Rococo

Rococo style was a brilliant end of the Baroque style. The legacy of the previous century XVIII century gets a special aesthetic consciousness, in which highly developed artistic taste is more important than many other human qualities. Taste involves the ability to distinguish not only beautiful and know how to recreate it, but the ability to deeply enjoy the creation. If you need all the Baroque range of emotions - from joy to tragedy, for enjoying the Rococo - a beautifully thin, fine.

'Elegant' - the keyword of the epoch. It was then observed withdrawal from life in a world of fantasy, theatrical games, mythical and pastoral scenes with optional touch of eroticism. Therefore, even though the great masters of products and decorative, graceful, but somewhat superficial.

No coincidence that in this era comes to fashion "kitayschinu" or chinoiserie (chinoiserie). In the interior there are mobile screens, changing space visually; tapestries with images of flowers, pagodas, people in Chinese dress, a famous Chinese porcelain, exquisite orchids, tonkostvolnye trees, aquarium fish, as well as exquisite lacquered furniture Chinese masters, as if created for Rococo.

The originator of the Rococo style was Italian J. O. Mesone, whose works first appeared freakish asymmetric shape, in particular - the motive capriciously curved shell (rocaile - hence the French. Rococo).

While this style is called "the style of Louis XV», but, in contrast, from the Baroque it was not purely a court art. Most of the buildings Rococo - these are private homes French nobility and country palaces. Rooms located in the suite are not (as in the XVII century.), And formed asymmetrical composition. In the center is usually located stateroom (cabin). Rounding corners of rooms, the walls are decorated with carved panels, gilt ornaments and mirrors, which seem to expand the space, giving it the uncertainty. Rooms are smaller and lower, creating an atmosphere of intimacy that is characteristic for the boudoir.

Interior design and boudoirs slightly oversaturated with objects instead of the more restrained of the Baroque.

In the color scheme is dominated by soft pastel colors. The most popular color combinations - white with a blue, green or pink gold and indispensable.

It is in the Rococo era for the first time a representation of the interior, as an integral ensemble: the stylistic unity of the building, decoration of walls and ceilings, furniture, etc. And ever since the interior just does not fit the character of the way of life. All of the furnishings are made with great attention to detail and comfort of life.

In secular homes furniture was ranked certain little groups (usually - a table, a sofa and some chairs), creating a calamity "centers of gravity" for the assembled company.

For forms Rococo furniture is characterized by a complete rejection of the autonomy of the individual structural elements (architectonic), the symmetry and straight lines. The main desire is to dissolve the components in the total items. No wonder the rococo furniture seems as if cast in a plastic mass.

In the decoration of furniture rococo wood carving is a very modest place. It replaces the bronze plates, which have the advantage in that they are convenient to handle ready-made, ground and polished surfaces of objects. Sometimes instead of the entire surface of the veneer of subjects treated with colored lacquers and also was decorated plates and gilded carvings.

Carefree life of society salons focused around women, and the whims of fashionable prude (especially the mistresses of the king) sets the tone: elegant, decorative and frivolous. Appear purely feminine furnishings. This is standing on high legs secretaire with sloping flap located and lots of hidden units; kartonerka (cabinet for papers), a toilet with a folding mirror and a variety of tables.

Secretary, in fact, was a practical combination of drawers, desk and cabinet. Hidden drawers secretaire usually filled with various epistolary and memoir products, very common at this time "Dreams, dreams, and intrigue."

That's secretaries and Dressers with two boxes (by the way, commode in French. - "Easy") - the main type of furniture at the time.

The main motive of the same room Rococo - obviously a fireplace: a small, covered with a marble slab and cluttered with candelabra, clocks, porcelain, "trinkets" and other decorations. Above it is usually to hang a mirror in the luxurious frame.

In the seating also produces new forms canapes (three in the form of a number of connected seats), lounge, berter (recliner). In the form of sofas and chairs are taken into account, particularly the magnificent women's clothing. Furniture is now trying to be not only representative but also more comfortable.

Speaking of furniture for the seat at all and Rococo in particular, not to mention the name of Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779). Chippendale was first a wood carver, fascinated by about 1735 the furniture business, he soon became the leading furniture manufacturers era, famous as a master practitioner and as the author of numerous projects of furniture.

Chippendale style pieces is a unique combination of French Rococo with the formal elements of English furniture of the first third of the XVIII century, the Gothic and Chinese motifs. In 1754 Thomas Chippendale published a book of samples of his furniture, which had a great influence on the art of furniture not only England but also in continental Europe.

In the production, came out of the studio Chippendale, occupy a special place infinitely varied forms of seating. The influence of the French rocaille first makes itself felt in carved openwork backs. Forms backs are very diverse: in the contours of the central vertical slats often discern the silhouettes of expressive violin or a high slender vase, with inexhaustible invention vary belt ornaments, trellis, ornaments, formed by a combination of C-shaped elements, etc.

Chippendale used to shine polished mahogany, intricately curving back and legs in the form of animal paws. However, unlike the French masters of the Rococo, Chippendale furniture is very feasible and practical. Chair, in the modern sense of the shape of furniture, gets almost a full degree of completeness in this period, in the middle of the XVIII century.

The role of Chippendale furniture in the history of art is very significant. He perfected the form of a number of articles of furniture, has developed new types, some of which have survived without significant changes. Form of late works by masters markedly simplified, and the lines are straightened.