The creation of the design era, Rococo, was something of an evolution in design as a whole, to the extent of affecting and altering not only design, but also the lifestyle in which was taken by the small group of wealthy and powerful people during early 18th Century France, where the birth of Rococo arose. Rococo was carried on by Poussin and Peter Paul Rubens, French Rococo artists, after the death of Louis XIV King of France, Rococo could only be seen as an extension of other European art, till it unique and status of wealth empowered the idea of an extension, to a rising of a new Design Era.

  Rococo design defined itself in a way of expressing a large range of curves, patterns and incredibly small details. Though these details were considered unnecessary by many, as it was like filling an empty space, it was one of the primary characteristics of Rococo; defining its uniqueness to the extent of making everything, whether it is furniture or art, define Rococo.  Continuing to express its Evolution in Design, the colour scheme of Rococo, became almost the definition of wealth itself. White and gold, such an adequate combination for the design of Rococo itself. The gold in Rococo design, is the representation of wealth and power. White, shows purity, perfection, what wealthy people were considered.

  When combined all to construct Rococo, it is understandable as to how Rococo still defines well now and continues to own that title in the future.

I came across a couple of small tables in the style of Rococo. Rococo is seen in a way that shows that the owner of items made in this design era show wealth and their interest in having the better things in life, this would be owned mostly by Rich French people and Aristocrats. The description on the page tells that they reproduce these highly detailed tables hand carved with Mahogany, which explains the high price that is put on it for such quality of replicating a design era as complex as Rococo. What always catches my eye about Rococo is the colours used in order to represent wealth, as it uses a lot of gold tint and white for the rest, or just completely gold, as seen in the photos.  this may still be desirable in today’s world as we do still have wealthy people today who enjoy showing off their status. Rococo design would follow a process of adding an extensive amount of curves and patterns to bring out a unique yet odd looking design, it was seen that Rococo just added a lot of unnecessary details, adding to the individuality of the design era, these are all noticeable in the Trade me page I found.  Finally, I believe that Rococo will still be an item of furniture to the group of wealthy people who see it as you could say, upper class furniture. It will be a symbol of wealth due to its past, as it still is now, and it will be in the future.

   Rococo was an artistic period emerging from France in an era of luxury and decadence.

Is there a place for Rococo’s exuberant style in this post modernist time era? The era in which Rococo was dominant was that from the 1730 till around 1765 (Hunter-Steibel P. pp 3.) Rococo became popular within the upper class part of society, with a large amount of money. This hierarchy is not something that continued openly after the French Revolution and is not seen as strongly in the society of today. The economic climate is not one with an abundance of money and therefore the lifestyle of luxury is not possible for many people. Therefore the frivolity and “Eccentricity” (Hunter-Steibel P. pp 3) of the Rococo design is deemed unnecessary. Rococo cannot claim to have a major stature in today’s design aesthetic which is being predominantly influenced by more minimalistic styles such as modernism and post-modernism (quote). As we are in a postindustrial era there is an element of mass production in the modern design that hadn’t been an influence when Rococo was originally being created, “The meta-rational stripping of surface embellishment, the active ignoring of the lessons of historical and regional tradition, and the assembly-line esthetic”(Zwirn R. pp.1) This means that even though we may have Rococo inspired pieces like this “Rococo style Gilt Metal Wall Mirror”, they are not truly Rococo design as they are made in a mass production fashion and under different pretences to that of an original. The need for functionality is something increasingly prevalent in design to date. Design increasingly stressed simplicity, adhering to a more rigid geometry (Kleiner F.S (ed). pp.925). This is due to a better understanding of the limit to resources. There is a need to justify the use of these resources with a design purpose. Rococo will never have a place in modern day design due to this reason.

    Zwirn, R. (1996). The passing of post-modernism: Cultural influences in design.National Forum, 76(2), 2. Retrieved June 3, 2013, from the Proquest database.

  Sande-Friedman, Amy. ” Amy Sande-Friedman. Review of “Rococo: The Continuing

Curve, 1730–2008” by Sarah D. Coffin, Gail S. Davidson, Penelope Hunter-Stiebel, and Ellen Lupton.”caa.reviews -.3 (2008): 3. Te Waharoa. Web. 15 May 2013.

What other design eras are evident in this design?

Despite this lamp stand being listed as “French Original Art Nouveau Standard Lamp”it is in fact a Gothic revival item with some influence of Art Nouveau. The first thing that noticed is that on the base of the lamp stand there is a design of A-symmetrical fluid form which strongly resembled Art Nouveau. The obvious give away was that the auction states "Tiffany style In the original sense" but from Tiffany glass lamps (Schaefer,H. 1962), there was no resemblance by any means that would suggest they are of the same era. Looking futher into the Tiffany style (Cooney Frelinghuysen, A. 1998) , H. Schaefer states that  "in speaking of Tiffany glass one usually refers to his Favrile glass" (Schaefer,H. 1962)  this seemed to be a more plausible area to search as the Gothic revival era was early 1900's and the Favrile era was late 1800's. However, once again there was no resemblance in style at all.

The lamp stand looked predominantly of the Gothic Revival era. The main give away was the exposed rivets that were celebrating the joinery of the brass, which is a major feature in Gothic revival. Also the simplicity and lack of curvature further suggest that this really is a piece of Gothic revival work.  

References:

Schaefer,H. (1962). Taffiny's Fame in Europe. The Art Bulletin, Vol 44 , pp 309-328. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048034

Damjanović, D. (2011). Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.  , Vol. 70, No. 4 , pp  466-49.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2011.70.4.466

Has value of Rococo design decreased in today’s society?

Rococo is a design movement created early 18th century in Europe. It is well known for its luxurious and sensuous design with curves and valuable material that is used for difficult handcraft. Only reach people could afford for the Rococo pieces in the Rococo era and that is why it represents wealth but Rococo’s wealth does not recognised in today’s society as early 18th century. I believe that the value of Rococo design has decreased in today’s society.

People living in today’s society prefer products that are practical and functional which really contrast to the Rococo design as it is more about elegant decorations and luxurious look rather than practicality. Also, as duration of using product in today’s society changed, designers abandoned Rococo design. It was worthwhile to make product with valuable materials during the Rococo era because products lasted for a long period in early 18th century. On the other hand, it would not be worthwhile to make product with valuable materials nowadays because it would be wasting material and designer’s time to make product that would only last few years. (Loos, A. 1910).

In conclusion, there are less people who are looking for Rococo pieces and less designers and producing Rococo pieces in today’s society. Therefore, the value of Rococo design in today’s society has decreased.

APA Referencing

Does Rococo Design hold a place in the present day?

Rococo design was developed in France in the 18th Century. It was a move away from Neo-Classicalism which focused around straight lines and focused on fluid natural forms. Rococo was popular during prospering economical times and was used as a way to show off ones wealth to friends and family.

Rococo had a lot of criticism from post design reformists because they believed in function over form and that Rococo was unfit for purpose and over-ornamented. For Example Adolf Loos  said “The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use.” The quote “less is more” adopted by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, an architect during the Modernism movement is still relevant today because people want things that are clean, simple and easy to use and with the world economy today the majority of people can’t afford the eccentricity of Rococo design. Post Modernists like Robert Venturi argued that “less is a bore” contradicting the less is more idea but the key focuses of Rococo design are still around in present day design but widely reformed and abstracted and still holds historical significance in the development of design to this day.

APA References:

Venturi, R. (2003, October 1). The Industrial Design Reader. 1966: Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradition in Architecture. Skyhorse Publishing