Rococoo

General Rococo was born in France in the early 18th -century. It all began in the court of Ludvig XIV.  The word rococoo is related as a combination of the French rocaille (stone) and coquilles (shell), due to reliance on these objects as decorative motifs. Name was originally mocking name. It was a backlash for academic arts and it spread to rest of the Europe in the middle of the 18th-century. Rococoos art got influenced from gothic - , Chinese style and Italian baroque. Rococoo was preceded by Baroque. Rococoos central aspirations were lightness, amenity, spontaneity,  breaking the rules of picturecomposition and liberation academic arts convention.

Topics Art of rococoo is mainly used in profane matters. Popular were portraits-, allegorical naked-, antiquity mythologias fantasy characters- and idyllic landscape-topics. Additionally histrionic and sometimes eroticheather fetes galantes - paints, which were pictured fashion-conscious groups amusement in outside were popular topics.

Central artists Visual art: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)                   Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)                   Jean-Baptiste Chardin (1699-1779)                    Francois Boucher (1703-1770)                    Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788 Architecture: Germain Boffrand (1667-1754)                    Matthaus Daniel Pöppelmann (1662-1736)    Central artworks? Visual arts: Jean-Honoré Fragonard: Suprise (1771-1772). Architecture: Matthaus Daniel Pöppelmann: Pavilion (Zwinger), Dresden (1711-1722).    

Women in Rococoo Women tried to make their torso to look smaller than their emphasized lower body. Women shoes were not made for walking. Shoes were only made for sitting in salong. Connecting characteristics of rococo were lightness and cuteness as well as light and pastel shades . Women made their eyebrows and eyelips look darker. They powdered their face almost white and made their cheek reddish. And red lipstick was popular. Their hairstyles were pretentious.

Men in Rococoo Also, men's clothes were colorful and decorative , such as women. Generally men clothes contain long- sleeve, vest, breeches and jacket. Wealthy men also used make-up. Men clothes were darker than women clothes. Men’s common hairstyle was medium long, slightly wavy hair Wigs were also used by men. Undershirt was usually white and there was decorative neck both wide and decorative arm. 

Hercules and Omphale François Lemoyne (Paris, 1688 - Paris, 1737) Hercules has fallen under the spell of Omphale, Queen of Lydia, and is reduced to spinning wool, spindle and distaff in hand. Omphale is wearing the hero's lion skin and is clasping his club in an extremely suggestive manner. The sensuality and vibrancy of the painting reflect the influence of Venetian art. Painting people's clothing is revealing.  Thin women were respected.

The Bathers Jean Honore Fragonard’s The Bathers is located on the second floor of the Sully wing in the Louvre. One of the prime examples of late Rococo style, the painting of Bathers it believed to be painted in 1763 upon Fragonard’s return from Italy.

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