Rococo
Artistic style in Europe and colonies, c. 1730–1780
Summary
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco, is a Western style of architecture, art, and decoration that emerged in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the Louis XIV style. It is characterized by extensive ornamentation, fluid curves, asymmetry, and a smaller scale designed to foster intimacy. It employs rocaille (shell- and pebble-like motifs) and often blends white and pastel colours with gilding and sculpted moulding, using trompe-l'œil frescoes to create spatial illusion. In the visual arts, prevalent themes are aristocratic leisure and the pastoral, depicted in stage-like settings. It is often regarded as the final expression of the Baroque movement and is sometimes called Late Baroque.
Originally created by 194.102.123.xxx
2/25/2002, 3:43:11 PM
Modified
5/19/2026, 2:29:09 PM
Recent revisions
/* England */ CE, endash spacing per MOS:RANGE
I just had to fix the layout because it hurt my eyes so bad. It was one word per line
Plain text short description — [[WP:SDFORMAT]]
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1352722241|1352722241]] by [[Special:Contributions/GhostInTheMachine|GhostInTheMachine]] ([[User talk:GhostInTheMachine|talk]]) Ideally a (non-breaking) space should follow very short modifiers such as c., fl., r., b., and d. ([[MOS:NUM]])
Changing [[Wikipedia:Short description|short description]] from "Artistic style in Europe and colonies, c. 1730–1780" to "Artistic style in Europe and colonies, c.1730–1780"
/* top */Refine lead and short description: harmonize short description with related art movements; add 'Western' to properly contextualize the style; link to the specific genre of pastoral for precision
/* top */Update Ety image to Mondon's title page (NGA 144639); move preexisting Ety images to Char; add information to Lead; reduce usage of {{lang}}
/* top */Lead: add reference to scale and refine prose Ety & Char: remove and add links; minor term change
/* top */Copyedit lead; add template
/* top */Lead: Disambiguate link (French → French language)
/* top */Add English audio file to the lead; French pronunciation now uses {{IPAc-fr}}
/* top */Copyedit: Infobox: Change ''Stiftskirche'' to ''Pfarrkirche''; Characteristics: Standardize to historical present tense; remove redundancy; refine terminology; add link.
/* top */Refine infobox: Update alt text and Mariä Geburt caption for precision
/* top */Update infobox to 4-image grid showing Rococo's span: Soubise (intimate origins) & Rottenbuch (grand religious climax); remove duplicate body images ([[MOS:IMAGES]]); copyedit lead for flow; fix case; remove fresco overlink ([[MOS:OVERLINK]])
/* top */Copyedit: remove verbosity and puffery ([[WP:PEACOCK]]) for plain English; merge short subsection in 'Characteristics'; swap lead image to Augustusburg Palace; update infobox fields
/* top */Minor copyedit in Lead and Characteristics; fix {{cite book}} template errors for Duby/Daval & Schönberger
/* top */Lead, Etymology & Characteristics: restore previous century spellings for consistency ([[MOS:CENTURY]]); remove superfluous links ([[WP:OVERLINK]])
/* top */Polish Lead, Etymology & Characteristics; restructure and expand Characteristics; integrate Art Nouveau context into main Characteristics; update bibliography: add Kimball (1980) & standardize citation templates for Duby/Daval and Schönberger
/* Etymology */Fix Wiktionary links; rebracket link
/* top */Copyedit lead, Etymology, and Characteristics for prose flow and encyclopedic tone; apply {{lang}} and {{gloss}} templates to foreign terms per [[MOS:LANG]]; add links
