initially replacing sugar sculptures on grand dining room tables, but soon popular for placing on mantelpieces and furniture. The number of European factories grew steadily through the century, and some made porcelain that the expanding middle classes could afford. The amount of colourful overglaze decoration used on them also increased. They were usually modelled by artists who had trained in sculpture. Common subjects included figures from

1848-534: The 18th century, a reaction against the Rococo style occurred, primarily against its perceived overuse of ornamentation and decoration. Led by Christoph Willibald Gluck , this reaction ushered in the Classical era . By the early 19th century, Catholic opinion had turned against the suitability of the style for ecclesiastical contexts because it was "in no way conducive to sentiments of devotion". Russian composer of

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1936-506: The Bavarian pilgrimage churches, the exterior is very simple, with pastel walls, and little ornament. Entering the church the visitor encounters an astonishing theatre of movement and light. It features an oval-shaped sanctuary, and a deambulatory in the same form, filling in the church with light from all sides. The white walls contrasted with columns of blue and pink stucco in the choir, and the domed ceiling surrounded by plaster angels below

2024-545: The French original. The German style was characterized by an explosion of forms that cascaded down the walls. It featured molding formed into curves and counter-curves, twisting and turning patterns, ceilings and walls with no right angles, and stucco foliage which seemed to be creeping up the walls and across the ceiling. The decoration was often gilded or silvered to give it contrast with the white or pale pastel walls. The Belgian-born architect and designer François de Cuvilliés

2112-761: The Great to create fountain sculpture for Sanssouci Park , Prussia (1740s). Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716 – 1791) was another leading French sculptor during the period. Falconet was most famous for his Bronze Horseman statue of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, but he also created a series of smaller works for wealthy collectors, which could be reproduced in a series in terracotta or cast in bronze. The French sculptors, Jean-Louis Lemoyne , Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne , Louis-Simon Boizot , Michel Clodion , Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle all produced sculpture in series for collectors. In Italy, Antonio Corradini

2200-609: The Marquis of Marigny, and was named director general of the King's Buildings . He turned official French architecture toward the neoclassical. Cochin became an important art critic; he denounced the petit style of Boucher, and called for a grand style with a new emphasis on antiquity and nobility in the academies of painting and architecture. The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of

2288-540: The Renaissance. In the late 17th and early 18th century, rocaille became the term for a kind of decorative motif or ornament that appeared in the late Louis XIV style , in the form of a seashell interlaced with acanthus leaves. In 1736 the designer and jeweler Jean Mondon published the Premier Livre de forme rocquaille et cartel , a collection of designs for ornaments of furniture and interior decoration. It

2376-492: The Rococo had a spiritual aspect to it which led to its widespread use in church interiors, particularly in Central Europe, Portugal, and South America. The word rococo was first used as a humorous variation of the word rocaille by Pierre-Maurice Quays (1777-1803) Rocaille was originally a method of decoration , using pebbles, seashells, and cement, which was often used to decorate grottoes and fountains since

2464-462: The Romantic era Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote The Variations on a Rococo Theme , Op. 33, for cello and orchestra in 1877. Although the theme is not Rococo in origin, it is written in Rococo style. Trompe-l%27%C5%93il The phrase, which can also be spelled without the hyphen and ligature in English as trompe l'oeil , originates with the artist Louis-Léopold Boilly , who used it as

2552-943: The Royal Academy. He spent the years between 1781 and 1787 at the Villa Medici in Rome, in his capacity as director of the French Academy. A final return to Paris saw him appointed to the position of honorary curator-director (administration) of the Louvre museum. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour on the 15th of July 1804 by Napoleon I . He died the following year. Rococo Rococo , less commonly Roccoco ( / r ə ˈ k oʊ k oʊ / rə- KOH -koh , US also / ˌ r oʊ k ə ˈ k oʊ / ROH -kə- KOH ; French: [ʁɔkɔko] or [ʁokoko] ), also known as Late Baroque ,

2640-550: The Virgin in the Parma Cathedral . Similarly, Vittorio Carpaccio (1460–1525) and Jacopo de' Barbari (c. 1440 – before 1516) added small trompe-l'œil features to their paintings, playfully exploring the boundary between image and reality. For example, a painted fly might appear to be sitting on the painting's frame, or a curtain might appear to partly conceal the painting, a piece of paper might appear to be attached to

2728-514: The Visible World ( Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: anders de zichtbaere werelt , Rotterdam, 1678). A fanciful form of architectural trompe-l'œil , quodlibet , features realistically rendered paintings of such items as paper knives, playing cards, ribbons, and scissors, apparently accidentally left lying around. Trompe-l'œil can also be found painted on tables and other items of furniture, on which, for example,

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2816-789: The arrival of Chinoiserie , often in the form of lacquered and gilded commodes, called falcon de Chine of Vernis Martin , after the ebenist who introduced the technique to France. Ormolu , or gilded bronze, was used by master craftsmen including Jean-Pierre Latz . Latz made a particularly ornate clock mounted atop a cartonnier for Frederick the Great for his palace in Potsdam . Pieces of imported Chinese porcelain were often mounted in ormolu (gilded bronze) rococo settings for display on tables or consoles in salons. Other craftsmen imitated Japanese lacquered furniture, and produced commodes with Japanese motifs. British Rococo tended to be more restrained. Thomas Chippendale 's furniture designs kept

2904-724: The arts. Kent travelled to Italy with Lord Burlington between 1712 and 1720, and brought back many models and ideas from Palladio. He designed the furniture for Hampton Court Palace (1732), Lord Burlington's Chiswick House (1729), London, Thomas Coke's Holkham Hall , Norfolk, Robert Walpole's Houghton Hall , for Devonshire House in London, and at Rousham House . Mahogany made its appearance in England in about 1720, and immediately became popular for furniture, along with walnut wood. The Rococo began to make an appearance in England between 1740 and 1750. The furniture of Thomas Chippendale

2992-703: The ballroom ceiling of the Ca' Rezzonico in the quadraturo manner, giving the illusion of three dimensions. Tiepolo travelled to Germany with his son during 1752 – 1754, decorating the ceilings of the Würzburg Residence , one of the major landmarks of the Bavarian Rococo. An earlier celebrated Venetian painter was Giovanni Battista Piazzetta , who painted several notable church ceilings. The Venetian Rococo also featured exceptional glassware, particularly Murano glass , often engraved and coloured, which

3080-416: The beginning of the 1980s when German artist Rainer Maria Latzke began to combine classical fresco art with contemporary content, trompe-l'œil became increasingly popular for interior murals. The Spanish painter Salvador Dalí utilized the technique for a number of his paintings. Trompe-l'œil , in the form of " forced perspective ", has long been used in stage-theater set design , so as to create

3168-593: The best known examples of the style. Boucher participated in all of the genres of the time, designing tapestries, models for porcelain sculpture, set decorations for the Paris Opera and Opéra-Comique , and decor for the Fair of Saint-Laurent . Other important painters of the Fête Galante style included Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater . The style particularly influenced François Lemoyne , who painted

3256-459: The boundaries between the art genres, and are characterised by a light-filled weightlessness, festive cheerfulness and movement. The Rococo decorative style reached its summit in southern Germany and Austria from the 1730s until the 1770s. There it dominates the church landscape to this day and is deeply anchored there in popular culture. It was first introduced from France through the publications and works of French architects and decorators, including

3344-628: The building's sides features the Chicago Board of Trade Building , intended as a reflection of the building located two miles south. Several contemporary artists use chalk on pavement or sidewalk to create trompe-l'œil works, a technique called street painting or "pavement art". These creations last only until washed away, and therefore must be photographed to be preserved. Practitioners of this form include Julian Beever , Edgar Mueller , Leon Keer , and Kurt Wenner . The Palazzo Salis of Tirano , Italy , has over centuries and throughout

3432-433: The complex frames made for mirrors and paintings, which were sculpted in plaster and often gilded; and the use of vegetal forms (vines, leaves, flowers) intertwined in complex designs. The furniture also featured sinuous curves and vegetal designs. The leading furniture designers and craftsmen in the style included Juste-Aurele Meissonier , Charles Cressent , and Nicolas Pineau . The Rocaille style lasted in France until

3520-788: The curtains, but when Zeuxis tried, he could not, as the curtains were included in Parrhasius's painting—making Parrhasius the winner. A fascination with perspective drawing arose during the Renaissance . But Giotto had begun using perspective at the end of the 13th century with the cycle of Assisi in Saint Francis stories. Many Italian painters of the late Quattrocento , such as Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) and Melozzo da Forlì (1438–1494), began painting illusionistic ceiling paintings , generally in fresco , that employed perspective and techniques such as foreshortening to create

3608-475: The curves and feel, but stopped short of the French heights of whimsy. The most successful exponent of British Rococo was probably Thomas Johnson , a gifted carver and furniture designer working in London in the mid-18th century. Elements of the Rocaille style appeared in the work of some French painters, including a taste for the picturesque in details; curves and counter-curves; and dissymmetry which replaced

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3696-642: The curving lines and carved ornament of the French Rocaille, but with a particular Venetian variation; the pieces were painted, often with landscapes or flowers or scenes from Guardi or other painters, or Chinoiserie , against a blue or green background, matching the colours of the Venetian school of painters whose work decorated the salons. Notable decorative painters included Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , who painted ceilings and murals of both churches and palazzos, and Giovanni Battista Crosato who painted

3784-773: The decoration of palaces and churches. The sculpture was closely integrated with the architecture; it was impossible to know where one stopped and the other began. In the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, (1721 – 1722), the vaulted ceiling of the Hall of the Atlantes is held up on the shoulders of muscular figures designed by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt . The portal of the Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas in Valencia (1715 – 1776)

3872-404: The decoration. The main ornaments of Rococo are: asymmetrical shells, acanthus and other leaves, birds, bouquets of flowers, fruit, musical instruments, angels and Chinoiserie ( pagodas , dragons, monkeys, bizarre flowers and Chinese people). The style often integrated painting, moulded stucco, and wood carving, and quadratura , or illusionist ceiling paintings, which were designed to give

3960-458: The early German Rococo is Würzburg Residence (1737 – 1744) constructed for Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn of Würzburg by Balthasar Neumann . Neumann had travelled to Paris and consulted with the French rocaille decorative artists Germain Boffrand and Robert de Cotte . While the exterior was in more sober Baroque style, the interior, particularly the stairways and ceilings,

4048-507: The fake tunnel. This is usually followed by the coyote's foolishly trying to run through the tunnel after the road runner, only to smash into the hard rock-face. This sight gag was employed in Who Framed Roger Rabbit . In Chicago 's Near North Side , Richard Haas used a 16-story 1929 apartment hotel converted into a 1981 apartment building for trompe-l'œil murals in homage to Chicago school architecture . One of

4136-462: The first use of trompe-l'œil in fashion. The Tears Dress , which she did in collaboration with Salvador Dalí , features both appliqué tears on the veil and trompe-l'œil tears on the dress itself. Fictional trompe-l'œil appears in many Looney Tunes , such as the Road Runner cartoons, where, for example, Wile E. Coyote paints a tunnel on a rock wall, and Road Runner then races through

4224-653: The following characteristics, which Baroque does not: The Rocaille style, or French Rococo, appeared in Paris during the reign of Louis XV , and flourished between about 1723 and 1759. The style was used particularly in salons, a new style of room designed to impress and entertain guests. The most prominent example was the salon of the Princess in Hôtel de Soubise in Paris, designed by Germain Boffrand and Charles-Joseph Natoire (1735 – 1740). The characteristics of French Rococo included exceptional artistry, especially in

4312-655: The illusion of a much deeper space than the existing stage. A famous early example is the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza , with Vincenzo Scamozzi 's seven forced-perspective "streets" (1585), which appear to recede into the distance. Trompe-l'œil is employed in Donald O'Connor 's famous "Running up the wall" scene in the film Singin' in the Rain (1952). During the finale of his "Make 'em Laugh" number he first runs up

4400-530: The impression of greater space for the viewer below. This type of trompe-l'œil illusionism as specifically applied to ceiling paintings is known as di sotto in sù , meaning "from below, upward" in Italian. The elements above the viewer are rendered as if viewed from true vanishing point perspective. Well-known examples are the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua and Antonio da Correggio 's (1489–1534) Assumption of

4488-531: The impression that those entering the room were looking up at the sky, where cherubs and other figures were gazing down at them. Materials used included stucco, either painted or left white; combinations of different coloured woods (usually oak, beech or walnut); lacquered wood in the Japanese style, ornament of gilded bronze, and marble tops of commodes or tables. The intent was to create an impression of surprise, awe and wonder on first view. Rococo tends to have

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4576-404: The interiors, and soft pastel colours framed with large hooded windows and cornices on the exteriors featuring rocaille motifs, such as asymmetrical shells and rocks. Plafonds often featured rococo scrollwork surrounding allegorical paintings of ancient Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Flooring was often inlaid with parquetry designs formed from different woods to create elaborate designs in

4664-481: The largest effect on the Rococo style. The Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , assisted by his son, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo , was invited to paint frescoes for the Würzburg Residence (1720 – 1744). The most prominent painter of Bavarian rococo churches was Johann Baptist Zimmermann , who painted the ceiling of the Wieskirche (1745 – 1754). Rococo sculpture was theatrical, sensual and dynamic, giving

4752-765: The lavish decoration of the ceiling of the Salon of Hercules at the Palace of Versailles , completed in 1735. Paintings with fétes gallant and mythological themes by Boucher, Pierre-Charles Trémolières and Charles-Joseph Natoire decorated the famous salon of the Hôtel Soubise in Paris (1735 – 1740). Other Rococo painters include: Jean François de Troy (1679 – 1752), Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1685 – 1745), his two sons Louis-Michel van Loo (1707 – 1771) and Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (1719 – 1795), his younger brother Charles-André van Loo (1705 – 1765), Nicolas Lancret (1690 – 1743), and Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732 – 1806). In Austria and Southern Germany, Italian painting had

4840-484: The mid-18th century, and while it became more curving and vegetal, it never achieved the extravagant exuberance of the Rococo in Bavaria, Austria and Italy. The discoveries of Roman antiquities beginning in 1738 at Herculaneum and especially at Pompeii in 1748 turned French architecture in the direction of the more symmetrical and less flamboyant neo-classicism . Artists in Italy, particularly Venice , also produced an exuberant Rococo style. Venetian commodes imitated

4928-414: The mistress of Louis XV contributed to the decline of the Rococo style. In 1750 she sent her brother, Abel-François Poisson de Vandières , on a two-year mission to study artistic and archeological developments in Italy. He was accompanied by several artists, including the engraver Charles-Nicolas Cochin and the architect Soufflot . They returned to Paris with a passion for classical art. Vandières became

5016-464: The more formal and geometric Louis XIV style . It was known as the "style Rocaille ", or "Rocaille style". It soon spread to other parts of Europe, particularly northern Italy, Austria, southern Germany, Central Europe and Russia. It also came to influence other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware, glassware, painting, music, theatre, and literature. Although originally a secular style primarily used for interiors of private residences,

5104-494: The most gifted young students in any given year and offer them a place on a scheme known as the École royale des élèves protégés , a scheme which offered free tuition with a small stipend for three years, preparing students for Prix de Rome competitions. After being selected for and completing this three-year programme, under the tutelage of Carle van Loo , he won the Grand Prix de Rome on his first attempt in 1749, with

5192-579: The movement of the baroque with exuberance, though the French rocaille never reached the extravagance of the Germanic rococo. The leading proponent was Antoine Watteau , particularly in The Embarkation for Cythera (1717), Louvre , in a genre called Fête galante depicting scenes of young nobles gathered together to celebrate in a pastoral setting. Watteau died in 1721 at the age of thirty-seven, but his work continued to have influence through

5280-671: The painting Joseph interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh (now lost). As a student at the French Academy in Rome , he developed a "Formative if youthful fixation with Baroque painting ". Above all, he was inspired by the Bolognese School , particularly by the work of Guido Reni (1575–1642) and Francesco Albani (1578–1660). Later in his career, he acquired the epithet 'the French Albani' ( l'Albane Francais ). After returning from Rome in 1753, he set to work on

5368-483: The palace used trompe-l'œil in place of more expensive real masonry, doors, staircases, balconies, and draperies to create an illusion of sumptuousness and opulence. Trompe-l'œil in the form of illusion architecture and Lüftlmalerei is common on façades in the Alpine region. Trompe-l'œil, in the form of "illusion painting", is also used in contemporary interior design, where illusionary wall paintings experienced

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5456-478: The period was Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695 – 1750), who was also a sculptor, painter. and goldsmith for the royal household. He held the title of official designer to the Chamber and Cabinet of Louis XV. His work is well known today because of the enormous number of engravings made of his work which popularized the style throughout Europe. He designed works for the royal families of Saxony and Portugal . Italy

5544-417: The period, with its emphasis on decorative mythology and gallantry, soon inspired a reaction, and a demand for more "noble" themes. While the Rococo continued in Germany and Austria, the French Academy in Rome began to teach the classic style. This was confirmed by the nomination of Jean François de Troy as director of the academy in 1738, and then in 1751 by Charles-Joseph Natoire . Madame de Pompadour ,

5632-472: The regularity of the facade and the overabundance of decoration in the interior. In Great Britain, rococo was called the "French taste" and had less influence on design and the decorative arts than in continental Europe, although its influence was felt in such areas as silverwork, porcelain, and silks. William Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not mentioning rococo by name, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty (1753) that

5720-503: The reign of Frederick the Great and combined influences from France, Germany (especially Saxony ) and the Netherlands . Its most famous adherent was the architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff . Furthermore, the painter Antoine Pesne and even King Frederick himself influenced Knobelsdorff's designs. Famous buildings in the Frederician style include Sanssouci Palace , the Potsdam City Palace , and parts of Charlottenburg Palace . The art of François Boucher and other painters of

5808-444: The rest of the century. A version of Watteau's painting titled Pilgrimage to Cythera was purchased by Frederick the Great of Prussia in 1752 or 1765 to decorate his palace of Charlottenburg in Berlin. The successor of Watteau and the Féte Galante in decorative painting was François Boucher (1703 – 1770), the favorite painter of Madame de Pompadour . His work included the sensual Toilette de Venus (1746), which became one of

5896-442: The sculptor Claude III Audran , the interior designer Gilles-Marie Oppenordt , the architect Germain Boffrand , the sculptor Jean Mondon, and the draftsman and engraver Pierre Lepautre . Their work had an important influence on the German Rococo style, but does not reach the level of buildings in southern Germany. German architects adapted the Rococo style but made it far more asymmetric and loaded with more ornate decoration than

5984-429: The stairway led the visitors up through a stucco fantasy of paintings, sculpture, ironwork and decoration, with surprising views at every turn. In the 1740s and 1750s, a number of notable pilgrimage churches were constructed in Bavaria , with interiors decorated in a distinctive variant of the rococo style. One of the most notable examples is the Wieskirche (1745 – 1754) designed by Dominikus Zimmermann . Like most of

6072-419: The style of the 18th century, overloaded with twisting ornaments". In 1829, the author Stendhal described rococo as "the rocaille style of the 18th century". In the 19th century, the term was used to describe architecture or music which was excessively ornamental. Since the mid-19th century, the term has been accepted by art historians . While there is still some debate about the historical significance of

6160-583: The style, Rococo is now often considered as a distinct period in the development of European art . Rococo features exuberant decoration, with an abundance of curves, counter-curves, undulations and elements modeled on nature. The exteriors of Rococo buildings are often simple, while the interiors are entirely dominated by their ornament. The style was highly theatrical, designed to impress and awe at first sight. Floor plans of churches were often complex, featuring interlocking ovals; In palaces, grand stairways became centrepieces, and offered different points of view of

6248-420: The superficiality and degeneracy of the art. Blondel decried the "ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants" in contemporary interiors. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order and seriousness of Neoclassical artists like Jacques-Louis David . In Germany, late 18th-century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke ("pigtail and periwig"), and this phase

6336-548: The title of a painting he exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1800. Although the term gained currency only in the early 19th century, the illusionistic technique associated with trompe-l'œil dates much further back. It was (and is) often employed in murals . Instances from Greek and Roman times are known, for instance in Pompeii . A typical trompe-l'œil mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest

6424-465: The undulating lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace and beauty in art or nature (unlike the straight line or the circle in Classicism ). Rococo was slow in arriving in England. Before entering the Rococo, British furniture for a time followed the neoclassical Palladian model under designer William Kent , who designed for Lord Burlington and other important patrons of

6512-467: The woodwork. Russian orthodox church architecture was also heavily influenced by rococo designs during the eighteenth century, often featuring a square Greek cross design with four equidistant wings. Exteriors were painted in light pastel colours such as blues and pinks, and bell towers were often topped with gilded onion domes. Frederician Rococo is a form of Rococo which developed in Prussia during

6600-560: The younger) was also a painter. He was born in Paris on the 30th of December 1724 and from an early age he showed promise in drawing and painting . During his youth, master painter members of the French Royal Academy offered a rolling programme of courses, open to the public (for a small fee), in life drawing and the principles and techniques of art. These courses gave academy members a chance to identify and nurture six of

6688-528: Was Thomas Johnson , who in 1761, very late in the period, published a catalogue of Rococo furniture designs. These include furnishings based on rather fantastic Chinese and Indian motifs, including a canopy bed crowned by a Chinese pagoda (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum ). Other notable figures in the British Rococo included the silversmith Charles Friedrich Kandler. The Russian rococo style

6776-582: Was among the leading sculptors of the Rococo style. A Venetian, he travelled around Europe, working for Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, for the courts in Austria and Naples . He preferred sentimental themes and made several skilled works of women with faces covered by veils, one of which is now in the Louvre . The most elaborate examples of rococo sculpture were found in Spain, Austria and southern Germany, in

6864-746: Was another place where the Rococo flourished, both in its early and later phases. Craftsmen in Rome, Milan and Venice all produced lavishly decorated furniture and decorative items. The sculpted decoration included fleurettes, palmettes, seashells, and foliage, carved in wood. The most extravagant rocaille forms were found in the consoles , tables designed to stand against walls. The Commodes , or chests, which had first appeared under Louis XIV, were richly decorated with rocaille ornament made of gilded bronze. They were made by master craftsmen including Jean-Pierre Latz and also featured marquetry of different-coloured woods, sometimes placed in draughtsboard cubic patterns, made with light and dark woods. The period also saw

6952-458: Was completely drenched in sculpture carved in marble, from designs by Hipolito Rovira Brocandel. The El Transparente altar, in the major chapel of Toledo Cathedral is a towering sculpture of polychrome marble and gilded stucco, combined with paintings, statues and symbols. It was made by Narciso Tomé (1721 – 1732), Its design allows light to pass through, and in changing light it seems to move. A new form of small-scale sculpture appeared,

7040-550: Was encouraged in particular by Madame de Pompadour , mistress of Louis XV, who commissioned many works for her chateaux and gardens. The sculptor Edmé Bouchardon represented Cupid engaged in carving his darts of love from the club of Hercules . Rococo figures also crowded the later fountains at Versailles , such as the Fountain of Neptune by Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and Nicolas-Sebastien Adam (1740). Based on their success at Versailles, they were invited to Prussia by Frederick

7128-406: Was exported across Europe. Works included multicolour chandeliers and mirrors with extremely ornate frames. In church construction, especially in the southern German-Austrian region, gigantic spatial creations are sometimes created for practical reasons alone, which, however, do not appear monumental, but are characterized by a unique fusion of architecture, painting, stucco, etc., often eliminating

7216-713: Was introduced largely by Empress Elisabeth and Catherine the Great , during the eighteenth century by court architects such as Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli . Rastrelli's work at palaces such as the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg and the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo incorporated many features of western European rococo architecture, including grand rooms ornamented with gold leaf, mirrors, and large windows for natural light on

7304-603: Was much lighter and decorative. The Prince-Bishop imported the Italian Rococo painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo in 1750 – 1753 to create a mural over the top of the three-level ceremonial stairway. Neumann described the interior of the residence as "a theatre of light". The stairway was also the central element in a residence Neumann built at the Augustusburg Palace in Brühl (1743 – 1748). In that building

7392-557: Was one of the first to create a Rococo building in Germany, with the pavilion of Amalienburg in Munich, (1734 – 1739), inspired by the pavilions of the Trianon and Marly in France. It was built as a hunting lodge, with a platform on the roof for shooting pheasants. The Hall of Mirrors in the interior, by the painter and stucco sculptor Johann Baptist Zimmermann , was far more exuberant than any French Rococo. Another notable example of

7480-552: Was painted by Sir James Thornhill , the first British born painter to be knighted and is a classic example of the Baroque style popular in the early 18th century. The American 19th-century still-life painter William Harnett specialized in trompe-l'œil . In the 20th century, from the 1960s on, the American Richard Haas and many others painted large trompe-l'œil murals on the sides of city buildings. From

7568-409: Was referred to as empfindsamer Stil ("sensitive style"). It can be characterized as light, intimate music with extremely elaborate and refined forms of ornamentation . Exemplars include Jean Philippe Rameau , Louis-Claude Daquin and François Couperin in France; in Germany, the style's main proponents were C. P. E. Bach and Johann Christian Bach , two sons of J.S. Bach . In the second half of

7656-537: Was the closest to the Rococo style, In 1754 he published "Gentleman's and Cabinet-makers' directory", a catalogue of designs for rococo, chinoiserie and even Gothic furniture, which achieved wide popularity, going through three editions. Unlike French designers, Chippendale did not employ marquetry or inlays in his furniture. The predominant designer of inlaid furniture were Vile and Cob, the cabinet-makers for King George III . Another important figure in British furniture

7744-419: Was the first appearance in print of the term rocaille to designate the style. The carved or moulded seashell motif was combined with palm leaves or twisting vines to decorate doorways, furniture, wall panels and other architectural elements. The term rococo was first used in print in 1825 to describe decoration which was "out of style and old-fashioned". It was used in 1828 for decoration "which belonged to

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