Art in Europe and abroad in the long eighteenth century (1670-1815), with emphasis on le goût moderne, or what later became known as “rococo.” Topics include aesthetic philosophies, rococo art and science, pleasure and cosmetics, global exchange, garden theory, public art criticism, and the persistence of rococo to this day.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Graduate students will be expected to produce an extensive research paper on specific works or issues related to the field and the methodologies appropriate to the topic under consideration in the course. This paper will be a detailed, in-depth consideration of the student's chosen theme requiring not only a demonstration of advanced research skills (including the ability to read and use material presented in foreign languages), but also an articulation of the student's ability to understand and manipulate the critical apparatus of art history in connection with European Art of the long eighteenth century.
Athena Title
Rococo and Co
Prerequisite
Two ARHI 3000-level courses and permission of major
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will develop an understanding of the rococo (originally, le goût moderne), long disregarded for its perceived decadent style and frivolous themes, now understood as congruent with Enlightenment and modern beliefs about aesthetic philosophy and embodiment, consumer culture, gender, colonialism and global capitalism, and even resistance to royal authority.
Students will develop a historical and critical understanding of the rococo.
Students will be able to explain how and why the rococo was constituted, revised, reviled, and then revived.
Students will understand how the study of rococo radically transforms our view of this period into one of greater significance in terms of style, iconography, the art market, and social history.
Students will explore various methods and interpretations of the rococo in assigned readings in English publications.
Students will apply what they have learned in research papers, and benefit from first-hand study of relevant works of art in the Georgia Museum of Art and the Porcelain and Decorative Art Museum.
Topical Outline
Week 1: What’s in a name? Rococo, Rocaille, Le Goût Moderne
Week 2: Rococo Aesthetics and the French Academy
Week 3: The "Origins" of the Rococo Style: Architecture and Decoration
Week 4: Rococo as International [Euro-American] Style
Week 5: Le Genre Rococo: Rococo and Natural History
Week 6: Watteau and the Fête Galante
Week 7: Making Up the Rococo: Gender, Cosmetics, Portraiture
Week 8: Rococo Queens: Women as Artists and Patrons
Week 9: Criticizing the Rococo: La Font de Saint-Yenne and Rococo in Public
Week 10: Rococo Violence: Caricature, Cruelty, and Aesthetic Traps
Weeks 11-12: Colonial Rococo
Week 13: Le Jardin Pittoresque
Week 14: Artists Out of Time: Rococo in the 1780s
Week 15: Van Loo, Pompadour, Rococo: After the Revolution
