 This lecture is entitled Introduction to Art of the Rokoko, or Out with Classical Ideals in with Pleasure. Now, the Rokoko, and that's the word you see right here, is a style associated with the period after Louis XIV. And this is a time when the aristocracy had more power. We're not in that same situation we were with Louis XIV, where all of the power is in his hands. The aristocracy, the wealthy, have a little bit more power and aren't caters to their needs and their tastes in this period, in the Rokoko. So, with this period, gone is that authoritative classical style that we associated with Louis XIV. And what moves in is a more intimate style, a style for personal enjoyment. And that is why I have subtitled this lecture, Out with Classical Ideals in with Pleasure. In very broad terms, that's essentially what happens with Rokoko art. Now, we do still see some stories here and there with a more somber tone. And the audience for these works of art, the aristocracy, these really wealthy important people, they were an intellectual audience, but it's a light-heartedness that predominates. And we do not see the bold, authoritative quality of earlier French Baroque art, especially that associated with Louis XIV. Some words you see associated frequently with the Rokoko are fantasy, pleasure, elegance, sensuous, sensual. So, these are big catch words that you should keep in mind as we're studying the Rokoko. Now, I have this image up on the screen, this image of an inside of a room, because the Rokoko actually began as a style of interior decoration. So, this is obviously a useful place to start. And this is the Salon de la Princesse, and it's in the Hotel Subis. Let me write that down. Salon de la, and it's in the Hotel Subis, and it dates, let me write this down here, 1737-40. Now, this would have been a room in the residence of a wealthy or aristocratic French person. Notice how everything in this shot here of this room is very curvilinear. There's a fluid, almost organic quality to this room. Organic. And by organic, I mean natural, of the natural world. Instead of the emphasis on really hard lines, hard architectural columns and pilasters and tablatures, these really straight lines, there's almost an attempt to create a room that feels like a grotto, a natural space, a place overrun with vines and flowers and natural hard forms like shells and pebbles. Again, back to that fantasy, a sense that this is a fantasy space. Before I move on, I just wanted to also say that you often hear the Rococo described as a feminine style. And women in this period, there were influential aristocratic women who were patrons of this kind of art. And this room, Salon de la Princesse, this was a room of a woman. So that's another thing to keep in mind as we move forward. Okay, so on the screen right now, you're looking at two sort of quintessential examples of Rococo painting. I said Rococo began as interior design, but it did move on and informed the styles of other works of art as well, including painting, as you can see here. So over here on the left, we have a work by Boucher, and this is the Toilet of Venus, which should be a familiar subject to you by now, and it dates to 1751. On the right, we have a work by Fragonard, and this is known as The Swing, and it dates to 1767. Now, both of these, I think you can see right away, we've got something new going on in the art. These look quite different than the paintings we saw in France under Louis XIV. And not only in the way they're painted, but also the subject matter is consistently more lighthearted. And in both of these paintings, and this is another hallmark of Rococo art, are themes of love and eroticism. Love, eroticism. So on the left is the Toilet of Venus, so this is Venus here, a nude goddess surrounded by these little chubby, cupid figures. And on the right is The Swing, and in The Swing we see a beautifully dressed young woman on a swing, her lover seated beneath her, sneakily taking a glance up her skirt. We've got a cupid statue up here with his finger to his lips saying, shh, you know, this is a secretive encounter between these two lovers. So very lighthearted themes in both of these, very erotic in different ways. We have a nude figure here, but we have a lot of suggestiveness over here. So we've made a real departure from these noble, heroic, classical themes that were favored in Louis XIV's time. And again, style is different as well. We have curving lines throughout both of these paintings. It's almost hard to find a straight line anywhere. There's an X-shaped composition. You can see kind of diagonals here and here, and also here and here. So these are two hallmarks of Rococo painting. There's also a very different use of color in these paintings than what we saw in previous French art. There's a much softer color palette with these pastel pinks and blues. Even the use of light is softer. And there's just sort of this general sense of intimacy. Instead of the very grandiose, imposing images of the heroic, classical world, we have these really intimate and even approachable images of love and beauty. Now, before we finish today, I just wanted to show this example on the left by Francois Boucher in comparison to an earlier version of the same subject. So here we are. And again, this is the Toilet de Venus that we just looked at by Boucher. And over here on the right, you should hopefully remember this is Vouer's Toilet de Venus from 1629. Now, this is an interesting comparison because it's the exact same subject matter. And there's a lot of similarities in terms of what's depicted, the location, all of that. But I think what's really telling about this comparison is the way in which the story is told, the way the artists have handled the paint, the lines, the color, the lighting. So I want you to take a second and just look at this and think about, you know, what are some real differences here? I mean, I think you can see right away that there are differences, but how are those differences achieved? Well, one thing that I noticed right away is the use of line in Vouer's painting. There's a much clearer, sharper distinction between spaces and the lines are much sharper and clearer. You know, look for example at Venus' leg here, right? You can see a real clear distinction. Whereas the lines in Boucher's painting are kind of soft and blend into one another, which kind of goes along with the softness of color, softness of light. Everything is sort of touchable and sensuous in Boucher's painting, whereas there's a more clear line and almost a more intellectual quality to Vouer's. And this is really the heart of what Rococo is interested in and how it achieves that.