Rococo Timeline

Russian Rococo was introduced largely by Empress Elisabeth and Catherine the Great during the eighteenth century, through court architects such as Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.

The number of European porcelain factories grew steadily during the eighteenth century. Some produced porcelain affordable to the expanding middle classes, helping Rococo objects circulate more widely.

Russian Orthodox church architecture was heavily influenced by Rococo during the eighteenth century, often using a square Greek-cross plan with four equidistant wings.

Commissioned by Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn, the Würzburg Residence became a notable example of German Rococo architecture. Balthasar Neumann designed the building and its interiors.

Image source: Würzburg Residence

Narciso Tomé created the design of El Transparente between 1721 and 1732. Its construction allows light to pass through, making the work appear to move as illumination changes.

Balthasar Neumann designed the iconic Rococo stairway at Augustusburg Castle in Brühl. Its sequence of painting, sculpture, and ironwork creates surprising views as visitors ascend.

Johann Joachim Kändler became the most important modeller at Meissen, the earliest European porcelain factory. Meissen remained the most important European producer until about 1760.

François de Cuvilliés created the Amalienburg pavilion in Munich, one of the first Rococo buildings in Germany. He was inspired by French pavilions at the Grand Trianon and Château de Marly.

Image source: Amalienburg

French Rococo sculpture included the later fountains at Versailles, such as the Fountain of Neptune by Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and Nicolas-Sébastien Adam. Étienne-Maurice Falconet was another leading sculptor of the period.

Rococo flourished in England between 1740 and 1770, transforming furniture and interior design after an earlier period dominated by the neoclassical Palladian model.

Balthasar Neumann designed the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, one of the notable Bavarian pilgrimage churches influenced by Rococo.

Image source: Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Dominikus Zimmermann designed the Wieskirche, one of the most notable examples of Bavarian Rococo church architecture.

Image source: Wieskirche

Johann Michael Fischer created the Rococo design of Ottobeuren Abbey. Its regular facade contrasts sharply with the abundance of decoration inside.

Image source: Ottobeuren Abbey

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo travelled to Germany with his son from 1750 to 1753 to decorate the ceilings of the Würzburg Residence. His work became one of the major landmarks of Bavarian Rococo.

Image source: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

At the Würzburg Residence, Tiepolo created a mural above the three-level ceremonial stairway. Neumann described the interior as a theatre of light.

A version of Watteau's Pilgrimage to Cythera was purchased by Frederick the Great of Prussia in either 1752 or 1765 to decorate Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

Thomas Chippendale published The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, a widely popular catalogue of Rococo, chinoiserie, and Gothic furniture designs.

Image source: Thomas Chippendale

Thomas Johnson, one of the most successful British Rococo carvers and furniture designers, published a catalogue of Rococo furniture designs in 1761.

Eighteenth-century women's fashion became ornate and sophisticated. The robe volante appeared in the early eighteenth century, while the pannier and mantua became fashionable around 1718.

The year 1745 was described as the Golden Age of Rococo fashion, with the introduction in France of a more exotic oriental culture known as à la turque.

During the second half of the eighteenth century, a reaction against Rococo developed, primarily in response to the style's perceived overuse of ornament and decoration.

In Germany, late eighteenth-century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke, meaning pigtail and periwig. This late phase is sometimes called Zopfstil.

By the late eighteenth century, Rococo was largely replaced by Neoclassicism, whose emphasis on order, symmetry, and classical seriousness contrasted with Rococo's ornament and asymmetry.

By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France and was replaced by the order and seriousness associated with Neoclassical artists such as Jacques-Louis David.

By the early nineteenth century, Catholic opinion had turned against Rococo's suitability for ecclesiastical contexts, arguing that the style was in no way conducive to sentiments of devotion.

By the mid-nineteenth century, art historians had widely accepted Rococo as a legitimate historical style, although the term was still often used dismissively for heavily ornamented architecture or music.

Art historians Stephan Tschudi-Madsen and Debora L. Silverman identify Rococo's asymmetrical, curvilinear, and botanical elements as a source for the late-nineteenth-century Art Nouveau movement.

Image source: Art Nouveau