Exploring Rococo and Romanticism: The Effect of Time on Artistic Shift

This essay explores the distinctions between Rococo and Romanticism, two significant Western art movements. Rococo, prominent in the 17th and early 18th centuries, is characterized by heavy ornamentation, simple lines, and a focus on style, particularly in furniture, architecture, and sculpture. Romanticism, emerging in the late 18th century as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, emphasizes emotion over logic, highlighting awe, terror, and horror. While Rococo is a passive art form with muted colors, Romanticism is dynamic with vibrant colors and intense emotions. Romanticism critiqued Rococo for being unreal and lacking genuine emotion, contrasting Rococo's love for asymmetry and decoration without focus on human forms. Romanticism portrays nature as wild and energetic, differing from Rococo's focus on wealthy aristocrats. Despite some similarities in sensuality and curvilinear styles, Romanticism's vibrant colors, inspired by Middle Eastern art, starkly contrast Rococo's lighter tones.

Explain the differences between Rococo and Romanticism and how the changes of the time
affected art.
Rococo is a Western art movement that became popular during the 17th and early 18th
century. Rococo is a heavily decorative style of art which favoured simple lines and order.
Rococo was a French art movement focusing on style and was more popular in furniture,
architecture and sculpture than in paintings. Romanticism, on the other hand, was an intellectual
movement that sprang up during the late 18th century. Romanticism developed as a response to
the Industrial Revolution and thus was against the scientific rationalization and in general
contradicted with the Age of Enlightenment. Emotion, rather than logic, was stressed in this
particular style with emphasis on emotions such as terror, awe and horror.
Romanticism can be defined as a dynamic art form with its vibrant use of colors and
emotions. Rococo, on the other hand, is a passive art form that uses muted colors and shows no
emotion. Emotion and rationality are two ends of a spectrum, and the relationship between
Romanticism and Rococo can be understood by the fact that Romanticism represented emotion
while Rococo relied on logic (Etro & Stepanova, 2015).
Since Romanticism was a movement that came later on, it was a reaction towards the
Rococo artists. Artists from the era of Romanticism were against the forms developed by the
Rococo artists. They were not inspired by the beauty of the perfect subjects that the Rococo
artists painted. Rather Romanticism criticized the Rococo art for being unreal and without any
real emotions. Rococo style loved asymmetry, though it was new to the European art. Rococo
loved decoration, though it did not focus on human forms. In their use of colors, Romantic art
was quite contrary to that of the Rococo art. Romantic artists used vibrant colors, inspired by the
Middle East artists while their earlier peers depended on muted colors (Trapasso, 2014).
Rococo is best described as ornamented, flowery and sensual. In terms of color pastels
and lighter tones were popular. On the other hand, Romanticism focused on nature in terms of its
subjects and portrayed nature as wild, energetic and, even, violent. Rococo focuses on people,
specifically wealthy aristocrats while Romanticism depicts nature and its fury. In some senses,
the sensuality of Rococo and the focus on nature in Romanticism are similar in their focus on the
physical and the senses. Also, the colors, haziness and curvilinear styles of Romanticism and
Rococo are comparable and contrast with the straight lines.

References
Etro, F., & Stepanova, E. (2015). The Market for Paintings in Paris between Rococo and
Romanticism: The Market for Paintings in Paris between Rococo and Romanticism.
Kyklos, 68(1), 28–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12072
Trapasso, E. (2014, January 2). The Romance of Romanticism. Retrieved March 30, 2019, from
artnet News website: https://news.artnet.com/market/the-romance-of-romanticism-32796