French Baroque / Rococo

Question 1

What were the four most significant ideas associated with the Baroque period in France?

Answer 1

Concetto
Absolutism & Hierarchy
Regularitie
Mercantilism

Question 2

Mercantilism

Answer 2

An economic model that was in use in Europe in 17th century. Everything was
produced under government control. King is the center of everything. No importation.

Question 3

Concetto

Answer 3

Connect Louis’ reign to heaven. Elsewhere, Baroque was all about the Catholic
church’s propaganda. In France, Louis XIV replaces God.

Question 4

Absolutism & Hierarchy

Answer 4

Society had been subjected to centralized government that had sought
to control their thoughts. (This influenced the built environment immensely. How? For
example, Académie des Beaux-Arts educated talented students in various areas including
painting, sculpture, and architecture) The King was able to control architects and designers.

Question 5

Regularitie

Answer 5

Louis XIV wanted to see a certain amount of regularity in design:
Gridded and controlled interiors

Question 6

What are the major characteristics of French Baroque design?

Answer 6

Symmetrical floor plans (bilateral symmetry)
* Attention to privacy: Rooms become ever more socially exclusive towards the end of the wing. If you were
important and close enough you may be able to move to antechamber from the salon.
* Social hierarchy is represented through spaces. Social filters: 17th century spaces are significant in terms of
social screening.
* Gendered spaces: Two separate wings for husband and wife in the design of the French chateau. Gendered
themes for rooms (For example, in the Palace of Versailles Salon of Peace was for the Queen and Salon of
War was for the King)
* Stiff and formal furniture arrangements. Furniture was designed to be lined up against the wall.

Question 7

What is Boulle work?

Answer 7

This technique invented by Charles Boulle (1642-1732), involved cutting the two sheets of
materials simultaneously; thus enough material was available for two pieces of furniture, one with tortoise
as the background and other with brass as background.

Question 8

What are the two most significant spaces in the Baroque period? And
why?

Answer 8

• Salon: A public space used for balls. This is the public face of the owner of the chateau or the palace.
• Bedroom: Baroque is the high point of bedrooms. The bed had never been more important than the
  Baroque period. It becomes an altar piece. Absolute monarchy is being invented at this time. The way
  monarchs held their power is through the bedroom. The bedroom becomes a ceremonial space. The
  lineage and stability of the dynasty depends on this space.

Question 9

CHATEAU OF VAUX-LE-VICOMTE name the style/period. List the names of designers associated with it. Provide and
approximate date

Answer 9

Louis Le Vau (Architect),
Charles LeBrun (Interior Designer),
and André Le Nôtre (Landscape Architect)
Designed For M. Fouquet
1656 or The Second Half of the 17th century, or Mid 17th
century
French Baroque

Question 10

Room of the Bull’s Eye Window

Answer 10

PALACE OF VERSAILLES, 1661-1715
* Louis XIV was getting older. Rooms become smaller and
more intimate towards the end of his reign.
* A lighter decoration is used in this space.
* Substitution of expensive materials with more modest
materials-No marble veneers for example. (France was
having financial problems)
* King is loosing control over architecture

Question 11

Tabouret

Answer 11

Upholstered stool

Question 12

Commode

Answer 12

Chest of drawers which was
introduced during Louis XIV period

Question 13

Fauteuil

Answer 13

High-backed upholstered armchair

Question 14

Torchiere

Answer 14

Floor lamp

Question 15

Armoire

Answer 15

Cupboard

Question 16

Chaise

Answer 16

High-backed upholstered armless chair

Question 17

French Baroque Furniture details

Answer 17

Use of Boulle work (contrasting brass
and tortoiseshell surfaces)
* Use of ormolu: gilt-bronze mounts
* A preference for absolute symmetry
* Carvings are not figurative or as
heavy as they would have been in
Italy
* Balanced: Not top or bottom heavy.
Elegant.
* A preference for straight lines
compared to Italian Baroque. (Top
view)
* Lavish but tasteful ornamentation

Question 18

Rococo Furniture Details

Answer 18

Bombé (Swell front chest). This particular
piece of furniture became fashionable in the
French Rococo period.
* More delicate in its ornamentation compared
to British examples
* A preference for three-dimensional free-
flowing curves (top and side views have
curvilinear lines)
* The decoration overcomes the structure of the
piece: It is not possible to identify the
structural components vs. decorative ones.
* Feet that look like seashells.
* While overall, the piece seems symmetrical, it
is not

Question 19

What were the major ideas of the Rococo style?

Answer 19

A reaction against the French Baroque period and Louis XIV’s imposition of strict rules on architecture and
interiors
* Pursuit of pleasure and happiness
* A great rejection against regularité, formality and dullness
* Aesthetics of the period relied on feminine forms with curvilinear lines. Aesthetic theories were developed.
Line of beauty was thought to be found in a woman’s body. Things are beautiful as they have these kinds of
curved & soft lines. Rococo designers used three-dimensional free-flowing curves.

Question 20

What were the major design themes of French Rococo?

Answer 20

Feminine influences
Fascination with nature
Overcome of decoration
Furniture becomes the synthesis of art
Gendered spaces
Functionalism
controls interiors

Question 21

Feminine influences

Answer 21

Smaller, casual, intimate apartments (rooms)
General softening of ornamental style
The design of furniture becomes more conducive to conversation (lighter, better
scaled and easy to move pieces)
Greater attention to comfort

Question 22

Fascination with nature

Answer 22

Nature overcomes architectural grid through idealized nature
representations, and asymmetrical forms

Question 23

Overcome of decoration

Answer 23

The architectural framework of interiors begins to dissolve in Rococo
Disintegration of interiors and architecture
Even if a piece of furniture is composed of a number of pieces, the structure is
hidden under ornamentation
The structure is subverted to design and ornament

Question 24

Furniture becomes the synthesis of art

Answer 24

Sculptural pieces

Question 25

Gendered spaces

Answer 25

separate wings

Question 26

Functionalism

Answer 26

controls interiors: Disengagement of stories for convenience and comfort (It is not possible to
tell the second floor plan by looking at the first floor plan

Question 27

Le salon de la princesse, Hotel de Soubise, Paris, 1735

Answer 27

French Rococo
Germain Boffrand & Charles Natoire
* One of the best Rococo interiors.
* The concetto was a free standing garden pavilion.
* Designers gave the illusion of a garden pavilion by utilizing mirrors.
* These mirrors in panels implied the idea of opening to nature.
* Highly artificial wall elevation (False windows, etc.)
* Salon Ovale is the last room on the sequence of enfilade.
* Decorative elements illusionistically detaches themselves from the
architectural context.