The Rococo period marks a movement in art towards subjects that exist in nature and their ability to bring pleasure the observer. Personal pleasure after all was the whole purpose of Rococo art. In rococo paintings, bright pastels are used to create an air of happiness, and the subject matter doesn’t usually stray far from human sexuality, the depiction of human sexuality in painting actually lead to some criticism from people who found it immoral. With ornamentation and sculpture there was an effort to recreate nature, in some sense the outdoors was brought indoors. This was not the first time in history where an emphasis was put on finding personal pleasure. This was also found during the Greek Hellenistic period where written works shifted away from profound topics and dealt with nature and human sexuality. Philosophies of the time such as Epicureanism encouraged people to seek pleasure in their everyday lives. This shift came as a result of the political turmoil of the period. Is it possible that the same thing is true with the Rococo period?
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Since I still can only reply, I will just post my blog on a reply. Rococo was a period of time where artist wanted to get away from the same dark, rigid ideas of the baroque era. Aristocrats wanted to make a push towards elegance and simplicity. What showed more often than not, though is Rococo's promiscuous side. Rococo art was not just about elegance, but having fun. Perhaps the most evident of this is a painting i wrote about in one of my papers where I compared baroque to rococo. The painting "Interrupted Sleep" by Francois Boucher is a perfect picture to look at for this. It is a simple scene of a young lady and young man where the guy is waking a young lady from a nap under a tree. What the picture focuses on though is the breast of the young lady. It focuses on it by the light in painting primarily only showing her breast. Also, while the guy is poking her to wake her up with a stick (which can be taken as sexual or not), his eyes are not fixed on her beautiful face, his eyes are directly looking at her breasts as well. Something must have been going on with the French nobility, because rococo was driven by sexual fun. This was a direct response to the seriousness of baroque...sex!
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