Rococo Style
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Rococo. The very term has become commonplace as the synonym for "decorative," "frilly" and "frivolous" art. That in itself is a step up from its origins as a derogatory term derived from the French word rocaille. The original invention of the term in the early 1800s was essentially a caricature, a satirical disparagement which consigned the entire Rococo period (circa 1680-1775) to being little more than an architectural style of playful decoration. Likewise, our contemporary art historians and critics are rarely kind to the Rococo style - and are particularly hard on its artists. "The eighteenth century," one college text proclaims, "did not produce a single figure in the visual arts to rank with the universal masters of previous epochs." Like all such sweeping generalizations, both criticisms - new and old - miss key elements in the character of Rococo style and its artists. This is particularly so in the field of painting. Rococo painting was an important and necessary transitional period in the history of painting. Moreover, concentrating only upon the French Rococo painters,* one finds in the works of Francois Boucher and Jean-Honore Fragonard a combination of style and techniques that belie surface "frivolity" with a subtext of closely-detailed observations on human relationships, emotions and sensuality. It will be the aim of this essay to describe the necessary place Rococo style has in the evolution of painting by using the examples of Boucher and Fragona
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ouis XV's reign, an era of politico-philosophical debate that still strongly influences the modern social dialogue. The North American colonies - hotly contested by the French and English - provided an influx of wealth and an outlet for social dissidents. Moreover, while Louis XIV had forced the nobility into residence in Versailles, the French bourgeois (particularly in Paris) had the opportunity to grow and prosper. With Louis XV's ascension to the throne, the nobility drifted back to Paris, where now resided a nouveau riche class willing to partake of the aristocrats' art.
New buyers means new standards; better yet for experimental-minded painters, there was now less insistence upon old standards. As part of his consolidation of power, Louis XIV had sponsored the founding of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648. As with its literary companion, the Academie Francaise, the Royal Academy was the arbiter of officially approved standards in art. When Charles Lebrune (1619-1690) became the Academy's director in 1663, he established a rigid curriculum of compulsory instruction in practice and theory, based on a system of "rules"; this set the pattern for all later academies, including the French art schools of to
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4007
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)
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