The idea of Rococo /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Park, William, 1930-
Imprint:Newark : University of Delaware Press ; London : Associated University presses, c1992.
Description:138 p. : ill ; 31 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Arts, Rococo
Arts, Modern -- 18th century
Arts, Modern.
Arts, Rococo.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/1354148
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:087413434X
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Review by Choice Review

The title indicates the book's intention--i.e., this is not an examination of the monuments of rococo art and architecture, but rather an assessment of the notion of rococo art. In the introductory chapter, the author reviews various theoretical approaches to, and definitions of, the rococo, alighting finally on his own, which is loosely based on the sociological paradigm of Arnold Hauser (The Social History of Art, 2v., 1951). In the first chapter he sees the rococo style as revolutionary avant la lettre, in that it broke with the stolid and oppressive regularity of baroque decoration of Louis XIV and its overtones of autocracy for a style that was more "democratic" and less hieratical in treatment (i.e., soft room colors, intimacy of spaces, and playfulness of ornament), and in the case of painting and sculpture, the increasing secularization of subject matter. Much of the rest of the book deals with rococo "culture" in general--that is, literature and philosophy and how all seem to be a seamless construct with some variegations. A pungent and terse introduction to the subject, and worthwhile for acquisition. Excellent notation and bibliography, and few but superb color plates. General; undergraduate (all levels); graduate; faculty. L. R. Matteson; University of Southern California

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
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