The Enlightenment and Its Legacy: Art Of the Late 18th Century through the Mid-19th Century
	Rococo: The French Taste :: The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society :: The Enlightenment: Science and Technology :: Voltaire Versus Rousseau: Science Versus the Taste For the "Natural" :: The Revival of Interest in Classicism :: From Neoclassicism to Romanticism :: The Rise of Romanticism :: Imagination and Mood in Landscape Painting :: Various Revivalist Styles in Architecture :: The Beginnings of Photography		Images courtesy of Saskia Ltd.
	ROCOCO: THE FRENCH TASTE In the cultural realm, aristocrats reestablished their predominance as art patrons. The French Rococo exterior was often simple or even plain, but Rococo exuberance took over the interior. A permanently festive  room: Comparing the Salon de la Princesse in the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris to the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles reveals how Boffrand softened the strong architectural lines and panels of the earlier style into flexible, sinuous curves luxuriantly multiplied in mirror reflections.
	28-1: GERMAIN BOFFRAND, Salon de la Princesse, with painting by CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE and sculpture by J. B. LEMOINE, Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, France, 1737-1740. Salon de la Princesse French Rococo in Germany: Although Rococo was essentially a style of interior design, the Amalienburg beautifully harmonizes the interior and exterior elevations through the curving flow of lines and planes that cohere in a sculptural unity of great elegance.
	28-2: FRANÇOIS DE CUVILLIÈS, Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, Nymphenburg Palace park, Munich, Germany, early eighteenth century. Hall of Mirrors Hall of Mirrors A delicate dancer: The painter whom scholars most associate with French Rococo is ANTOINE WATTEAU. The differences between the Baroque age in France and the Rococo age can be seen clearly by contrasting Rigaud's portraits of Louis XIV with one of Watteau's paintings, L'Indifferént. Watteau's painting is not as heavy or staid and is more delicate.
	28-3: ANTOINE WATTEAU, L'Indifférent, ca. 1716. Oil on canvas, approx. 10'  x' 7 . Louvre, Paris. L'Indifférent L'Indifférent WATTEAU Celebrating the good life: Watteau was largely responsible for creating a specific type of Rococo painting, called a féte galante painting. These paintings depicted the outdoor entertainment or amusements of upper-class society. 28-4: ANTOINE WATTEAU, Return from Cythera, 1717-1719. Oil on canvas, approx. 4' 3" x 6' 4". Louvre, Paris. Return from Cythera Return from Cythera Return form Cythera Return from Cythera A playful Rococo fantasy: Boucher was an excellent portraitist, but his fame rested primarlily on his graceful allegories 28-5: FRANÇOIS BOUCHER, Cupid a Captive, 1754. Oil on canvas, approx. 5' 6" x 2' 10". The Wallace Collection, London. BOUCHER BOUCHER An intriguing flirtation: Boucher's student, JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD, was a first rate colorist whose decorative skill almost surpassed his master's. 28-6: JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD, The Swing, 1766. Oil on canvas, approx. 2' 11" x 2' 8". The Wallace Collection, London. The Swing The Swing The Swing The Swing The Swing Echoes of Bernini in Rococo: The Rococo mood of sensual intimacy also permeated many of the small sculptures designed for the 18th-century salons. 28-7: CLODION, Nymph and Satyr, ca. 1775. Terracotta, approx. 1' 11  high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913). Nymph and Satyr Nymph and Satyr
	Rococo: The French Taste :: The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society :: The Enlightenment: Science and Technology :: Voltaire Versus Rousseau: Science Versus the Taste For the "Natural" :: The Revival of Interest in Classicism :: From Neoclassicism to Romanticism :: The Rise of Romanticism :: Imagination and Mood in Landscape Painting :: Various Revivalist Styles in Architecture :: The Beginnings of Photography