Academic literature on the topic 'Rococo Arts'

Riassunto: Il Rococò si manifestò nella città di Valencia durante il trentennio centrale del Settecento e si espresse in tutte le forme dell’arte. Raggiunse l’apice della sua ricchezza nella decorazione degli interni, primi tra tutti quelli del palazzo de Dos Aguas e della vicina chiesa di San Andrés. Il suo successo cessò con l’avvento dell’Accademismo, che con l’istituzione della Reale Accademia di Belle Arti di San Carlos nel 1768, pretese il controllo delle arti sotto il segno del neoclassicismo. Si è sempre relegato il Rococò nelle ultime pagine dell’evoluzione del Barocco valenzano e manca uno studio indipendente del Rococò valenciano, delle sue fonti stilistiche, dei modelli che impiega, delle sue relazioni con gli stili precedenti, delle cause che determinano il suo trentennale successo. Questo articolo pretende iniziare a far luce su questi aspetti, confidando che approfondimenti futuri possano valorizzare le produzioni di uno dei periodi più ricchi della storia dell’arte valenciana. Parole chiave: rococò, Valencia, XVIII secolo, accademismo. Abstract: Rococo emerged in the city of Valencia in the central three decades of 18th century and it has been expressing itself in all forms of art. It reached the peak of its richness in interior decoration, first of all those of the palace de Dos Aguas and the nearby church of San Andrés. Its success ended because of arrival of Academism, with the establishment in 1768 of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos, which claims to control the arts under the sign of neoclassicism. The Rococo has been always relegated to the last pages of the evolution of the Valencian Baroque. Nowadays, an independent study of the Valencian Rococo and its stylistic sources, of the models it employs, of its relations with previous styles, of the reasons of its thirty-year success, is still missing. This article pretends to shed light on these aspects, trusting that further studies can enhance the products of one of the richest periods in the history of Valencian art.Keywords: rococo, Valencia, XVIII century, academicism.

Abstract In Rococo historiography, the first half of the eighteenth century is generally described as the golden age par excellence of decoration. The so-called major arts are often considered to have played a lesser role in its artistic development. The period is thus systematically associated with artefacts produced by artisans, hence belonging to a less dignified category in the artistic hierarchy. In order to investigate the ideological background of this assumption, the article focuses on the debates on art which emerged, mainly in France, in the 1740s. These highly biased discourses, targeting the so-called bad taste of contemporary French painting and interior decoration, shaped a vision of the first half of the eighteenth century of which many aspects were later inherited by Rococo historiography, especially in its relation to decoration.

Abstract In Rococo historiography, the first half of the eighteenth century is generally described as the golden age par excellence of decoration. The so-called major arts are often considered to have played a lesser role in its artistic development. The period is thus systematically associated with artefacts produced by artisans, hence belonging to a less dignified category in the artistic hierarchy. In order to investigate the ideological background of this assumption, the article focuses on the debates on art which emerged, mainly in France, in the 1740s. These highly biased discourses, targeting the so-called bad taste of contemporary French painting and interior decoration, shaped a vision of the first half of the eighteenth century of which many aspects were later inherited by Rococo historiography, especially in its relation to decoration.

Abstract Today there is a consensus on the definition of the term ‘rococo’: it designates a style both particular and homogeneous, artistically related to the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. But we must not forget that in its primitive formulations, the rococo has no objective existence. As a witty, sneering, and impertinent word, it can adapt itself to the most varied discourses and needs, far beyond references to the eighteenth century. Its malleability guarantees its sparkling success in different languages, but also its highly contradictory uses. By tracing the genealogy of the word ‘rococo’, this article will show that the association of the term with the century of Louis XV is a form of historical discrimination that still prevails widely in the history of the art of the Enlightenment.

Abstract In 1943, the American historian of architecture Fiske Kimball (1888 – 1955) published The Creation of the Rococo, a milestone in the study of this movement. Thanks to a close examination of archival documents and drawings, Kimball sought to trace ‘objectively’ the evolution of the rocaille. Despite his claims to scholarly neutrality, however, Kimball multiplied value judgments in his writings. For Kimball, the rococo exhibited “vitality”, a quality he also found in the classical-inspired buildings of colonial America. Like other members of the conservative establishment, Kimball promoted these – and, more generally, the work of American Renaissance architects – as the only legitimate forms of contemporary architecture. The ‘vitality’ of Kimball’s rococo thus matched the one Anglo-Protestant elites celebrated in the Colonial Revival, a style they espoused to combat the ‘impurity’ of cosmopolitan Modernism.

Abstract This article deals with the use of the term ‘rococo’ in the English language and more specifically in the United States, where it is today used to describe both the style of eighteenth-century cabinetmakers, and American mid-nineteenth-century furniture. Yet, the term was not favored by furniture makers and dealers before the end of the nineteenth century. Offering a precise analysis of the roots of the term in the United States, this article sheds light on its semantic evolution since the 1830s, through a variety of sources including newspapers, art journals, and ephemera, and in relation with the fluctuating taste of middle- and upper-class American households throughout the nineteenth century.