1. BAROQUE ROCOCO
Guercino (Aurora) Tiepolo (Kaisersaal)
Gaulli (Il Gesù)
Rubens Watteau
Boucher
Fragonard
Bernini Clodion
Vermeer Chardin

2. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
• The “Enlightenment” or Age of Reason, of rational thought and questioning of old beliefs
• The Industrial Revolution
• Political Revolutions:
American Revolution, 1776
French Revolution, 1789

3. • The word Rococo probably derives from the
French word rocaille (pronounced “ro-kye”),
a type of ornament employing rock, pebbles,
and shells in garden decoration.
• It was a “made-up” word, invented toward
the end of the 18th century. Meant to sound
rather silly, it was originally used as an insulting
term for the art of the ancien régime—the recently
overthrown French monarchy.

4. Map of Southern Germany, including Würzburg

5. Prince Bishop’s Residenz, Würzburg

6. Kaisersaal (Imperial Hall) of the Residenz in Würzburg, with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1751

7. Rococo Architecture in Innsbruck
The Helblinghaus in the Old Town

8. Rococo Architecture
in Innsbruck
Wilten Basilica on the
south side of town

9. Tiepolo, ceiling of the Kaisersaal: Apollo Bringing
Beatrice of Burgundy to the Emperor Barbarossa

10. Tiepolo, ceiling of
the Kaisersaal, 1751
ROCOCO
Guercino, Aurora, ceiling of Casino Ludovisi,
BAROQUE

11. Tiepolo, ceiling of
the Kaisersaal, 1751
ROCOCO
Gaulli, ceiling of
Il Gesù,
BAROQUE

12. Detail: Beatrice of Burgundy in the chariot of Apollo
Kaisersaal ceiling

13. Detail
Kaisersaal ceiling

14. Details

15. Detail: cupids strewing roses
Kaisersaal ceiling

16. Jean-Antoine Watteau, A Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717
Note—The first fête galante (“gallant festivity” or scene of gallantry): a charac-
teristic type of Rococo painting in which small-scale figures of aristocratic ladies
and gentlemen are shown amusing themselves in a garden or parkland setting.

17. ROCOCO BAROQUE Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717
Rubens, Garden of Love, c.
1638: the ultimate model for
Watteau’s fête galante
BAROQUE

18. Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717
Detail: three pairs of lovers, “Cupid,” and the rose-covered statue of Venus

19. Detail: Venus statue
Pilgrimage to Cythera

20. Detail: lovers with “Cupid”
Pilgrimage to Cythera

21. Detail: other pairs of lovers
Pilgrimage to Cythera

22. Pilgrimage to Cythera
Detail: golden boat with cupids fluttering overhead

23. Pilgrimage to Cythera
Fluttering cupids

24. Another Rococo painting with erotic content
Painted for Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV, as well as his frequent political adviser.
A major patron of the arts, Pompadour has been dubbed the “godmother of the Rococo.”
Among other things, the painting alludes to Pompadour’s title role in a play called The Toilet of Venus, performed at Versailles in 1750.
François Boucher, The Toilet of Venus, 1751

25. ROCOCO BAROQUE
Boucher, Toilet of Venus, Rubens, Toilet of Venus, c. 1620

26. Boucher, Toilet of Venus Detail

27. Another fête galante with erotic content
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

28. Detail: “Ecstasy” of the
Baron de St.-Julien
Fragonard, The Swing

29. Statue of Cupid by
Falconet, a prominent
Rococo sculptor
Fragonard, The Swing

30. Statue of Cupid by
Falconet, a prominent
Rococo sculptor
Clodion, Nymph and
Satyr Carousing, c. 1780

31. BAROQUE ROCOCO Clodion, Nymph and Satyr Carousing, c. 1780
Bernini, Apollo and Daphne,

32. Clodion, Nymph and
Satyr Carousing, c. 1780
Detail

33. BAROQUE ROCOCO
Clodion, Nymph and
Satyr Carousing
Bernini, Apollo and Daphne