Oops.

Not only did I miss Halloween, but I missed my self-imposed November deadline. I had considered doing it last night, but it would have been rushed. Here’s a brief rundown of the Rococo art movement.

Treasure.

Oh, before I launch into this, I managed to get my hands on the hardcopy version of the Britannica Encyclopedia of Art and another set on Artists. Of course, there’s the online version, but the set I have is in excellent condition and very hard to find. I feel very lucky despite my love of ebooks. I’ve also added some references at the end of this blog just to keep it ‘inconsistent’ with the rest of my posts.

Rococo.

The books talk about Rococo as having started as a decorative style in the 1700s, with the characteristics of:

• being flat
• lack of 3Dness
• using curved, twisty forms

Because I subscribe to Britannica online, I noticed that they do more than explain that the word Rococo comes from the term ‘rocaille’. Now, from skimming the paper version, I couldn’t see what rocaille meant. It may be that I’ve forgotten how to read for research, because online, you can just do a keyword search, right?

Anyway, according to both the online EB and Fordham’s webpages, rocaille is characterised by shell-like shapes and scrolls. But how can that be flat and lack 3Dness, especially when you search for Rococo images and see the art (and I’m not talking about our flat screens, ok?)? Both EB online and Wiki note that ‘rocaille’ was a decorative style applied to grottoes and fountains. These were adorned with pebbles, seashells, and cement. Paper EB hints that Rococo was a reaction against pomp, sought to break the heaviness and drama of Baroque, and that Neoclassicism was a reaction against the playful Rococo (they were about what makes you happy).

Maybe all of the above can be true.

Project.

For my Rococo project, I must create something flat but shell-like, 3D but not 3D, twisty, and natural, with delicate brushwork. Cement. Money and power. Pastel colours and playful forms. It will need to be asymmetrical (all my resources agree). I need to find a grotto (we all know how I failed at cave art). There should be aristocrats and sensuous colours. Huh? I haven’t done my colour classes, and I’ll make sure I ask what sensuous colours are. Wait, I’ll ask my bud, AI. Seriously, Copilot just interrupted my search to verify that I was human!

AI points out that sensual colours are red, pink, orange, yellow, purple, and black. These colours evoke passion, intimacy, warmth, allure and attraction. Another site mentions blues and greens…good grief. That covers pretty much every hue.

Moving on.

I will be moving on from applying my plant to these movements. I’ll still explore and blog them, but I’ve since discovered other ways to find my art style. My plan for the movements is to take one or two aspects of that style that I like. I found the video below interesting. Alder’s website has a lot of ads, but her YouTube channel seems pretty good. However, when I subscribed, I noticed there have been no recent uploads.

Alder mentions more than my bullet points when studying The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard:

• lighting – the focus is on the aristocratic woman in a frilly dress
• surrounding area – fertile, abundant garden
• pastel colours in focus
• painterly styles – you can see the paint brushes
• branch – strong diagonal line (technique from the Baroque)
• intrigue pictures – lush, some naughtiness (it is the Rococo!)
• playful – swing, her shoe coming off, coyness, possible literal love triangle (one man behind looking up her dress and one behind controlling the swing)
• statues – cupid(s)/cherub(s), dolphin – mythological associated with Aphrodite
• yapping dog – watch the video 😊

Now for my takeaway.

What I like is:

• the idea of playfulness resonates with me but not in such a naughty, sexy, Rococo way, more of a cheeky, irreverent way
• the play with mythological concepts
• use of nature to frame the main subject or to model elements
• asymmetry

References (no particular style or order)

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2005). Britannica Encyclopedia of Art. Volume 4. Purple-bound hard covers 😊. The Brown Reference Group plc.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2020, May 2). Rococo style summary. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Rococo

Fordham, H (fellow Aussie I think). (2024, July 4). Rococo Art: The Movement That Changed Everything

Wikipedia contributors. (2025, November 30). Rococo. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:06, November 30, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rococo&oldid=1324906014

Featured image by By Ajc994 – The Trustees of the Wallace Collection, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133740440