I have been learning about Renaissance art, neo-classical and Rococo art in my history of art lectures every Monday afternoon. For some reason, I just cannot become interested in it really. However, on this post, I am going to be writing about Rococo art.
Rococo was a new style of art that emerged during the early years of the 1700s, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV(who died in 1715). Rococo was the new art style that painted the life of the aristocrats and pushed out the art style of Poussin that had governed the art of the past 50 years in France. The palace of Versailles (commissioned by Louis XIV) was abandoned by the aristocracy, who took up residence in Paris. The palace of Versailles was very orderly and rational with its arches, windows and chandeliers all equally placed- this says a lot about the art style and the way of the rich back then. Even today the palace is notorious for being very decadent, Dior even filmed their J'adore Dior advert in the palace of Versailles in 2016.
Rococo art documented the life of the aristocracy (Who had enormous political power and wealth at this point) and many of these rich and powerful people chose leisure as a pursuit and became involved with very romantic stories and things. We need to remember that the aristocracy was a very small amount of people in France at the time yet owned over 90% of the wealth and as you can imagine the growing middle class will not sit idly by for long watching this go down (french revolution of 1789).
The Swing- Fragonard
The subject of this painting is of a husband pushing his wife on a swing as her lover hides in the bushes, the main idea is that as she swings high in the air she can part her legs and show her lover up her skirt- naughty.
The two lovers are in a lovely flowering garden which to me looks like a secret garden with its beautiful mysterious colours and lighting, hinting more towards what is going on in the piece. As you begin to look closer into this painting you notice a few things. There are sculptures in the garden which intrigued me because when you look closely you can see one of them "hushing" about what is actually going on at the time, and further in the background, you can see two little cupid sculptures as well which symbolizes the lovers in the garden. I like the use of colour in this piece, all of the pastel colours and the pinks of her clothes make you imagine how rich the couple must be to afford such fabrics in that time. This style of painting was soon to be condemned (by the philosophers of the enlightenment) though, due to the fact you can see up her skirt and her stockings and garter...
Rococo was a new style of art that emerged during the early years of the 1700s, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV(who died in 1715). Rococo was the new art style that painted the life of the aristocrats and pushed out the art style of Poussin that had governed the art of the past 50 years in France. The palace of Versailles (commissioned by Louis XIV) was abandoned by the aristocracy, who took up residence in Paris. The palace of Versailles was very orderly and rational with its arches, windows and chandeliers all equally placed- this says a lot about the art style and the way of the rich back then. Even today the palace is notorious for being very decadent, Dior even filmed their J'adore Dior advert in the palace of Versailles in 2016.
Rococo art documented the life of the aristocracy (Who had enormous political power and wealth at this point) and many of these rich and powerful people chose leisure as a pursuit and became involved with very romantic stories and things. We need to remember that the aristocracy was a very small amount of people in France at the time yet owned over 90% of the wealth and as you can imagine the growing middle class will not sit idly by for long watching this go down (french revolution of 1789).
The Swing- Fragonard
The subject of this painting is of a husband pushing his wife on a swing as her lover hides in the bushes, the main idea is that as she swings high in the air she can part her legs and show her lover up her skirt- naughty.
The two lovers are in a lovely flowering garden which to me looks like a secret garden with its beautiful mysterious colours and lighting, hinting more towards what is going on in the piece. As you begin to look closer into this painting you notice a few things. There are sculptures in the garden which intrigued me because when you look closely you can see one of them "hushing" about what is actually going on at the time, and further in the background, you can see two little cupid sculptures as well which symbolizes the lovers in the garden. I like the use of colour in this piece, all of the pastel colours and the pinks of her clothes make you imagine how rich the couple must be to afford such fabrics in that time. This style of painting was soon to be condemned (by the philosophers of the enlightenment) though, due to the fact you can see up her skirt and her stockings and garter...
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