Rococo is going to be far less formal, but it's still a style of the aristocracy. And really, it's all about living the luxury of the French aristocracy. At least, that's how we tend to think of it.
It's characterized by elaborate, ornamental, late-broke style of decoration, prevalent and... in the 18th century. Really, we're looking at the time frame between about 1700 and about 1750, give or take.
Of course, these things are usually a lot muddier than that, but you get the idea. We tend to see asymmetrical patterns. We don't have the same symmetry that we had in the Baroque, and we see motifs and scroll work, which we've covered a lot of already under the Baroque. So, what is the Rococo?
It is... lighter than the Baroque, and we'll see that a lot. For example, here we see Watteau's pilgrimage to Scythria.
This is a classic Rococo painting, and what we get is this very light-hearted view of the world. At least, it's light-hearted if you happen to be a member of the French aristocracy. The Rococo comes out of this leisure and pastime that the aristocracy has.
It's why it centers so much on... Parisian hotel culture where many of these people are going to be hanging out, where many of them are going to be staying on a fairly regular basis. We see a very fanciful sort of form and this constant interest in what the aristocracy does with their free time. Now, with that said, you could imagine how the working and lower middle classes think of the Rococo. They're not going to be terribly keen on it, and it's going to be a sign of the division that takes place in France during the 18th century between the upper classes and the lower classes, which will eventually lead to the French Revolution.
But we go back to Louis XIV. Now, in 1701, he has his apartment at Versailles redecorated in a more graceful style than the Baroque, and this becomes known as the Rococo. And what we see is a lot of decoration, but it takes on a more lighthearted form. The sculptural qualities are there, but they tend to be toned down a little bit. We see a lot of glitz, a lot of gold.
We see things that are over the top, but in a little more subdued manner. In Italy, when we look at Rococo art and architecture, what we see is something that has been really dialed back from the pomp and circum, well not the pomp and circumstance, but the drama in theatricality. reality of the Baroque.
We still have some element of drama, but we're lacking that constant contrast between light and shadow, that constant drama through theatrical lighting that we tend to see in Italy. Italy during the Baroque, it's all dialed back in Rococo. So you get these very light colored schemes where we see more pastels than black and white. Now in England, the Rococo takes on a different form. It's going to be concurrent with the revival of Gothic architecture, resulting in this odd mix of Rococo, Oriental, and Gothic influence.
Although what we're going to see primarily, or focus on primarily, is going to be Queen Anne in Chippendale. design, which are various furniture forms. Now, when Queen Anne dies without children, the closest Protestant contender for the throne will be George of Hanover, who gives us the Hanovers, which will eventually become the Windsors, the Curbs.
monarchs of England. So, Rococo characteristics. We tend to see Rococo furniture being smaller. So, it's going to be smaller compared to the Baroque pieces.
They tend to be lighter, and that's because of the materials, using things like mahogany, which are lighter and stronger woods. We're going to see a lot of soft pastel colors, delicate and slightly asymmetrical forms and decorative motifs. A lot of flowing S and C curves in curvilinear design. And again, the Rococo is existing alongside the Baroque. We sort of have, we like to divide it into the Baroque and the Rococo, but you could easily look at the...
this is a single movement, kind of changing tack over time. Very similar to if you look at art in the Renaissance, and we cover it in three, four, five chapters, when you could actually boil it all down if you really wanted to. So we're seeing the same thing here.
The Baroque and the Rococo are basically the same ideas, but by the time we get to the Rococo, it is so different from the Baroque where we started that we term it a different movement.