!!!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.


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