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03 · Renaissance, Baroque & Rococo

Rococo

c. 1720–1780

Baroque gone lightweight: pastel walls, gilded curling stucco, mirrors, and playful shell-like ornament.

Look for

Organic ornament Stucco wall Symmetrical facade
Wieskirche, Steingaden, Germany: an example of Rococo architecture
Wieskirche, Steingaden, Germany. Photo: Mattana, Public domain
Amalienburg, Munich, Germany
Amalienburg Munich, Germany · Flocci Nivis, CC BY 4.0
Ottobeuren Abbey, Ottobeuren, Germany
Ottobeuren Abbey Ottobeuren, Germany · Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0
Catherine Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Russia
Catherine Palace Tsarskoye Selo, Russia · Alexander2018, CC BY-SA 4.0
Asamkirche, Munich, Germany
Asamkirche Munich, Germany · Wikiolo, derivative work Lämpel, CC BY-SA 4.0

what it is

Rococo is an 18th-century decorative style used mostly for interiors. Walls are lined with carved and gilded wood paneling and plaster ornament built from asymmetrical C- and S-shaped scrolls, shells and leaves. This shell motif, called rocaille in French, gave the style its name. Colors are light: white, pale blue, green and pink, with gold. Mirrors are set into the paneling, many rooms are oval, and ceiling paintings sit inside curving plaster frames.

In Paris, Germain Boffrand's oval Salon de la Princesse at the Hôtel de Soubise (1735-1740) has gilded carving and mirror glass set into its paneling. François de Cuvilliés built the Amalienburg, a hunting lodge in the park of Nymphenburg Palace in Munich (1734-1739), and Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann's Wieskirche in Bavaria (completed 1754) applies white and gold plasterwork to a pilgrimage church with an oval plan. Baroque used the same building forms; Rococo changed the surface ornament and the colors.

how to spot one

Organic ornament Decoration based on plant forms such as vines, leaves and flowers, often with curving lines. It is a main feature of Art Nouveau, about 1890 to 1910, and of Louis Sullivan's buildings. Stucco wall A wall coated with stucco, a plaster of cement or lime, sand and water, finished smooth or textured. It is common on Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Symmetrical facade A facade, or main front, whose left and right halves mirror each other, usually with the main door at the center. It is standard on Georgian, Federal, Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts buildings.

Also look for

BalustradeMansard roofPediment

history

Rococo developed in Paris in the 1730s among designers reacting against the formal style of Louis XIV's court. The word comes from rocaille, the French term for shell and pebble work in garden grottoes. Jean Mondon published the first design book to use it, Premier Livre de forme rocquaille et cartel, in 1736. Nicolas Pineau and Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier designed paneling, furniture and silver in the new manner, and Boffrand applied it to complete rooms.

The style had its largest architectural use in southern Germany and Austria, where Cuvilliés, the Zimmermann brothers and others decorated palaces and pilgrimage churches in the 1740s and 1750s. In Potsdam, Frederick the Great's summer palace of Sanssouci (Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1745-1747) is the main example of Frederician Rococo, a variant named for the king. By the early 1760s critics including Voltaire and the architect Jacques-François Blondel attacked Rococo as superficial. The excavations at Herculaneum (from 1738) and Pompeii (from 1748) turned taste toward ancient models, and by about 1785 Neoclassicism had replaced Rococo in France.

where to find it

The Wieskirche and the Amalienburg in Bavaria, Sanssouci in Potsdam, and grand townhouse interiors in Paris.

easy to confuse with

St Peter's Basilica, an example of Baroque Baroque Theatrical classicism: curved facades, giant columns rising through several stories, and dramatic staged light. Casa Batlló, an example of Art Nouveau Art Nouveau Whiplash curves and plant-like ironwork: facades that look grown rather than built.