Art in the service of
Absolutism: “The Sun King”
Ruled for over 72 years
HYACINTHE RIGAUD (French,
1659-1743) Louis XIV (1638 –
1715), 1701. Oil on canvas,
approx. 9’ 2” x 6’ 3”. Louvre, Paris.
Aerial view of palace at Versailles, France, begun 1669, and a portion of the
gardens and surrounding area.
Plan of the park, palace,
and town of Versailles,
France, (after a
seventeenth-century
engraving).
JULES
HARDOUINMANSART and
CHARLES LE
BRUN, Galerie des
Glaces (Hall of
Mirrors), palace of
Versailles,
Versailles, France,
ca. 1680.
Making nature into art – Gardens of Versailles
Rococo
In architecture, last of the great
pre-modern period styles.
Ornament supercedes structure
GERMAIN BOFFRAND (French Rococo architect, 1667-1754) Salon de la Princesse,
with painting by CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE and sculpture by J. B. LEMOINE, Hôtel
de Soubise, Paris, France, 1737–1740.
Decoration by Francois Boucher (1703-1770) Pastorale, oil on canvas,
Salon de la Princesse, Hotel de Soubise, Paris, 1736-9
FRANÇOIS DE CUVILLIÉS, Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, Nymphenburg Palace park,
Munich, Germany, early 18th century. A hunting lodge for Maria Amalia, Archduchess
of Austria, the wife of Charles VII, Bavarian Rococo
FRANÇOIS DE CUVILLIÉS, Detail of the Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, showing
silver decorative elements in floral and hunting motifs
Bedroom, The Amalienburg, Munich, Bavarian Rococo, with detail of
ornamental ceiling narratives in stucco and fresco.
Exterior, The Amalienburg, Munich
A soup tureen on view in 2008 exhibition, “Rococo: The Continuing Curve, 17302008,” at the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum. Made entirely of silver, it
takes the form of a giant clamshell. On the fluted lid are the ingredients for a stew.
Created between 1735 and 1740 by craftsmen under the direction of Juste-Aurèle
Meissonier (1695-1750) a French goldsmith, sculptor, painter, architect, and
furniture designer, Dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinet du roi; the post of
designer for Louis VX
ANTOINE WATTEAU (FlemishFrench, 1684-1721: 37 years)
L’Indifférent (The Nonchalant Man),
ca. 1716. Oil on canvas, approx. 10”
x 7”. Louvre, Paris. “Rubéniste” A
fashionable man of leisure playing
castanetes at a Fête Galante
HYACINTHE RIGAUD (French) Louis
XIV, 1701 / Baroque
ANTOINE WATTEAU, L’Indifférent
(The Nonchalant Man), ca. 1716 /
Rococo.
ANTOINE WATTEAU, Return from Cythera, 1717–1719. Oil on canvas, approx.
4’ 3” x 6’ 4”. Louvre, Paris. Also known as the Pilgrimage to Cythera.
Rubens (Baroque) was a primary influence
on Watteau (Rococo).
(left) Peter Paul Rubens, The Arrival of Marie de Medici in France, 1622-25. Baroque
(right) Antoine Watteau, Return from Cythera, 1717-19. Rococo
For Boucher, the natural world was "too
green and badly lit.”
FRANÇOIS BOUCHER (French Rococo painter
and decorative artist, 1703-1770), Cupid a
Captive, 1754. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 6” x 2’
10”. The Wallace Collection, London.
FRANÇOIS BOUCHER, Madame de Pompadour, circa 1750
The famous mistress of King Louis XV of France.
Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, painting attributed to Charles-Nicolas Dodin,
porcelain worker, French, Sèvres, about 1760, soft-paste porcelain, polychrome
enamel decoration, gilding. Chinese figures on the sides, copied by Dodin from
Chinese woodcuts of about 1700. Chinoiseries
JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD
(French, 1732-1806), The
Swing, 1766. Oil on canvas,
approx. 2’ 11” x 2’ 8”. The
Wallace Collection, London.
An “intrigue” picture
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The
Secret Meeting, from The
Progress of Love series, 17713, oil on canvas, 10’5” x 8’,
Frick Collection, New York
Enlightenment
18th century French Philosophes – the power of the pen
Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet,
1694-1778) – attacked both state
and church of the “old regime.”
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
created the first encyclopedia
to promote democratization
of knowledge.
Pin making, illustration from Diderot’s Encyclopédie (1762), engraving
JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY (English painter, 1734-1797), A Philosopher Giving
a Lecture at the Orrery (in which a lamp is put in place of the sun), ca. 1763–
1765. Oil on canvas, 4’ 10” x 6’ 8”. Derby Museums and Art Gallery, Derby,
Derbyshire, England. EMPIRICISM – ENLIGHTENMENT SCIENCE AND REASON
A small orrery fromthe mid-18th
century. Solar system conceived
as a giant clock
ABRAHAM DARBY III (English, 1750-1789) and THOMAS F. PRITCHARD
(English, 1723-1777), iron bridge at Coalbrookdale, England (first cast-iron
bridge), 1776–1779. 100’ span.
JEAN-BAPTISTE CHARDIN
(French, 1699-1779), Grace at
Table, 1740. Oil on canvas, 1’
7” x 1’ 3”. Louvre, Paris.
Urban (Parisian) middle class
interior.
(left) Jean-Baptiste Chardin, Saying Grace, 1740. Oil on canvas (right)
Bernard Lépicié, engraving after Chardin’s Saying Grace, 1744. Who were
the buyers for these works? Why is there a caption under the print?
FRANÇOIS BOUCHER (French, 17031770), Cupid a Captive, 1754. Oil on
canvas, approx. 5’ 6” x 2’ 10”.
JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMÉON CHARDIN
(French, 1699-1779), Grace at Table,
1740. Oil on canvas, 1’ 7” x 1’ 3”.
William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764), Breakfast Scene, from Marriage à la
Mode, ca. 1745. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 4” x 3’. National Gallery, London.
Social Satire – artist as moralist. English Rococo
William Hogarth (English, 1697-1764), The Death of the Countess, from The
Marriage-a-la-mode series, 1743-5, oil and engraving . Series was painted to be
reproduced and sold to a large middle-class audience.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze,
Filial Piety (The paralytic)
1763, oil on canvas,
43X57”, The State
Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, Russia
JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE (French, 1725- 1805), The Village Bride, 1761. Oil on
canvas, 3’ x 3’ 10 1/2”. Louvre, Paris. Rousseau’s exaltation of the peasant’s
simple life. Bourgeois (middle class) patronage
Gabriele Jacques de Saint Aubin (French 1724-1780)
Salon of 1767, pen and ink, watercolor, and gouache
Michelangelo, Prophet Isaiah,
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,
the Vatican. Inspiration for
Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723-1792), Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse,
1789. Oil on canvas, 7’11” X 4’ 10,” Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.