Rokoko#

Rococo, from French "rocaille" (= shellwork), style of ornamentation and interior decoration characterised by forms derived from artificial rockwork and shellwork. The shell, partly modified into coxcomb shapes, was the most prominent ornamental motif of the Rococo style. More specifically, the term refers to the sumptuous style developed in France during the reign of King Louis XV which subsequently swept over large parts of Europe. It is characterised by white-and-gold contrasts, pastel hues, lively, curved but always flat ornamentation, and asymmetrical, highly varied shapes. Its themes (bucolic idylls, mythological, often erotic subjects) and their representation are dainty and light-hearted in nature. Form and content are governed by sophisticated refinement and elegance. Architecture merely serves as a support for images and ornamentation, and the decorative arts play an important role. The term is often erroneously applied to Austrian late Baroque. In Austria, genuine Rococo art is relatively rare and hardly ever occurs in pure form, and characteristically in those regions where the influence of western European art was particularly strong, for instance at the Court of Vienna (Schoenbrunn), in Tirol and near the Bavarian border. The late Baroque style in Austria is actually much closer to the French Regence style, i.e. the style that preceded the Rococo in France, but it absorbed some individual elements of the Rococo in the course of the second quarter of the 18th century, bringing about a synthesis of styles most evident in the Abbey Churches of Wilten in Tirol and Wilhering in Upper Austria.