1 Camilla Satte

7/31/2017
ARTICLE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT

The article, The Salon de la Princesse: Rococo Design, Ornamented Bodies and
the Public Sphere, was written by Sherry McKay. The author defined the role of cultural and
social life of France and its influence on art of decoration and architecture. She described how
Rococo style formed in order to get adjusted to the new lifestyle of prerevolutionary period
with its fine ornamentation details of interior and exterior space.
McKay included development of historical events to provide better understanding of
life in France during Rococo period. Rococo is the epoch of the design of that prerevolutionary
culture, when everything previously found and achieved was brought together to a coherent
system of etiquette standards, the art of diplomacy, and gallant communication. A certain top of
the style was reached, when life itself in all its manifestations from ceremonial rituals of guests
receptions to intimate tet-a-tetes in the boudoir, walks through the garden and table serving
turned into work of art, everything was honed in all the details and rules.
The gallant age came; it was like a new idea, which seized an enlightened society.
Relations between the genders became sublime and passionate; during some discussions ladies
could participate on an equal basis with men. The sophistication of manners, the skill of a witty
compliment was required to succeed in higher society. Based on the art of flirting a new
aesthetic of relationship was developed, because faithful living in a marriage was considered
boring and love intrigues became mandatory. For example, because of the convergence of
female and philosophic ambitions when the salon became institution of Enlightenment by
embodying a new set of values, to depict that changing status of women Venus became the
leading female image of the Rococo, because the archetypal female symbol.
A certain system of building planning was also important, where a salon is placed in the
center of the architectural structure. Salons played a huge role in political, cultural and social
life of France. In the classical salon of the XVIII century, conversations are conducted on any
topic, where the relative equality existed between bourgeois and aristocracy, and guests, such
as writers, poets, musicians and actors.
In response to the new social order and its representation, French architects developed
a Rococo style. Indeed, the walls and ceiling of the Salon de la Princesse in the Hotel de
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Soubis designed by Germain Boffrand, are decorated with inlaid ornaments and furniture with
rich carvings. This salon is decorated with mirrors and paintings of fantasized images, their
depicted space oscillating before and within it, that creates invisible transition from walls to
the ceiling. Mirrors and miniature paintings are playing important roles in architectural
decoration. By locating mirrors one against the other, the mirrors give a lot of reflections,
spreading candlelight and deceptively expanding the space of the intimate salon.
Rococo opens the sphere of the sensuality and emotions, in the individual perceptions of
every person. It elaborates the scale of sensual experiences of a person, explores moods and all
kinds of pleasures, creating suitable room atmosphere for every occasion. Rococo interior of
hotels and palaces forms environment closer to nature, very organic, by using flower and plant
garlands, curved lines and shapes. Also, the new life style required relatively small rooms,
salons and boudoir with design, tuning to the appropriate mood. Hence the flattening of the
dcor and the large planes of the walls, decorated with exquisite details and delicate shades of
blue, lilac, and pink colors.
Rococo style to some extent transforms the external forms and interiors of the
architectural structures. Architects use much more elegant decorative elements and by this
rooms acquire more intimacy. A virtuous elegance of form, where everything is sharpened to a
jewelers luster, so even with considerable semantic and compositional complexity of the piece,
the impression is of an exciting feeling of lightness and floatiness. Rococo is associated with
the cult of youth and the brighter side of the world. It is surrounded with young characters and
conflict-free, and joyful themes. The art of rococo almost did not know the tragedy and rarely
depicted old age. In the work of Rococo, there is often an element of game of riddle, duality or
illusion.
By constantly referring to the state of social statuses changes, political situation, and
cultural standards, McKay has accurately presented the relation of societies changes to the art.
Rococo style originated in France by the beginning of the XVIII century at the apex of the
aristocratic European culture. Salons were the most striking manifestation of the rococo style in
the life of French society. Certain colors, ornamentation, and positioning of objects, brought to
the visual level that sensuous experiences and socio-cultural state.
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Bibliography

McKay, Sherry. The Salon de la Princesse: Rococo Design, Ornamented Bodies and the
Public Sphere. Canadian Art Review, 1994.