1. An overview of the new styles in the 18th century France
The main style of French art in the XVIII century is the Rococo, which was widely spread under Louis XV. In parallel with him, the Greek style developed, arising from the desire to return to ancient motifs in art. An important element of both of these areas was the emphasis on closeness to nature.
Chewing and flirting, submitting to women and greedy to women, striving for charm, fun and convenience, the 18th century appeared on the world stage. In all areas of art and life, it was at the beginning a century of further development and fading of the Renaissance and Baroque, which, however, turned out to be still vital enough to spread as the new spirit of the time in the form of a new independent, light and elegant fashionable style; later, however, touched by the spirit of more courageous seriousness, it everywhere became a zealot of turning, plotting a return to either the Italian renaissance, now to the Roman, then finally to Greek antiquity, but at the same time to nature. If Italy remained in some respects the birthplace of this movement, then nevertheless, these transformations were carried out most clearly and fully on French soil. More resolutely than ever, France assumed the leadership of further artistic development.
New, grown from the Italian Baroque Borromini, Gvarini and Cortona, the architectural style of the era, known in German science under the usual name of Rococo, was French. The term "Rococo" was preceded by the name "Rocaille", denoting shell jewelry and artificial rocky grottoes, but, as a style mark, associated, as Geimüller showed, with shell jewelry. Without going as far as this researcher who wants to limit the meaning of the term “rococo” to the swollen “Rocaille” conch-like formations, we mean by rococo not so much the totality of all the styles of the Louis XV era (1715–1774), but the light, fantasy-filled, decorative the style of this era, which, rooted in the “Gali genius” (esprit gaulois), as a new creation, contrasts not only the baroque of Italy and Germany but also the palladianism of France and England. This style, which is used almost exclusively for interior decoration, is an ornamental style that is missing only on the semicircular protrusions of the walls in the form of lisens, which turns all supporting and bearing pilasters of wall divisions into ornamental frames, and all the frames are ornamented, elongated like the letter S from shells, stripes, ribbons, flowers, leaves and branches, eventually evading as much as possible even from the laws of symmetry. Although Schmarsov, in order to justify the common name for the style, it is true that this interior is often caused by a new, free, designed for a more comfortable lifestyle, the distribution of rooms, a more adapted form of living for the rooms and a lighter inside and outside. rounded edges, with an abundance of large windows and double doors, we still prefer to use the term "Rococo" in a very limited sense, already in view of the contradiction with the French. In addition to Shmarsov and Gamemüller, the concept and essence of Rococo was mainly analyzed in Germany by Tsang, Springer, Semper, Dom, Schumann, Gurlitt, and Jessen. The French, however, call the styles of the eighteenth century simply by the names of the rulers. The style of the late era of Louis XIV is followed by the Regency style (1715–1725), the style of Louis XV is the Pompadour style, followed by the style of Louis XVI, which, however, as the Chef points out, manifests itself in the last decades of Louis XV.
This light free style represents, however, even in France, its homeland, only one of the trends of the style of the XVIII century. In some countries, for example in England, Rococo is completely absent, while in others, especially in Germany, it turns out to be stronger and more durable than in France itself. Significantly stronger than the Rococo current throughout Europe, in all areas of life and art, the recognition of the need for a full turn, often seen in the first half of the century.
Art criticism also warned about the turn of art, speaking more clearly than ever. The turn to Greek antiquity, as opposed to Roman, was already prepared in the 17th century by Greek travels and explorations of Jacques Spon and was already prepared in 1706 in the works of Cordemois, although it is still unclear and with numerous concessions to the style of the era. The discovery of Herculaneum and Pompey (1748), which was first reported by Dartena, indicated the whole of Greco-Roman antiquity as a whole.
The writing about the Roman ruins of Piranesi (1769) was limited mainly to Italian antiquity. The Greek movement was set in motion especially by Count Kailus, the best composition of which was in 1752, by the Athenian studies of Stewart and Revetta, whose great composition was published in 1761, in Germany by Winckelmann, which appeared in 1755 " Thoughts on the imitation of Greek works. Kailus and Winckelmann are two learned leaders of this artistic movement.
Next to the turn to Hellenism, a turn to nature manifests itself along the whole line, the inspired apostle of which was Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). At the same time, this particular turn to nature more than once intertwined with other peculiar impulses. The Rococo style also considered itself a part of nature, in view of the natural freshness that some of his endeavors breathe, and the natural details that he wove into his fantastic frames, and the warming classicism especially willingly declared a claim to new finding of nature, considering the “artless simplicity” to be Greek and at the same time natural, and the Greek temple is directly inspired by nature. It is this peculiar and non-logical comparison of the imitation of the ancient Greeks with the transfer of a genuine nature that gave a special character to the second half of the 18th century. Only a few, such as, for example, the great French critic Diderot, and that only by chance, decided to contradict. “There is nothing mannered,” he says, “neither in drawing nor in colors, if they faithfully imitate nature.” The mannerism comes from the master, from the academy, from the school, even from antiques. ”
The academies, which were now modeled on the Parisian in all European countries and triumphed in the fight against the privileges of the old workshops, had a favorable effect in terms of improving the living conditions of the artists, but they everywhere encouraged the boring, learned correctness, which is called our “academic direction” in a close sense.
But besides this Hellenic-classical and realistic opposing current, who fought with Palladianism, with the Baroque and his daughter, the Rococo movement, two more side currents make their way. One of them was a romance that turned to the Middle Ages, namely to the Gothic. This trend, the literary foundations of which are not the place to trace, arose in the second half of the century in Scotland and England. The oldest buildings in the new Gothic style are in Scotland; In 1771, Goethe's essay On German Architecture appeared, glorifying Gothic. Another direction, East Asian, primarily Chinese, prepared by the mass importation of Chinese porcelain to all European countries, supported by Spence and Chambers' works on Chinese buildings and gardens (1743, 1757, 1772), was expressed in the “Chinese” scenery of the rococo, here and there in the Chinese elongated roofs of palaces and pavilions, it closely merged with Rococo in the new independent porcelain industry of Saxony, and soon other countries, and, which is especially remarkable, took a significant part in the reaction against the Versailles architectonic gardens In Chinese garden art, people thought of finding nature, and perhaps this is precisely what explains some of the shortcomings of the “English” garden style.
2. Leading French architects of the period
During the 18th century, several leading schools and trends in French architecture changed, leaving many distinguished names. Most of the masters in this period work in the Rococo style, by the end of the century classic, more rigorous motifs in architecture came into vogue
Regency Architects
The greatest architect in France in the epoch of “regency” is Robert de Cott (1651–1735), a student and brother-in-law of Jules d'Ardouin Mansart, who completed his palace chapel in Versailles and the Palace of Trianon. The outer sides of its buildings are cold, at the bottom of the Tuscan, at the top of the Corinthian front side of the Oratorio and completed only in 1738 by his son, the classic Renaissance facade of the church of Saint-Roch in Paris, belong to an older and more rigorous direction. His hall Hercules in the Palace of Versailles is the last magnificent marble work of Louis XIV style. In the structure of private hotels, it was Kott who strove for a freer and more consistent basic plan in the spirit of the epoch; it was he who introduced the easier and more lively mode of decoration that prepared the style of Louis XV. His exemplary work of this kind - the restructuring of the Hotel de la Brillard (now the French Bank) in Paris, whose magnificent “Golden Gallery” is one of the most brilliant rooms in France - still retains the complexity of wall pilasters, but in free-flowing and lively individual forms with realistic decorations of the shells and leaves that accompany the pretty figure plastic, should not hesitate to the suggestions of refined artistic fantasy. Outside of Paris, de Cott completed the magnificent episcopal palaces in Verdun and Strasbourg and was the author of the beautiful square of Louis XIV (now Bellecour) in Lyon.
Fig. 200. Robert de Cott. Saint roch church in paris
Of the masters who developed in the same direction as Cott, mention should be made of Calleto the Elder, nicknamed l'Assurans (died in 1724), the builder of a number of Parisian "hotels" with freer distribution of rooms and lighter forms of decorations. With the Italian Girardini, in 1722 he executed the widely spread one-story building of the Bourbon Palace, which, as a meeting place of the French Chamber of Deputies, was rebuilt many times.
It is most convenient to study interior decorations indicating the further development of Rococo in the halls of the Palace of Versailles, Fontainebleau and the Grand Trianon, newly decorated in the XVIII century, also in some private palaces, of which Hotel Subiz is the most accessible, the current main state archive in Paris. Old French inlay wood paneling, exquisitely carved in rococo style and painted with light colors, replaces here the heavy marble pomp of Louis XIV style, borrowed from Italy. Gallic genius felt his strength here. Many of the best scenery of this kind are known only in the form of painted and engraved, published in voluminous collections, projects of the great masters of this art. The beginning of the movement is marked by a group of artists "Gillot-Watteau", whose decorative designs grew out of the "grotesque" of "Beren-Daniel-Marot", and often without going over to Rococo, turned into the style of Louis XVI. Of its representatives, Claude Gillot (1673–1722) and his great student Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), whose scenery in the form of “monkey cells” remained in Chantilly, became famous as painters and etchers.
The architects of the era of Louis XV
Fig. 201. Hall at the Hotel de Subis in Paris, decorated by Germain Voffran
Among the representatives of Louis XV style, Jacques Jules Gabriel (1667–1742) was in the first place. He led the decoration in the new genus of the Versailles Palace, performed, as P. de Nolac showed, with the help of Gabriel, Antwerp sculptor Jacques Verberkt (died in 1771). d) and his rival Antoine Rousseau, the main masters of the "Royal Versailles School". The shells in this Versailles rococo style still occupy a modest subordinate place, and natural motifs, such as palm trees, play a major role in its elegant frames of frames. Jacques Jules Gabriel's peer was Germain Boffran (1667–1754), also known as an architect and as a writer on architecture. He possesses a subtle decoration in the modern spirit (1735–1740) of the rooms of the Hotel Subiz, without straight lines completely replaced by light twists in the shape of S, where the ornament of the sinks harmoniously intertwines with the vegetable one, and cheerful imagination is still connected with a subtle sense of style. A number of other Parisian palaces, like the hotels of Montmorency and de Cignellac, are not only decorated, but also built by Boffran. Since 1766, he has developed extensive construction activities in the service of the Duke Leopold of Lorraine in Nancy, who owes the skillful hands of Boffran to his elegant new cathedral and powerful ducal palace. Both of the best representatives of Rococo higher development are known mainly for their painted and engraved designs. These masters are Gilles Marie Oppenor (1672–1742), the builder of the hotel of the famous collector Pierre Crozat in Paris and Montmorency and the gallery designer Palais-Royal, and Just Orel Meissonier (1693–1750), whose rococo most clearly adjoins the forms of high Baroque Turin masters, like Gvarini, since he was born in Turin. To the best projects collected in the “Works” Meissonier, belong, besides many art and craft objects, the house of the city of Breton and the fabulous “Grotto”, all in the most free wavy lines, raised like a storm, whose fantastic style, according to Geymuller, the only one to keep the rococo name for. For the history of architecture, the design of the facade of Saint Sulpice (1726) Meissonier is especially important. It is distinguished, with all the liveliness of its broken outlines down to the spire of the through middle tower, in pleasant proportions and the unity of the whole. It is significant that this project was not approved, that instead it was implemented by the strictly classical project of Jean-Nicolas Servandoni (1695–1766), completed in 1745 with the exception of two side towers. Over the twelve Doric columns of the lower porch, occupying the entire width of the building, stretches a classically flat entablature with triglyphs, and the upper Ionic floor, topped with a balustrade, also runs smoothly over the lower one. Self-confidently introduces this magnificent building style, later named after Louis XVI.
Fig. 202. Nicola Servandoni. Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris.
A more powerful impression, connected with the remnants of the baroque mood, since the latter was generally possible in France, is produced by some of the buildings whose interior has followed the rococo style. The mentioned Hotel Subiz, erected in 1716 by Delamere (died in 1744), with its deep front courtyard covered by Corinthian double colonnades and a powerful Corinthian middle ledge topped with a pediment, does not give an excuse to expect that its rooms are decorated with playful pomp boffran rococo. For all its classicism, erected back in 1734 by Jean d'Arduin Mansart de Jouy (b. 1700), the Doric-Ionic facade of the old church of Saint Eustache is also quite heavy. The Cathedral of Saint Louis at Versailles (1743–1758) by d'Arduin Mansart de Sagonne gives the impression of greater clarity of the whole, more animated details of its Ionic interior and a richly dissected obverse.
Fig. 203. Jean d'Arduen Mansar de Jouy. Facade of the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris
Finally, let us call Francois Cuvillier (1698–1768), who transferred, as we shall see, the rococo style to Germany.
The architects of the era of Louis XVI
Louis XVI's feminine-pretty style, returning to elegant straight lines and a full sense of proportion in the form of ornaments in the form of light natural leafy wreaths, flower branches and Raphael grotesques, appeared around 1750 under the guidance of Madame de Pompadour, susceptible to the art of Louis XV's lover. The interior of the Cathedral of Louis at Versailles already wore the features of this style. Of the two best parisian churches of this direction, the church of sv. Genevieve, the masterpiece of Jacques Germain Soufflo (1709–1780), was designed in 1755, completed between 1764–1781, then in 1791 for the first time, and in 1885 finally turned into a “Pantheon” dedicated to the memory of people of France. On the basis of the Greek cross stands a magnificent structure, whose front side, resembling the Roman Pantheon, is a portico with a gable, supported by 22 gigantic Corinthian columns, while above its center it is understood on a high dome decorated with 32 Corinthian columns and a canopy crowned by a lantern. В замкнутом, лишенном украшений здании снаружи выступают лишь утонченно расчлененные ветви креста. Только легкие гирлянды украшают фриз. Отдельные формы светлого внутреннего помещения строги и чисты. В подобном же духе выстроил Пьер Контан д'Иври (1698–1773) в 1764 г. церковь Сен Мадлен, уничтоженную при Наполеоне I, чтобы уступить место новой постройке, отмеченной еще более стройным классицизмом начала XIX столетия. В дворцовой архитектуре эпохи Суффло принял участие своим широко раскинувшимся госпиталем в Лионе, украшенным только на среднем и угловых ризалитах большим, т. е. в высоту здания, коринфским ордером над нижним этажом в рустику, а Контан д'Иври — строгим по формам замком Бельведер близ Сен-Клу. Самым известным светским архитектором эпохи был Жак Анж Габриель (1699–1782), сын Жака Жюля. Ему принадлежит перестройка дворца Компьен, ему же классический, изящный, несмотря на большой ордер своего среднего выступа, замок Малый Трианон (1771–1776), достроенный Ришаром Минье; ему же принадлежат два больших дворца Площади Согласия, примыкающие к луврскому фасаду Перро (1762–1770), между которыми, на заднем плане улицы Роаяль, поднимается Мадлен; наконец, он же построил в Версале оба классических, увенчанных фронтонами, дворовых флигеля дворца, нарушающие его единство. Знаменитейший ложно-классический французский театр этой эпохи находится в Бордо. Он построен в 1780 г. Пьером Лу (1735–1807) и служил образцом до XIX столетия.
The style of Louis XVI is most exquisite in the interior decoration of rooms and their furnishings. Straightness, replacing the twists of the Rococo, slimness and tenderness of the individual, maintained in the strictest taste of dismemberment, it is here that the most comely and light form, however, sometimes somewhat stingy. Lesser Trianon is also a model in this respect. To get a clear understanding of the transformations of style that took place in this area during the 18th century, one has only to compare the library of Louis XVI and the large room of Marie Antoinette in the Versailles Palace with the rococo rooms of Louis XV and the baroque rooms of Louis XIV.
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