Rococo

The dramatic style of the 18th century

Emerging out of Baroque as a more relaxed style, Rococo was dominant in interiors, decorative art, and painting throughout Europe in the 18th century. With sentiment and emotion prevailing over reason, Rococo was a dramatic and theatrical style. In the Parisian art world, gallant scenes by Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard predominated, along with the delicate still lifes and genre paintings of Chardin. In Venice, we find the magnificent cityscapes and veduta of Canaletto and Guardi, along with Tiepolo's brilliantly illuminated ceiling frescos. London society celebrated portraitists of stature such as Hogarth, Gainsborough, and Reynolds, while in Southern Germany and Austria, pious images of celestial serenity created by Asam and Troger spanned the church ceilings.

Artists featured among others:

François Boucher, Canaletto, Rosalba Carriera, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, John Singleton Copley, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Thomas Gainsborough, Francisco de Goya, Francesco Guardi, William Hogarth, Angelika Kauffmann, Nicolas Lancret, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Thomas Lawrence, Jean-Marc Nattier the Younger, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Joshua Reynolds, Johann Heinrich Tischbein, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Joseph Wright

About the Series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre Series features:

• a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) that took place during the time period
• a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations