#theswing

A fun little twist on “The Swing” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard🌿🌈 P.S. Prints now available on Etsy!

🐉✨"spirited away" x "the swing" ✨🍃

Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s painting, The Swing, was the centerpiece of the Rococo movement. Rococo culture was grimy and embraced the morally forbidden. It was not unjust enough to be classed as sinister, but the Rococo movement was undeniably gilded. Scenes of how the first estate used the world as a playground were obnoxiously littered with pastel fluff and juxtaposed putti. Rococo art is beautiful but its superficial attractiveness is the only thing that exists within its vapidity. All art up until the 1850s was generally catered to the aristocracy, but Rococo artists in particular painted luxury and its questionable privileges as shiny badges of honor to be flaunted. 

In the painting, a young woman floats delicately upon her swing. Her pink slipper flies off of her foot. As your eye travels past the swath of pink, you may first notice the figure reclining in the rose bushes. He gazes with affectionate flirtation at our lady. Follow the ropes of the swing back down through the bushes and there is another man in the backdrop pushing the swing. The Swing shows a love triangle in the most literal interpretation of the phrase. The three figures are arranged in a pyramidal composition, peaking at the woman. The handsome gentleman tucked amongst the roses is her secret lover, and the unsuspecting man in the shadowy cove of the forest is her husband. Fragonard inserts other mirthful cues to allude to their forbidden relationship such as the cherub statue kneeling atop the laying man, which gently shushes the couple, almost as if to remind them of the blatancy of their affair. At first glance, this complicated dynamic is apparent to few. To see the painting for what it is, is to peel the gold foil from a cheap frame. 

In essence, Rococo art put the rotten acts of the rich on full display and in an odd twist on perspective, was prideful of it. The drama and great depth of the preceding Baroque and Renaissance eras were converted to meaningless filler, albeit very fetching meaningless filler. For all the movement was worth, while it propagandized the immorality of nobility, it certainly inspired humanity to take a stand against the vileness of Rococo culture and value a purer nobility, a nobility beyond the gold in our coffers.

From the 2021 annual student concert: this is the MC intro to our fourth performance, “The Swing.” Lighthearted and rhythmic, it set the tone for a joyful piece. 🎙🎶

Piano version of “The Swing” 🎹✨

Notes like a whisper, melodies like a dream. “The Swing” brings back the simplicity of childhood — through piano.