18th Century Art #12

For a while the Baroque style dominated the art world, with its heavy subject of drama, violence, and religion. Artists eventually started to move away from the seriousness and wanted to find the playful and youthful side of life.

            This new idea of youthful art became known as the age of Rococo, during the 18^th century. The transition from Baroque to Rococo involved the use of more emotion and brighter colors. After the death of King Louis XIV, and the rise of the middle class people developed a new perspective on fashion and art, they then became interested in redecorating their houses with a more feminine and subtle home décor rather than the rich colors of fabrics like velvet and fine metals, which was popular during the Baroque period. The new interior design style involved the use of curved forms like shells, plants and rocks along with delicate pastel color that was used to design furniture and clothe. This popular style then moved into other art forms such as painting and sculpture.

            The art in this period was full of elegance, lush gardens, extravagant clothing and soft feminine pastel colors. Most of the paintings seemed to move away from religious subjects, and instead depicted intimate scenes full of love and nature. The first artist to play with this style was with the painting The Pursuit form The Progress of Love by Jean-Honore Fragonard. This painting presented a dream-like scene of a young man chasing after a young girl in a blooming garden in the glowing light.

            Since the art style juristically changed from serious subjects to playful and feminine the subject of the art during the Rococo age became almost controversial at first to many people. A great example why it was viewed as controversial is through the painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau called The Swing. The painting is of a woman being pushed on a swing while a man underneath her looks up her dress while he hides in the bushes. Regardless of the risqué subject matter this painting represents everything the Rococo age was about. 

The Swing by Jean-Honore, 1767

Happy Lovers by Jean-Honore Fragonard, 1760-65

The Pursuit from the Progress of Love by Jean-Honore Fragonard, 1773