Baroque & Rococo

The 17th and 18th centuries saw an increase in scientific and philosophic advances. Both the Baroque and Rococo styles reflect these changing times. There were more colours and the art made during that time had more emotions or looked more dramatic. The 17th Century could be called the first modern age. Human awareness of the outside world was increasing due to trading.

Baroque architectureIn Baroque architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing, colonnades, domes, light-and-shade 'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void. In interiors, Baroque movement around and through a void informed monumental staircases that had no parallel in previous architecture. The other Baroque innovation in worldly interiors was the state apartment, a processional sequence of increasingly rich interiors that culminated in a presence chamber or throne room or a state bedroom. The sequence of monumental stairs followed by a state apartment was copied in smaller scale everywhere in aristocratic dwellings of any pretensions.

Interior design of Rococo

In those Continental contexts where Rococo is fully in control, sportive, fantastic, and sculptured forms are expressed with abstract ornament using flaming, leafy or shell-like textures in asymmetrical sweeps and flourishes and broken curves; intimate Rococo interiors suppress architectonic divisions of architrave, frieze and cornice for the picturesque, the curious, and the whimsical, expressed in plastic materials like carved wood and above all stucco (as in the work of the Wessobrunner School). Walls, ceiling, furniture, and works of metal and porcelain present a unified ensemble. The Rococo palette is softer and paler than the rich primary colors and dark tonalities favored in Baroque tastes.

Reflection

             The Rococo Interior in Gatchina

                         Baroque's Hall Of Mirrors.

How interesting. Even though the time difference between the two period seem to be very small, i can see a big contrast in taste the people had. Those who lived during the Baroque period obviously preferred strong and bold colours. To me, the buildings and clothes from the baroque and Rococo period seems so similar to the renaissance that i find it rather boring. To look at is beautiful but perhaps i have had an overdose talking about architecture and clothes that im rather bored of the topic.

SO, this time round i want to talk about the music and an inventor during that period for a change.
This is what i think are awesome composers during that period.

Beethoven

Beethoven Baroque- Relaxation music
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwpiHVCnpt4

This is one of his works .To me, the struggle that comes through his music is what makes it so compelling. The struggle was always part of his life. The determination to be an artist on his own terms which i think you can hear it in his music. Music that against the odds articulate the mind power of the human spirit that even if he was deaf he still could compose a wonderful piece.

Tchaikovsky

Another person that i find most interesting during this period was Sir Issac Newton

He came up with Mechanics and gravitation and developed the optics. This was also the guy, that in the past i cursed at during secondary school because of his work that today modern calculas is formed.

 

I think he must have died very painfully. As an alchemist, Newton would have most likely handled both toxic metals improperly. Tasting substances was a part of the alchemic tradition and the toxicity of metals was not understood at this time. His dead body was found to have high toxins of mercury.

He didn't beleive in god but i find that he spent a great deal of time working out when was the date for the end of the world. He describes his attempts to extract scientific information from the Bible, and estimated that the world would end no earlier than 2060. I hope his prediction will not be true!

Well, this period reminds me of my childhood favourite show: Anastasia. Its really old cause it was made in 1997)

The plot is loosely based on an urban legend which claimed that Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last

monarch of imperial Russia,

find out about her forgotten past.

This as you can see the decorations from the walls to

the carpet really reminds me of the Rococo period and

a mix of the Baroque period.

As it was supposed to be an animation, colours that were

used were stronger. Russian royalty was symbolised by

the colour red over hear, but i cant help noticing the

intricate details nthe walls which mimics both the

Rococo period and the Baroque period.

I think during that time multifunctional furniture was

definately not thought of during that time.

I suppose as i see majority of the spaces in the houses

look huge.

The hair and clothes affair during this period.

Reflections

I must say, I don’t envy the women anymore who had to wear these clothes every day. it look like it Not onlly take hours

to assemble (hair, makeup, and dress that takes as long to get into as it does to get out),(no wonder people during that

period were said to have horrible skin even worst the makeup during that time was not exactly skin friendly)

it is also extremely physically demanding. Narrow waist and chest crush your lungs making breathing a luxury

(no wonder women were fainting all the time!), and the sheer weight of the garments & jewellary puts

tremendous strain on your feet.

Dresses back in the day really weren’t really designed for movement. It’s essentially a human-shaped cage limiting

movement down to standing, sitting, and maybe stealing an occasional sip of air. This explains why royal portraits

were so stoic and rigid!

I find it gross too that such hairdresses were homes for lots of insects. When i think of insects i think of ticks!

It must have been a tick paradise there! the hair is so high till they had to scratch with a stick. I can not even

fathom how it is like to sleep !

The history of the women hairstyle of the 18th century can be divided into several stages.

Till 1713 the aristocratic ladies were still wearing the fontage which form and look by itself

was a piece of art.

The new era in headdresses began in 1713, at a ceremonial reception at Versailles, when a

Duchess of Shrewsbury appeared before Louis XIV without a fontage with the smooth and

slightly curly hair decorated with lace and -owers.

Louis liked that, and since he was the leader of European fashion at that time it was

a command for the court to follow this new trend in hairstyles.

This seeming simplicity became a major fashion tendency of Rococo century.

However somewhere from mid 70-ies the hairstyle started “growing up” again.

It emerged into a complex structure and was was as high and unimaginable as

ever before. Ingenious women used almost everything they could nd to make their

headdress ,including most popular belts, jewelry, fabrics, -owers, fruit.

The most stylish women managed to wear stuffed birds, statues and even a

mini-gardens with tiny articial tree on their heads. The well known and beloved

A-la Belle Poule hair model with the famous frigate also belongs to this time.

Such a design could take the whole day and coiture itself could be weared for

several days and sometimes even a week. Not speaking about the fact that it was

impossible to sleep, such hairdresses were homes for lots of insects and it was allowed

to scratch the head with a special stick

in fact survived the execution of her family,she sets off to a journey to remember and