on a swing. Illuminated by a beam of sunlight coming through a densecanopy of trees, the two delight in a moment of sportive play. But sinceparadise is fleeting, she will fall back into the arms of an older, seemingly proprietary gentleman.
Through the distribution of ornamental prints and style books, rococo spread quickly throughout Europe and later the United States, eachcountry adding its own interpretation, which often exceeded Frenchmodels in fantasy and extravagance. Rococo also influenced otherbranches of the decorative arts. To create more intimate spaces, thearistocratic and rising mercantile classes filled their homes and gardenswith ceramics and crystal, tapestries and silks, and painting and sculpture. The luxury market responded to the increased demand by creatingever more affordable rococo objects.
While the end of rococo is often marked by Madame du Barry’s rejection of Fragonard’s work, the tide had begun to turn much earlier.Two excavations that began in 1738 of the buried Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii ignited interest in the lives of the Romans and theclassicism of the Italian Renaissance. At the same time, political attitudesRob Prince, Urban Rococo No 1, 2016
