Rococo Period Research Articles

An Ethiopian “Renaissance” Queen? Mentewab as Protector of Arts and Patron of Iconography

In Ethiopia, the period from the late 16th and 17th Centuries has caused a controversy because some consider this period as Ethiopia’s recovery from religious, civil conflicts as well as sectarian discord, while others including Kofi Darkwah (1975), define it as a continued descent prosses for the empire. In line with this disagreement, factual information can speak for itself in the course of this study. Emperor Susenyos (1572-1632 CE) was a strong supporter of Catholicism, yet his son, Fasilidas (1603-1667 CE) as his successor, reinstated Ethiopian miaphysite Orthodoxy. The establishment of Gondar as the permanent capital in 1636, is an event heralded by Henze (2000) as the onset of an Ethiopian Renaissance, particularly in artistic, architectural, and musical domains. After Fasilidas’s demise, his son, Yohannes I reigned from 1632-67 CE. Yet, it was Fasilidas’s grandson, Iyasu I the Great (r. 1682-1706 CE), who distinguished himself through extensive architectural projects, notably transforming Gondar into a captivating city. Iyasu I’s assassination caused significant turmoil in Gondar, subsequently resulting in a gradual loss of political power. When Iyasu I’s son, Bakaffa (r. 1721-1730 CE) ascended to the imperial throne, the arts - namely, chant (zema), poetry (qene), interpretation (tergum) and refinement of the court minstrels’ music had already been supported and vigorously promoted. However, it was Bakaffa’s wife and later widow, Mentewab (1706-1773 CE), who emerged as the pivotal figure in this Ethiopian “Renaissance”. Additionally, the diverse styles of Ethiopian iconography sponsored by Mentewab, some adorned with elements reminiscent of the decorative style of the Rococo period, illustrate the queen’s remarkable aesthetic standards. The research on Mentewab, also known as Welete Giyorgis, has been guided by portrayals in iconographies, chronicles, paintings, testimonials from church builders and castles, and indirectly by information provided in texts such as Kebre Negast, and Fetha Nagast. To this end, special attention has been drawn on Mentewab’s legacy as the founder, protector, and patron of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Narga Selassie, renowned for its resplendent Qwara style that fused European, Islamic, and Indian elements while retaining strong Ethiopian traits. With special attention to the iconographic representations of Queen Mentewab as the ktetor of Narga Selassie Church, the study explores symbolic significances embedded within relevant creations and artistic styles. By contextualising them within their historical framework, this analysis explores Mentewab’s influence on her contemporary politics, religion, art, and literature in Ethiopia.

Chinoiserie in Eighteenth Century France: Francois Boucher’s Imagination of China

Through the eyes of Francois Boucher, one of the most prominent court painters of the Rococo period, this essay delves into the enthralling world of Rococo art. Through the analysis of several of Boucher's paintings, such as "The Portrait of Madame de Pompadour" and "The Chinese Garden", the author intends to determine how various aspects of Chinese culture and aesthetics, as interpreted by Boucher's active imagination, were fluidly incorporated into the Rococo aesthetic. This study examines how Boucher deftly incorporated Chinese design elements, such as porcelain and scent sachets, into his works of art. These components, which are frequently considered symbolic of the Orient, provide a one-of-a-kind glimpse into Europeans' fascination with Chinese culture during the Rococo period. This article demonstrates that the influence of Orientalism on the aesthetics of European art is not limited to paintings but rather encompasses architecture as well as everyday objects, like tapestries, by demonstrating how the fusion of Chinese culture and Rococo aesthetics led to this influence.

THE INFLUENCE OF CHINA AND JAPAN ON EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE AND ART AT THE END OF THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

Europe turned to Eastern cultures at the stage of oversaturation with its own traditions or at the stage of finding ways out of the crisis in the cultural and artistic life of society. Obviously, the fascination with Chinese cultural traditions - first at the mundane level, and later at the level of art and architecture - during the Baroque and Rococo period testified to the oversaturation that gradually grew in the Baroque and Rococo styles, and therefore the appeal to China became a hidden attempt to find something fundamentally new, non-standard. It is quite clear that without a deep understanding of the foundations of ancient Chinese culture, such citation of Chinese motifs in art and in the architecture of country palaces and park pavilions turned them into simplified theatrical scenery.
 In the same way, the same fascination with Japanese culture in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries took place against the background of increasing crisis phenomena in society, when the processes of secularization intensified against the background of the industrial revolutions and the rise to the forefront of the bourgeois class, and that is why Japanese culture with its philosophy of Taoism and Buddhism, which penetrated into all spheres of social life, into art and architecture, was perceived as a desirable way out of stagnation. At the same time, once again, external forms were copied, which were transformed on local soil without a deep understanding of the philosophical and religious background.
 It should be noted the impact on European culture of the opening in 1897 of the unique temple complex of Dunhuang. As a result of the unstable situation in China during the reign of the Qing Dynasty, many unique artifacts from the Dunhuang sanctuaries were bought for nothing by Europeans and ended up in museums in Europe. This caused another stage of interest in Chinese culture and architecture. The use of aesthetic properties of traditional Chinese and Japanese culture made it possible to enrich the figurative concept of European Art Nouveau. The painting techniques of Art Nouveau period originate from the characteristic painting techniques of China and Japan. However, there is a difference in the influence of Eastern cultures on the art and architecture of Art Nouveau period: if in art such analogies can be traced quite clearly, in architecture at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, this influence was a much more complex phenomenon than the "Chinoiserie" style of the 18th century: Art Nouveau architects did not literally reproduce Chinese and Japanese buildings, but instead creatively rethought the principles of their formation, layout, function and decoration.

'White Gold' in Early to Mid-Eighteenth Century Venice and Florence - The first Italian Porcelain Factories and thei highly coveted production

An inaccessible material both in terms of technology and manufacture for the aristocratic classes and the royal courts of Europe and especially for the prominent politically, socially and culturally Italy, porcelain was until the beginning of the eighteenth century an ‘impossible dream’ which only through a limited number of Chinese wares could be satisfied. However in the early highly decorative and playful Rococo period, its discovery in Germany inaugurated a new era in the European decorative arts. Hard-paste porcelain was soon introduced in Northern Italy and started being produced in the cities of Venice and Florence respectively creating a new order in the great historical field of ceramic arts. This initiated a long and, at the same time, glorious era for porcelainobjects production throughout the country, many of which are now rare examples of a valuable heritage in the history of decorative arts worldwide. This paper aims to document clearly and methodically the historical value of these events, focusing on the two first Italian hard-paste porcelain factories development and stressing the significance of their rare products.

The Reception of the Engravings of Gottfried Bernhard Göz’s Marian Series in the Monumental Painting of the Lviv Circle in the 18th Century

The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne vol. 63, issue 4 (2015).
 The graphic series dedicated to the Mother of God, defined as Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, by Gottfried Bernhard Göz (1708–1774) was an inspiration for the monumental painting of the Rococo period in Poland in the times of the Saxon kings. The series of engravings with a devotional character made with the stipple engraving technique presents 12 signed Marian scenes: the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mary’s Birth, the Presentation of Mary, Mary and Joseph’s Matrimony, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Purification, the images of Our Lady of Sorrows, and the Assumption. Other scenes are connected with Mary’s patronage – as the Queen of the Rosary—and her intercession. The prints, as researchers of Göz’s work assume, prove his mature style that was shaped in the years 1737–1740, when he formed a publishing “company” together with the Klauber brothers, Joseph Sebastian and Johann Baptist. He used the motifs occurring in the series many times e.g. on the vault of the nave in the Dominican nuns’ St Stefan Church in Habsthal (1748; Upper Swabia), in the sketch and painting for the Cistercian monastery in Birnau (1748–1750). These motifs were also found in Bavarian Marian shrines, e.g. Frauenchiemsee, Maria Mitleid Kapelle and Mater Dolorosa Kapelle with paintings by Balthasar Furtner (1761) and in a church in Niederaschau and Kleinmariazell (1763–1765). References to the series may also be found in the area of Slovenia, i.e. on the vault of Grajska Kapela in Novo Celje (1758–1763).
 The prints were known to the circle of Lviv artists active in the 18th century and they were used as models for numerous figural compositions. First of all the Lviv painter Stanisław Stroiński (1719–1802) used them for the decorations, among others, of the interior of the Franciscan Marian sanctuary in Leżajsk, in the Franciscan Holy Spirit Church in Krystynopol (1756–1759 (now Chervonohrad in Ukraine), and in the decoration of St Anne’s Chapel in the Holy Trinity Benedictine Church in Przemyśl. The series of prints was also used by the painter Gabriel Sławiński in the decoration of the chancel in St Lawrence Parish Church in the village of Żółkiewka and on the vault of the post-Pauline St Louis Church in Włodawa.
 The engravings are a significant model for Polish painting because of their style, technique and original approach to the conventional religious theme.

Boudoirs and Harems: The Seductive Power of Sophas

This paper investigates the cultural influences between the East and the West (a contested set of geographic terms) through the boudoir and its furniture. The staple ingredient of the Rococo period (1723–1774), the pursuit of pleasure and happiness, produced spaces and furniture with an unprecedented attention to bodily comfort. In addition to Eastern–inspired furniture pieces, such as the sopha, divan, lit à la Turque (Turkish bed), lit de repos à la Turque (Turkish bed of rest), canapé à la Turque (Turkish couch), veilleuse à la Turque (Turkish sofa), veilleuse à la Ottomanne (Ottoman sofa), and ottomanne (ottoman) to be used in a chamber à la Turque (Turkish room) or elsewhere, there was one space every modern eighteenth–century upper–class woman needed: the boudoir. The boudoir was an exclusive space for females, informed by the late eighteenth– and nineteenth–century Western fascination with Orientalism. In spite of its so–called cultural superiority, the West at times turned to the East and found fertile ground for working out questions of gender identity and power. Encapsulating the experience of colonialism, the boudoir became the site for the repression and reconciliation of gender roles and biases. Furthermore, the eighteenth–century boudoir was a space where the modernization of interior space was underway due to the level of informality, personal privacy, and bodily comfort it afforded to its users.

로코코 시대 남성복에 나타난 미적 특성 분석

로코코 시대 남성복에 나타난 미적 특성 분석

Modernistic reinterpretation of stage costumes in the opera <La Serva Pardrona> - Focusing on the decorative elements of the Rococo mode -

Opera is the most comprehensive musical art. In recent years, contemporary opera worlds has seen a variety of attempts to reinterpret operas of the past in a modern light. This has resulted in a dramatic change in the production of musical style and stage art. The purpose of the study was to modernize and streamline opera costumes by extending the scope of existing stage costume design, through the reinterpretation and application of the decorative elements in the Middle Age of Rococo, such as ruffles, frills, shirring, embroidery, buttons, etc., in such a way as to effectively communicate the moods of an opera to a modern audience. The costumes of the Rococo period were reinterpreted in a modern way, with the following results. First, in this work, the male main character was played by a bass to express the image of an older, lazy, rich man. A key element in modernizing the stage costume was selection of the costume color in such a way as to visually represent the voice tones sung by the major characters in the opera. Second, the maid hat and aprons were decorated with frills by applying the curves of Rocaille decoration from the Rococo period symbolize the role of the maids. This represented the distinction between occupation according to class and status at that time, while also expressing the ideals of modern feminine beauty. This makes for more comfortably-worn costumes, and is economical for production expenses. In the future, the stage costume design for classical opera will need to be revised consideration of a modern viewpoint.

Portraits from the second half of the 18th century in Croatia

This paper will attempt to analyze the clothing from the rococo period and underline fashion as an important segment in the reconstruction of a specific style era. Based on conserved portraits from the second half of the 18th century, as well as rare artifacts of clothing from the period found in Croatia, a description of primarily women’s types of clothing, accessories and the terms used to describe them will be given. Influences had, primarily through cultural and trade routes, come from the fashion capital of the period – France, and fashion innovations and the intensity of their changes were under the influence of the personal style first of Madame de Pompadour and afterwards Marie Antoinette. Croatia, which had at the time been part of the Habsburg monarchy and under the Republic of Venice, tended toward French influences in fashion, which represents a considerable move from the prior influence of Italian and German style.

Recepcja grafik z cyklu maryjnego Gottfrieda Bernharda Göza w malarstwie monumentalnym kręgu lwowskiego w XVIII wieku

The graphic series dedicated to the Mother of God, defined as Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, by Gottfried Bernhard Goz (1708-1774) was an inspiration for the monumental painting of the Rococo period in Poland in the times of the Saxon kings. The series of engravings with a devotional character made by the stipple engraving technique presents twelve signed Marian scenes: the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Presentation of Mary, the Marriage of Mary and Joseph, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Purification, and then images of Our Lady of Sorrows, Assumption of Mary. The next scenes are connected with Mary’s patronage - as the Queen of the Rosary and with her intercession. The prints, as researchers of Goz’s work assume, prove his mature style that was shaped in the years 1737-1740, when he formed a publishing “company” together with the Klauber brothers, Joseph Sebastian and Johann Baptist. He used the motifs occurring in the series many times e.g. on the vault of the nave in the Dominican sisters St Stefan Church in Habsthal (1748; Upper Swabia), in the sketch and painting for the Cistercians Monastery in Birnau (1748-1750). These motifs were also found in Bavarian Marian sanctuaries, e.g. Frauenchiemsee, Maria Mitleid Kapelle and Mater Dolorosa Kapelle with paintings by Balthasar Furtner (1761) and in the church in Niederaschau and in Klein Mariazell (1763-1765). References to the series may also be found in the area of Slovenia - on the vault of Grajska kapela in Novo Celje (1758-1763). The prints were known to the circle of Lvov artists active in the 18 th century and they were used as models for numerous figural compositions. First of all the Lvov painter Stanislaw Stroinski (1719-1802) used them for the decorations, among others, of the interior of the Franciscan Marian sanctuary in Lezajsk, in the Franciscan Holy Spirit Church in Krystynopol (1756-1759 (now it is Chervonohrad in the Ukraine), and in the decoration of the St Anna Chapel in the Holy Trinity Benedictine Church in Przemyśl. The series of prints was also used by the painter Gabriel Slawinski in the decoration of the chancel in the St Lawrence Parish Church in Żolkiewka and on the vault of the Pauline St Louis Church in Wlodawa. The engravings are a significant model for Polish painting because of their style, technique and an original approach to a conventional religious subject.

A Comparative Study on the Men’s Hairdo of Joseon Dynasty Era and Baroque and Rococo Period (Men’s Hairdo Styles 17th and 18th Centuries)

A Comparative Study on the Men’s Hairdo of Joseon Dynasty Era and Baroque and Rococo Period (Men’s Hairdo Styles 17th and 18th Centuries)

Les jardins sont la partie la plus riante d’une maison. Siertuinen bij adellijke residenties in de 17de en de 18de eeuw

Chris De Maegd, ‘ Les jardins sont la partie la plus riante d’une maison’. Gardens of noble residences in the 17th and 18th century This article deals with the 1600-1800 gardens of the elite in this region, except those of the princely residences. Our analysis is based on the reading of their presentation in the works of Vredeman de Vries, Sanderus, Leroy, Derons, Leloup, de Cantillon, manuscript maps and plans of Brussels. The background and meaning of the popularity of gardens from the second half of the 16th century is touched on, as well as the inspiring model of the mediaeval hortus conclusus for the geometric, formal or ‘ French’ garden style and the importance of garden literature. The following gardens are explored in more detail : the gardens of Charles de Croÿ in Sint-Joostten-Noode ; those of the actual Hotel de Merode in the Wolstraat owned by the Duke de Bournonville and remodelled in the third quarter of the 18th century by E mpress Marie-Thérèse’s minister Charles Cobenzl ; those in Lochristi designed for the Ghent bishop Ferdinand de Lobkowitz ; those in Gors Opleeuw of Baron van Mettecoven ; and those of Velbruck, Prince Bishop of Liège in Hex. By doing so, we obtain a synopsis of garden layouts in the Renaissance, the Baroque and Rococo period. The ‘ jardin anglois’ or E nglish garden, initially a mere contrasting curvilinear bosquet in the unchanged classical garden layout, gradually evolved, after the ancien régime, into a specific garden style from which, parallel with the changing society, the landscape style that was to be ubiquitous during the 19th century would evolve.

근세복식에 나타난 장식의 변화양상과 음.양의 조형적 특성에 따른 장식 분류

The purpose of this study is 1) to find out the dominant clothing ornaments in Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, 2) to examine the changes of such clothing details as neckline and collar, sleeve and stomacher from 16th to 18th century 3) and to classify the ornaments of these 3 centuries according to Yin and Yang's traits. An analysis was conducted of 405 pieces of art out of 10 books of costume history. Of these pieces, 121 were from the Renaissance era, 107 were Baraque and 177 were Rococo. The analysis found that the distinctive ornaments in 16th century were ruff, slash, chain and girdle decoration. The distinctive ornaments of Baroque period were tassel, fringe, loop and binding. The Rococo period were distinguished by falbala, sash belt and fabric necklace. With regard to the changes over the 3 centuries necklines changed from high to lower. Sleeves became shorter. Stomacher which was long and sharp became wider and shorter. As to the Yin and Yang's traits there was also an evolution. Renaissance costume with Yang's style was decorated mostly Yang influenced ornaments. Baroque clothing was a mixed of Yin and Yang, as were the ornaments. By Rococo both clothing and ornaments reflected Yin's traits.

La Biblioteca Ambrosiana tra Roma, Milano e l'Europa: Federico Borromeo Fondatore della Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Atti delle giornate di studio 25-27 novembre 2004 (review)

La Biblioteca Ambrosiana tra Roma, Milano e l'Europa: Federico Borromeo Fondatore della Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Atti delle giornate di studio 25-27 novembre 2004. Edited by Franco Buzzi and Roberta Ferro [Studia Borromaica. Saggi e documenti di storia religiosa e civile della prima eta moderna, 19] (Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana. 2005. Pp. 590. euro30.00 paperback.) This volume with different contributions not only on the Biblioteca Ambriosana and its foundation and development, but also on some of the most important European libraries, shows more than their history and their transformation up to the present time, it also depicts their cultural responsibility as protectors of humanity, art, and science and also of the exchange of ideas. Modern technology offers a new way into the future by the application of new technology and electronic information resources, such as CD-ROM editions or the internet. Three groups of themes have been discussed at this conference: the concept of the humanistic libraries in Europe and their organization, the foundation of the Ambrosiana, and the presentation of some libraries and their function in the papers of their directors. The praise of books of the English bishop Richard of Aungervly (Philobiblon sive de amore librorum) points the way forward for the humanists with their collections and shows at the same time the value and the beauty of books. This beauty was lost during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the book became a part of the architecture of the reading-room with its desks. The ideal of the classical library as a representative not only of the service of the knowledge but also of beauty and as an expression of the cultural sensibility too had been renewed in the rococo period in the Catholic areas, specially in Rome and that of the Empire. Humanists like Petrarca condemned the pure collectionism of some nobles. As bibliophiles their own collections were open to their friends and all scholars, a practice that preceded that of the public libraries, the first of which was opened in Rome in 1595 by Angelo Rocco who wanted the Angelica open to all interested people. Printing offered a greater opportunity for acquiring books to learned laymen such as Pico della Mirandola and Gian Vincenzo Pinelli, whose collection later on was purchased by Cardinal Federico Borromeo. A network of intellectuals all over Europe was created through this collecting of books by changing information about books and catalogues of different collections. The French king Francis I intended to establish a library for scholars. On the one hand he bought or ordered copies of manuscripts and on the other hand the printer Robert Estienne prepared an edition of classical texts using the royal manuscripts.The Jesuits adapted for their library concept the program of Roman humanism, but they placed emphasis on the theories of the Counter-Reformation and on the anti-Gallicanism of Antonio Possevino (Bibliotheca selecta).The political situation in Germany caused the emergence of small collections by princes, sometimes also influenced by scholars of the university founded by them, such as the Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg. The library situation in the Balkans is characterized by the Turkish war and occupation, except for some towns on the Adriatic coast of Croatia. During this period most monasteries had been destroyed, including their books. The whole coast was a part of the dominion of Venice and stood under its cultural influence. Scholars and bibliophiles acquired their books mainly in Venice. There were ecclesiastical collectors, as the bishop Juraj Kruzic, who had about 2,000 volumes accessible to everybody, which was to be given after his death half to the Franciscans and half to the Dominicans. There were also lay patrons, such as the orientalist Ivan Pastric, who stayed for many years in Rome, and whose books ended up in the archiepiscopal seminary of Spalato. The first library of modern times was the Escorial, founded by Philip II, with all books accessible to everybody and with its alphabetic catalogues and some subject catalogues too at its entrance. …

The Fall of Theatricality in the Age of Modernity

The above title' maintains that a breakdown has taken place within theatricality. So it would appear at any rate, from a post/late-modernist point of view.2 The aim of this article is to illustrate that this is the case. During the period 1890-1930 the same claim was made by a number of Modernist theater directors. The Russian theater figure Nicolas Nicolaievitch Evreinov posed the question of whether certain periods were more theatrical than others (1930). His opinion was that the Renaissance in England and Spain, and the French Rococo period were distinctly theatrical, while Evreinov's own time was the most de-theatricalized of them all: not even the theater itself was theatrical. Evreinov was not alone in this view of the

Analysis of pigments in polychromes by use of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and Raman microscopy

Two laser-based analytical techniques, Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman microscopy, have been used for the identification of pigments on a polychrome from the Rococo period. Detailed spectral data are presented from analyses performed on a fragment of a gilded altarpiece from the church of Escatrón, Zaragoza, Spain. LIBS measurements yielded elemental analytical data which suggest the presence of certain pigments and, in addition, provide information on the stratigraphy of the paint layers. Identification of most pigments and of the materials used in the preparation layer was performed by Raman microscopy.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and Raman microscopy for analysis of pigments in polychromes

A polychrome from the Rococo period was analysed by use of two laser-based analytical techniques, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and Raman microscopy. The analysis, performed on a fragment of a gilded altarpiece from the church of Escatrón, Zaragoza, Spain, provided detailed spectral data that have been used for the identification of pigments. LIBS measurements yielded elemental analytical data that suggest the presence of certain pigments and, in addition, provide information on the stratigraphy of the paint layers. Identification of most pigments and of the materials used in the preparation layer was performed by Raman microscopy.

Peinture et belles antiques dans la première moitié du siècle. Les statues vivent aussi

René Démoris : Painting and classical beauties in the first half of the century. Statues are also alive. The art of the Rococo period, from La Fosse to Boucher in painting, had a strange reception in France ; it was violently attacked in the middle of the 18th Century, often considered in the 19th Century as the symbol of the frivolous aristocratic Enlightenment and sometimes later accused of being an art of enslave¬ ment abandoning the very purpose of art. We here try to analyse, in connection with a major reference for classical aesthetics — the relation to classical beauties as models — the position of artists who did not rebel against academic principles but who, by their practise, did in fact question the artistic ideology which developed from Du Bos to Diderot ; this ideology attributed certain social or moral aims to painting, a field in which writers wished to seize power and did in fact do so. The violence of the reactions to Rococo painting can be explained less by a relatively discreet immorality than by the latent critical charge of this artistic practice and its obsessions.

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Comments on "The Evolution of Italian Painting: A Quantitative Investigation of Trends in Style and Content from the Late Gothic to the Rococo Period"

Comments on "The Evolution of Italian Painting: A Quantitative Investigation of Trends in Style and Content from the Late Gothic to the Rococo Period"