In today’s class we started talking about the Rococo period of art in the 18th century. After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the world of art shifted. Louis is the longest reigning monarch in all of history and so his death signified an important end to classicism art and moved to a new style called Rococo. We started looking at some interior spaces in the 18th century which are considerably different than what we know today. The uses of the beautiful gold accents tables and chairs and white walls with organic, arabesque, and scroll like designs compare very differently to the 17th century Baroque period.
Looking more into the artwork of the Rococo period, the style of painting changes from using line to only using paint which creates a airbrush, blended painting. In Rococo paintings the use of pastels is very prominent, we will not see any harsh reds, or blues like in the 17the century. A painting I particularly enjoyed was the The Swing made by Jean Honoré Fragonard in 1767. Even though there is an erotic meaning behind it, I really enjoy the color palette and how whimsical and as used in class “fluffy” the painting is.