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Transcript:

So let's start with the early part of the 1700s, and they appeared in art that emerges out of France called the Rococo. The Rococo is in many ways an offshoot and a continuation of the big art movement of the 17th century, the Baroque. In fact, the term Rococo is a play on the word Baroque, Baroque Coco you can sort of hear you can hear the root word in there. So what happens is this, Louis the Louis XIV of France the Sun King, you and you remember this guy let's see what I am the state, dies and remember he had moved most of the bulk of his court out to Versailles so he could maintain complete control well after his death many members of the court move back to France.

So these wealthy aristocratic French courtiers move back to Paris I should say not France they're already in France move back to Paris and they start to build these large urban palaces known as hotels so this is where we get our modern word hotel but this term the term hotel use at this time has a slightly different meaning. Think of these large mansions with multiple rooms, you know that were kind of like you know urban palaces, they weren't places where you could rent rooms nightly but certainly visitors would come and stay you know these these houses were meant for hosting huge events and and gatherings and things like that. In fact, one of the kinds of gatherings that we're going to see really become a central part of Parisian life called salons that occur in these hotels.

Salons think of them as sort of like dinner parties or cocktail parties where the sort of upper upper classes the elite sort of citizens of Paris and really France would come and and meet and hang out and talk. These were places where you were meant to be seen the style of the Rococo is very extravagant it's sort of whimsical it's sort of frivolous, the clothing of this period is very very over the top, the there's sort of a emphasis on on sort of really nice materials silks and velvets and things like that the clothes were meant to show off one's wealth if you were part of the sort of upper crust of course you've seen like the large powdered wigs that people would wear high heels were also very much in fashion, although it had shifted from men's fashion in the 1600s to women's fashion in the 1700s high heels had the colors tended to be very bright and bold but also very soft colors like pastels pinks and blues and pale greens and things like that but everything is meant to kind of show off one's wealth and one's taste.

But think of these salons as more than just sort of a place where you go to be seen although that's a big part of it it was a place where you could also hear the latest gossip but also the latest news and more importantly sort of exchange the latest ideas and and many of the people who would show up at these salons weren't just sort of members of the upper crust but they're also philosophers and university professors and inventors would come and sort of at the center of all of this activity at these at these salons is are what are known as the femme savants fem savants it literally means learned women or educated women and these were sort of the the powerful elite aristocratic women who would host these salons who were sort of the heads of these the matriarchs of these powerful French aristocratic families for example Marie Antoinette the queen the queen of France but there were a whole other host of these of these women and they many of these women were highly educated themselves you know the French aristocratic women at this time were expected to be not only educated but knowledgeable about world events they were also expected to be very cultured so most many of these women knew how to play instruments many of them multiple instruments they were trained in singing often from a young age they often were also trained in other artistic pursuits like painting and drawing and things like that not as a career choice but as a way of sort of enriching their lives but these these women were often incredibly educated and and well-informed and they were often responsible for inviting some of these big thinkers and this is going to have a huge effect later on this big movement we call the enlightenment.

So what you you got a little bit of the taste of the clothing so I think you can understand what the style is of the of the Rococo it's very much an offshoot of the Baroque and if we look at this image this is the Salon de la Princess this is a salon room in one of the hotels of one of these French and and you can see here it's very over the top in its decoration it's very ornate very much in continuation of the Baroque but I would say even more ornate and also a little frillier you know I think the best way to sort of differentiate between the Baroque and the Rococo are the colors the colors of the Rococo tend to be lighter but just in general it's a it's a sort of a frillier, happier, sweeter, cuter kind of version. I sort of see it as like the Baroque is kind of the more serious, kind of grumpy, version, often violent, often intense, whereas the Rococo is sort of sweet and funny and a little cute even. But also an element of the Rococo is that the style of decoration and design is all integrated. If you look at this room of the Salon de la Princess you'll see that the sculpture and the painting and the decorative elements are all integrated they're not separated the paintings aren't like framed and hung on the wall next to a sculpture that's sitting sort of away from it on a pedestal but instead it's like the entire room is a work of art and you can imagine what these salons were like with these men and women and their extravagant outfits sort of parading around in the in these over-the-top luxurious decorative kinds of rooms. The whole it's like the the culture is about an aesthetic kind of presentation isn't it right. Okay and here's just a close-up so you can see just the incredible detail.

If you wanted to sort of narrow down the Rococo to one painting this is a good place to start I think this is a work by Jean Honore Fragonard and it is called The Swing and it is a rather humorous piece like a lot of Rococo art is very funny it's very kind of frivolous but also I think it has some insight in its frivolity and its silliness and its humor. This is an image of a wealthy sort of noble woman it very much could be a feminist of all and here she is on her swing and look at this extravagant backyard this is basically her property and it's this beautiful over-the-top sort of French garden with this classical looking sculpture and in the background we see her neighbor this kindly old man as he swings this young sweet noble woman on a swing and it's all very it's all meant to be very sort of family friendly and very quaint and very cute this young beautiful woman and this little kindly old man.

But if you look on the other side on the bottom left-hand corner you can see that there's a young gentleman sort of hiding in her bushes and he is looking up as she swings and of course the old man the kindly old neighbor is completely oblivious that this young man is here and this man is well he's seeing a lot more than the swing as she swings over him as he peers through her shrubbery and she knows he's there in fact she has playfully kicked off her shoe and it's flying through the air and going to land on his head she's acknowledging that he's there and she's in a way sort of playing with him like yeah I will be seeing you later after the old man leaves here and will well do whatever young men and women do in their spare time I'm sure they were going to play a nice game a monopoly or something like that. So you can see that there is a playfulness here there's a sensuality and a sexuality here I also like the woman is shown with a kind of agency you know a French woman especially at this time of the upper classes if if not holding a lot of power legally and politically and sort of on paper they did exert a lot of control or at least influence let's say that's a better word inference society and I think this shows very much that sort of position of this woman.

This is a Rococo painting by the artist Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun who's one of the great artists of the Rococo she was trained by her father as many of these women painters were as you know this is of her friend the queen of France Marie Antoinette and of course you know you probably know a little bit about Marie Antoinette very famously you know said let them eat cake sorry I heard a sound outside my window during the French Revolution and was beheaded there was very much a feeling in among the French population that the monarchy had sort of lost touch with the needs of the people and and some would argue that their rule was downright disastrous and that many people suffered and were living in poverty because of the greed of the upper classes and this will eventually at the end of the century lead to revolution and so what we see here is kind of an image that is meant to play down the kind of frivolity often associated with the Rococo.

this is a very late Rococo work and then this Marie Antoinette who is really sort of known as this you know kind of party girl who was known for taking on many sort of lovers and having all sorts of affairs you know on the side and it's meant to show her as a very serious sort of mother kind of figure and in fact it's meant to evoke sympathy we see a bassinet with a black curtain that has been pulled back and of course curtains being pulled back revealed the truth and the truth is that Marie Antoinette had a child who had died and I can't remember if it if the child died in childbirth or shortly thereafter but it's meant to sort of evoke sympathy and Norton is telling me things are safe so that's good it is meant to evoke sympathy and it's meant to evoke also this idea that this is a woman who is a good mother and it is meant to show a very different side of her as the French population is becoming more and more and more dissatisfied with the French monarchy this is a little bit of propaganda.