French Rococo and Neoclassical
1. I would like you to choose a French Rococo interior showing wall paneling, furniture and decorative arts, and floor covering (not previously discussed in class). One of the period rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a good place to start. Discuss the color palette, wall paneling, mirrors (if any), furniture, decorative arts, lighting, and flooring. Where is the room? If it is a period room, where was the room taken from? Include at least one image. Your writing should be at least 300 words. Caution: make sure you have chosen a French Rococo room from the period 1723-1774. Many German rooms look French Rococo.
2. Please choose a piece of French Neoclassical furniture (not previously discussed in class) from the Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fricke Museum, or the Wallace Collection. Discuss it in terms of its meaning with the period. For example, why are its legs straight; why does it look “masculine” or “feminine”; mechanical aspects; fabrics/materials; decorative motifs. Include an image. Your writing should be at least 250 words. Again, caution: make sure you have chosen a French Neoclassical piece from the period 1774-1789.
Sample Answer
Introduction
The French Rococo style first appeared in Paris during the rule of Louis XV between 1723 and 1759. This style was evident in utensils, furniture, and a wide range of accessories that showed features and delicate Rococo lines. French interiors stood designed as total artworks with the furnishings. The style was mainly used in salons, new room styles aimed to entertain and impress guests (Galbraith & Hodgson 2015). Neoclassicism is an architecture movement, arts and designs dominant in France between 1760 and 1830. This paper will discuss a color palette, wall paneling, mirrors, furniture, decorative arts, lighting, and flooring of a French Rococo interior, meaning, and materials of French Neoclassical furniture. It will also discuss a decorative object of the English Renaissance era in terms of meaning or symbolism and history of Agecroft Hall, a historic site in Richmond, Virginia (Hodgson 2015).
French Rococo Interior
Architecture Jacques Gabriel constructed Hôtel de Varengeville for Charlotte and daughter Jeanne inherited the house in 1732. Duchesse four years later sold the house to Marie Marguerite. She owned the building till her death in the year 1752 having commissioned the museum’s paneling. Boiserie from Hôtel de Varengeville is a superb carving wall panel partially in high relief. It establishes the glory of this paneling from one of the private residences of the hotel. Walls are decorated with golden molded seashells combined with twisting vines for decorations. Mirror frames are perched with features of carved ornaments such as long-necked birds related to a drawing attributed to Nicolas Pineau from 1684 to 1754. The furniture is filled with Marquetry. Marquetry is the manner of inlaying Ivory designs and woods in a piece of veneer and then attached to the furniture. It is as well painted with gold. In the hotel, there is a presence of valuable objects such as picture frames, clocks, mantelpieces, mirrors, and candlesticks beautified to decorate the room. Candlesticks fixed in stands to light the room and a floor covered with a dense, attractive woolen carpet that matches with the seats in the place. The apartment is found in the Hôtel de Varengeville in French, Paris. It is a period of room taken from the Metropolitan Museum of arts (Marshall 2016).
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202996
French Neoclassical Furniture
The top front desk meant for writing appears in the Louis XV furniture with a classic and sober appearance. It is covered with a leather top and thin straight legs. The legs achieve a balance making the desk likely support heavy pieces of case furniture in slim legs without using stretchers. The desk has a feminine appearance, decorated with a basket of flowers suspended from a bowknot. History as well shows that this furniture graced collections of two different remarkable women. First owned by the famous soprano Marie Josephine and after her death, the desk was sold to Maria Feodorovna. Corners decorated with golden brass rosettes; oak woods are used to make the furniture with added mahogany and embody inlays and have elegant and straightforward golden bronze drawer knobs, keyholes and a delicately decorated trim fence around the top. It also has a writing surface that pulls down with drawers beneath and shelves on the sides. Clock and decorative objects can be placed on the marge shelf at the top of the desk.
A Decorative Object of English Renaissance Era
An aquamanile is a form of a decorative object during the English Renaissance period in the form of Samson and the lion. The lion Aquamanile is an art of copper alloy meaning water (aqua) and hand (Manus) describing the function of a lively lion. The bearded Samson is balanced on the lions back, his knee bent and with his hands grasping the lion’s jaws. The art shows Samson wearing a fitted jacket and hose with pointy shoes. There is no struggle portrayed between Samson and the lion due to the beast’s position of legs. The lion seems to revolve its head almost 180 degrees to offend the opponent. The lions tufted head of hair is strongly engraved. The Aquamile remains difficult to localize using any precision.
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.1412/
Agecroft Hall
The hall remains an estate and a Tudor Manor house which is located at salvage road on James River in the Windsor farms neighboring Richmond, Virginia in the United States. It was constructed in the 15th century situated in Irwell valley. The hall was purchased by a wealthy entrepreneur, Mr. Thomas from Richmond Virginia upon his architect’s advice. Americans wealthy families by the time had begun constructing extended country estates emulating the European styles. Mr. Williams had desires building a real English manor house, and therefore, he had the hall dismantled and transported across Atlantic. It was reconstructed in his 23-acre estate where it has remained since 1926 to 1927. Williams’s architect, Mr. Morse, was to create a comfortable and functional mansion significant of halls English predecessor.
After some period of services as a reserved residence, the hall then turned into a house museum having glorious gardens paying tribute to Elizabethan age.
The hall was owned by the family of Prestwich as from 1292 when Edmund Crouchback gave land on River Irwell banks in the Lancashire to Adam de Prestwich. In 1350, Alice de Prestwich and Jordan’s daughter, Johanna got married to Richard de Langley. Her parents and brother’s death due to the plaque that rose in their land. The term Agecroft means the field of wild celery. It was an accepted circa 1376 and ancient name Pendlebury dropped for the manor house rather than for the village. Langleys were a powerful local family for several centuries holding significant lands in the area and lived in this hall till the year 1561 when the male line failed. Later in 1662 Heart Tax returns, Agecroft Hall recorded 11 homes out of 35 in total in the entire Pendlebury. At the end of the 19th century, industrialization cleared through the Irwell Valley, causing effects to the wall which fell beyond repair and was auctioned to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas in 1925. Presently, the Hall remains re-created on the James River banks within a setting preferred significant of its original site at Agecroft nearby River Irwell. Agecroft’s ground to date imitates the English gardens with Elizabethan aromatics designed by Charles Gille (Mills 2016).
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/58/16/d7/and-this-is-only-one.jpg
Conclusion
Rococo architecture is a style excellent and evident to a wide range of accessories like decorative arts portrayed in interior walls very attractive and beautiful. Neoclassical sculptures and designs consisted of furniture which had meaning. For instance, having straight legs was considered feminine.
