Rococo in the painting. Representatives of rococo in painting and their paintings

In the visual arts there are many directions. Most often, a new style arises on the basis of an already existing one, and for a while they develop in parallel. For example, Rococo in the painting of Western Europe was formed on the basis of pompous and lush baroque.

However, the emergence of a new style, as it often happens, was first met critically. Rococo was accused of lack of taste, frivolity and even immorality. Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny his contribution to the further development of the visual arts.

Birth of a new direction

In France, in the 17th century, it became fashionable to decorate parks with stylized grottos with stucco decorations, which were shells with interwoven plant stems. Over time, this decorative element became the dominant ornamental motif, although it underwent significant changes.

By the beginning of the next century, it was difficult to recognize the familiar shell, rather it resembled a curiously curved curl. Therefore the French word rocaille has acquired a wider meaning. Now under it meant not only a stone or a shell, but all pretentious and wriggling.

Louis XV inherited the throne in 1715, so the Rococo style in painting is sometimes called his name. Indeed, the chronological framework of the king's rule and the development of a new stylistic direction coincide. And since France in the beginning of the XVIII century. Was the undisputed trendsetter, the rococo enthusiasm soon embraced the whole of Europe.

Features of style

The art of baroque, originated in Italy in the XVII century, was distinguished primarily by its majesty. However, it was not widely spread in France, although some of its features can be traced in the rococo style. For example, both directions are decorative and saturated, the only difference is that the rockylnaya splendor is elegant and relaxed, and the baroque is energetic and tense.

Interestingly, the previous styles originally arose in architecture, and then spread in sculpture, decoration and painting. With rococo everything was the other way around. This direction first developed in the design of the interiors of aristocratic boudoirs and living rooms. It had an impact on the development of applied and decorative art, almost without affecting the architecture of exteriors.

Rococo in painting is an image of gallant scenes from the life of the aristocracy. There is no place for cruel realities, religious motives, glorification of power and heroism. The canvases depict romantic courtship with a touch of eroticism against the backdrop of pastoral landscapes. Another characteristic feature of the style is the lack of a sense of time.

The ideological basis of the French Rococo

Hedonism with its desire for pleasure as the highest good and the meaning of life along with individualism became the main philosophy of the French aristocracy of the XVIII century. He also defined the emotional basis of the Rococo style in painting, expressed in playful grace, sweet whims and lovely little things.

It is not by chance that the mythical island of Kiefer became the favorite allegory of rococo - a place where pilgrims searching for sensual pleasures rush. This land area in the middle of the Aegean Sea does exist.

Here, according to ancient Greek mythology, the beautiful Aphrodite was born. Here, the cult of the goddess of love was formed, which later spread throughout Greece. Fans of Aphrodite came to the island to make sacrifices in the sanctuary, arranged in her honor.

In the era of the Rococo, Kiefer symbolized a paradise for lovers who went to an imaginary island to the temple of Venus. There reigned a refined eroticism, eternal holidays and idleness. On Kiefer, women are young and beautiful, and men are exceptionally gallant.

From the palace to the private sitting room

The trend towards intimate interior design was already apparent at the beginning of the 18th century. Aristocratic salons and boudoir private houses, where the main role played by women, have become centers for the formation of gallant culture and the corresponding rules of conduct.

A whole army of French jewelers, furniture makers, tailors, painters and decorators was ready to satisfy any requests of capricious customers. The rococo style was primarily dictated by Queen Maria Leshchinskaya and the favorites of Louis XV: Countess Du Barry and the Marquis de Pompadour.

Wall plafonds and panels, as well as picturesque compositions above the openings of windows and doors, were the main types of fine art. Now, except for the royal court and the church prelates, the new aristocracy and representatives of the third estate ordered decorative paintings for their living rooms.

Genres and stories

Despite the new ideas, the rococo in painting did not completely reject the traditional themes developed in the past. For example, mythological subjects continued to be used, only now the cupids and nymphs were mostly drawn from the entire ancient pantheon, and Venus rather resembled a secular lady who demonstrated the delights of a naked body in a piquant setting.

Over time, there was a pastoral - a new genre of chamber painting, designed for residential interior. Pastoral paintings in the Rococo style were idyllic rural landscapes, against the background of which the shepherdesses and shepherds play flutes in rich attire, read or dance. Despite the innocent occupation, the whole situation is enveloped in a light florid eroticism.

Pioneer of gallant style

The founder of rococo in painting is Watteau Jean-Antoine. The artist began with imitation Flemish painters, but eventually found his style truly, depicting gallant scenes. His paintings are characterized by a special artistic depth, and not just an image of idle aristocrats flirting in the bosom of nature.

Antoine Watteau painted two canvases on the popular plot of an allegorical trip to the island of lovers. One of them, "Pilgrimage to the island of Kiefer", is exhibited in the Louvre, and another - in Berlin, in the palace of Charlottenburg. Both are a striking example of the rococo style.

Theatricality, characteristic generally for the art of the XVIII century, is particularly noticeable in Watteau's works. For example, in the composition of the composition ("Shepherdess", "On the Champs Elysees"). There is always a foreground here - a kind of scenic stage, and groups of figures are located just like in the theater.

The multifaceted work of Boucher

Of course, Watteau was not the only artist working in a new direction. Francois Boucher is another vivid representative of the French Rococo, whose work most fully reflects the frivolous frivolous hedonism inherent in that era. He carried out the orders of Louis XV, the Marquise de Pompadour, in particular, wrote the famous portrait of the favorite.

Also, Boucher created scenery for operas, engravings for Moliere's books, cartoons for tapestries, sketches for Sevres porcelain, in short, he worked in different directions of fine art.

Antoine Watteau, without knowing it himself, left an imprint on the work of Boucher, who in his youth copied his drawings. Later, Bushe studied baroque technique in Rome, became a professor at the French Academy of Arts, received all-European fame.

His work covers all the themes characteristic of the painting of rococo: mythology, village fairs, allegories, Chinese sketches, plots from the fashionable Parisian life, pastorales, portraits and landscapes.

Representatives of rococo in painting

Fragonard Jean Honore, one of the largest French artists of the 18th century, created paintings with playful erotic motives. These are, for example, "Swing", "Kiss Furtively," "Two Girls", "Odalisque," etc.

His paintings, full of sensual bliss, are distinguished by subtle black and white effects, a lightly picturesque manner, decorative color. The style of Fragonard changed over time. If the canvas "Zadvizhka" traces the classical manner, then in the portraits written in the 1760s, a noticeably romantic influence.

Another prominent representative of rock painting was Nicolas Lancre, who did much to spread French taste in Europe. His paintings were readily bought by Catherine II, Friedrich II of Prussia, not counting private collectors - admirers of the Rococo style.

Pictures of famous artists of that time are now exhibited in the largest museums of the world. Although critics in different ways assess the aesthetics of rococo, it is nonetheless impossible to deny the original originality of this style, which has no prototypes in history.