Illuminating the origins of the Rococo, we learn how a reversal of sumptuary laws on beeswax candles influenced 17th and 18th century French decor.
Rose Heslop and Irene Altares, art historians and parishioners of the York Oratory, deliver a series of talks on the relations between art and Christianity followed by discussion. Every session looks at a specific topic or artist to ask questions about art, beauty and faith.
The Barocci Group meets on the third Sunday of every month, 2.30 – 3.30, in the Upper Room of the Oratory Church. Check the York Oratory newsletter and website www.yorkoratory.com for details of upcoming talks.
Right I think this will be a good time to begin so welcome to our talk on the rcoo this afternoon um we have some upcoming talks that we’d like to just draw your attention to before we begin today’s talk on January the 21st arene is going
To be giving a discussion a lecture on York Minster stained glass and then February the 18th I’m going to do a presentation on notredam De Perry and in March we’re going to look at the iconography of the passion in time for Easter Sunday which is on the 31st of
March and on April the 21st we thought we would have a look at James tiso The Life of Christ and the next three months May June July sort of up in the air we’re still trying to decide but we’re thinking we might do paper port lure
Then we might have a further look at the decorative arts and the role of the Chalice in the mass and then finally finishing with bang um but if any of you have any topics that you’d like us to explore please tell us otherwise we’d just be happy to continue plucking out
Subjects from our imaginations so let’s begin with our prayer to St Lucy whose Feast was on Wednesday and is the patron saint of the light so father Daniel in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit am amen oh St Luc
You prefer to let your eyes be torn out instead of denying the faith and defiling your soul and God through an extraordinary Miracle replace them with another pair of sound and perfect eyes to reward your virtue and Faith appointing you as the protector against eye diseases I come to you for you to
Protect my eyesight and to heal the illness in my eyes L Lucy preserve the life of my eyes so that I may see the beauties of Creation The Glow of the Sun the color of the flowers and the smile of children preserve also the Eyes of My
Soul the faith through which I can know my God understand his me teachings recognize his love for me and never miss the road that leads me to where you St Lucy can be found in the company of the angels and Saints St Lucy protect my eyes and preserve my faith
Amen amen all right so light of the world roko Interiors people have relied on candles for thousands of years to light their homes their churches their workspaces and the problem with the modern world and there are many problems with the modern world but today’s lecture our problem is that light has become
Subservient to human imagination we expect light you can flick on a switch and it banishes all of the gloom and Shadow Illuminating our surroundings with a really clean steady beam of burning tonson such prevalence makes us forget that light is a luxury no other period or culture has enjoyed a similar level
Of Mastery over the application of light its distribution and tonality a point that has only just started to be addressed by Art historians for following a change in the supy laws in 17th century France the beeswax candle became widely available to the aristocracy this ease of access to a
Once exclusive light source had a knock-on effect on the period’s architecture gilding mirrors varnished Furniture stucco carved Wayne scotting and paintings were effectively curated by Architects to establish a new interior that took full advantage of the clean beautiful light from beeswax candal this afternoon we’re going to
Look at the emergence of the roko in France during the first half of the 18th century and the implications that this style had on both domestic and ecclesiastic Interiors so before we plunge into candle production in France and the supy laws which surrounded their use I think
It would help us to re familiarize ourselves with the humble candle candle light brings movement and animation if we think of the words we used to describe a flame it can gleam glow and shine it can twinkle shimmer glint and flicker sometimes if it’s being very
Naughty it can sputter spark and spit or it won’t light at all sometimes it’s almost as though the flame is alive its flickering makes our surroundings appear to dance before our eyes as it is swayed by drafts and movement and we have a live demonstration which might Flicker and
Sparkle and spit depending on how we move and breathe so just to add to the atmosphere um for a long time light and Shadow were understood as material counterparts in the 21st century we have a bias towards Newtonian thought which asserts that light consists of rays and particles which travel in a steady
Beam if you block the light you create a shadow therefore we tend to see Shadow as an absence of light something that’s lacking we don’t see the two together however if we truly want to understand art prior to the 20th century we must remind ourselves of the contrary
That shadow is a product of Lights Behavior and the two go hand in hand in physic Maes the Lumin karus at irid Franchesco Maria galdi maintains that light behaves as a rolling pouring undulating and trembling matter in flux sharing similar traits to a fluid gal’s Theory suggested that light movement
Through space could be measured and traced by the trail of Shadows left in its wake as though it were a boat Making Waves as it pushed through the water it was the latter of the two schools of thought which inspired further experimentation by 18th century French scientists and endured among the
Literate because it accepted Shadow as part of an aestheticized whole rather than abstracting it via a mathematical discourse gal’s work was published in 1665 nevertheless artists were already displaying sensitivity to the relationship between light and Shadow so if we have a quick look at the Magdalen writesman by George
Deor depicted here painted between 1625 and 1650 I think I’ve got that date wrong anyway um 1643 if you look at the way this painting has been um this the magdal has been depicted there are various types of Shadow the shadow behind the mirror and the Shadow
By her knee are much darker than the shadow that’s going down her hair or the shadow that’s skittering across her blouse which indicate depth and tone and texture and then there’s the shadow of her back against the brown wall behind her and I don’t quite know how it’s been
Translated onto the TV but from pictures it’s actually painted slightly Bluer and the blue and the orange contrast against one another to create a flickering moving s sensation because they’re complimentary colors this is further reinforced by the candle itself if you look the candle in our
Plane there is a slight curve on the flame right at the top but the candle in the mirror is almost straight upwards again creating a flickering dancing moving sensation as our eyes flick over both depictions it gives the ex of a lively animated flame and this also reinforces
Our understanding of light and Shadow as material counterparts obviously standing as a metaphor for Jesus the candle brings Harmony to the scene as we observe the way it touches the magdala through light and Shadow and all that surrounds her the shadow expressed by the light’s caresses so in the 13th century in
France the use of beeswax candles was controlled by sump laws which ensured that access to this object was restricted to Royal and ecclesiastical circles an edict put in place by Philip IV in 1294 set forth that no member of the Bourgeois neither stable boy nor Clark
If he is not a preet or of high rank will have access to a wax candle any light source fashioned out of wax was prohibited to those below the C king or clergy and though anybody using candles that weren’t up these ranks would have been punished reasons for this control lay in
The quality of light that beeswax emitted when lit the uniform paror of filtered wax was considered superior to the rather Beast Hues of Tallow which yields quite a smokey flickering and often quite smelly Flame by comparison the differences in light quality it was thought lay in their alternate of sources bees as aerial
Flying creatures were considered holy creatures and they still are their sanctity was proven by the ability of wax to float on the surface of water an indication of purity of Soul of the bee in addition the clean burn of the wax candle also asserted the chasteness of
The Bee by contrast tall was extracted from the body fat of terrestrial animals heavy smelly a little bit flawed plotting along not light beautiful and working hard like a beig as creatures of the earth their existence on land automatically made them of less Mobility so as God’s representative on
Earth during the Middle Ages the king’s vocation in France was to visit his subjects by a traveling Court he’d pack up his government along with an assortment of tapestries and Tents and spend the year riding around the kingdom checking that each region and its subjects were content and sustained and
Stable and with got two examples here so you can see the King sitting right at the top he’s in blue he’s wearing uh Flur Le kind of Blends in with the background I don’t think that was intentional and then you have the nobility either side of him and then you
Have Bourgeois and Farmers trying to get access into this makeshift court and here’s our friend Philip IV as well um this is Edward I of England ings to the king of France as duke of aquatain Edward was a vassel to the French King so as these assemblies or paron where we
Get the word for Parliament from in England grew in wealth their power increased they had their own armies and they were able to declare war with or without the king’s consent thank you in addition laws and edicts issued by the crown were not made official in each
Region until the paron gave their Ascent by publishing them the parliament served as a watchdog verifying the compatibility of the king’s orders with that of the ancient Privileges and laws of the kingdom of France and had the right to reject anything that undermined them this would not have posed a problem
If the aristocracy had stayed true to their vocation and served the King by the time Louis the 14th took to the throne in the 17th century around 1643 he was 5 years old by this point the the Nobles had already had powers reduced by the King’s father Louis the 13th and his
Advisor Cardinal rishel perceiving the king’s weakness as a child Monarch the aristocracy chased Louis the 14th and his mother out of Paris during what’s known as the frond these memories would haunt young Louie making him distrustful of both Aristocrats and the church until the end of his days
So Louis the 14th was declared of age in 6 1961 his first step to regaining control was deciding to rule without a chief minister or immediate family members selecting nobility from the puty bourjois so judges and tax farmers and that kind of rank rather than no woman from the feudal
Aristocracy recognizing the widespread public yearning for Law and Order a result of prolonged Foreign Wars and domestic civil Strife from the nobility Louis the 14th built a national Army consolidating Central political Authority and reform and again this is at the expense of the feal aristocracy and finally he improved
French GDP by insisting France produce its own material Goods rather than importing from other countries a prime example is the establishment of the royal manufacturer of mirrors in Paris and also the Royal manufacturer of wax which we’ll get on to slightly later in this presentation and this was really to compete with
Venice and other major producers across Europe and his final Act of power he moved his government out of Paris which understandably he hated as he was driven out from it as a child and into Versailles have any of you had the opportunity to visit Versailles what did you think of it
Grand grand grand big too big yes it is too big um I’d like to do a presentation on Versa I think maybe maybe next um yeah next term because I was I was on such a tangent looking at Louis the 14th and his ganism and the way that he used
That but anyway um this is necessary for understanding why we had the roko by moving his government to Versa Louis the 14th took control not only over the aristocracy but also the main body Administration here he was primis inter pz amongst the prominent figures of the time who would spend fortunes on any
Chance to maintain their position with the King by requiring that Nobles of a certain Rank and influence spend time each year at Versailles Louie prevented them from developing their own Regional power at the expense of his own and kept them from countering his efforts to centralize the French government thereby
Creating an absolute monarchy according to the historian Philip Mansel the king turned the palace into an irresistible combination of marriage Market employment agency and entertainment capital of aristocratic Europe boasting the best theater opera music gambling sex and most important hunting Apartments were built to house those willing to pay court to the king
However the pensions and privileges necessary to live in a style appropriate to their rank were only possible by waiting constantly on Louie for this purpose an elaborate Court ritual was created wherein the king became the center of attention and was obsessed throughout the day by the public with his excellent memory Louie
Could then see who attended him at court who was absent then facilitating the subsequent distribution of favors and positions another tool Louie used to control his nobility was censorship which often involved the opening of letters to discern their author’s opinions of the government and King moreover by entertaining impressing
And domesticating his courters with extravagant luxury and other distractions Louie not only cultivated public opinion of him but he also ensured the aristocracy remained under his scrutiny cut off from their ancestral Shadows in the country the nobility were without power and without purpose and actually without vocation as well
Removed from their ancient duties they had no choice but to serve the king pursuing all the vanities that he imposed upon the French court so let’s have a quick look at the Barack as a point of comparison to the roko because Theo is often described as the Lesser
Cousin of the roko so let’s have a look at what’s going on with the French Baro what made Louis the 14th a truly modern King was his ability to instill Terror into his subjects through worldclass ART in France the Barack was initially inspired by its intalian counterpart however Louis the 14th used
This architectural style to assert his position as God ordained King rather than celebrating the virtues of the Catholic church under the artistic vision of the Sun King the French Barack gave precedence to the king’s rism through epic architecture classical painting and unyielding Symmetry and we
Have some examples up here to give you a flavor of the barck or the French classic style so up here we have an armoir and it might be quite difficult to see but you can see it’s almost like a classical building in that it has three clear sections and then it has
Furniture feet on the bottom so where am I the bottom looks a little bit like a reable the middle has decorative features and it has two female um columns called car acids it also has Corinthian Palisades which are basically columns that are stuck to a wall you
Know when you see the sort of they’re like columns but they’re like little squares that are stuck that’s what a palisade is if you don’t know and they’re all flanked in Marble the top has a Gable or it has a circle with ears on top and is also flanked and Mar
And then the animal feet ties to classical Antiquity Furniture was logical it was ordered it belonged to the building that’s why it had architectural properties you didn’t move furniture the idea of moving furniture is actually a highly modern phenomenon it actually began in the 18th century um the architecture as well so
If you look down here we have a small print of a hallway and you you can see there are lot of geometrical shapes squares circles rectangles it’s all very orthogonal it’s all very rectilinear um and um it’s balanced as well there’s also examples of Market
Tree which was a big thing in the 17th century so they’re very again they’re very symetrical despite the natural motifs that they are representing so The Gardens of versailes were designed to show the king’s power over the world um with nature herself snipped and preed to
Perfection um this is an example of bull Furniture which Louis the 14th was absolutely garar for it was his favorite type of furniture um he awarded Charles bull so many privileges during his short time as Louis cabinet maker um it’s instantly recognizable because you have layers of Puttin toris shell and gold
Leaf encased in Ebony it reflected light in a specific way affirming that it was the Sun King who brought light into the world without him the aristocracy would literally be in the dark and then a final note on the painting so this is part of a huge
Painting series on the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors in Versa um and it stretched across the ceiling it was executed by Char LeBron in 1681 to commemorate all of the victories of Louis the 14th and his Reign and um here’s the Sun King you can
See he’s the point of light in the painting this is the brightest Point King Louie and you have manura swooping down to offer him wisdom and then in the corner it’s very difficult to make out we have France dressed in borbon um bloodies representing the fact that she
Belongs to the king holding the king handing the king an olive branch and also stamping out the mythological figure of Discord and envy AKA his subjects that had tried to rise against him and underneath this painting it is there is the title The King governs by himself so I mean kind
Of sums up Louis the 14th’s Reign and what he was like as a monarch so Louie wanted to improve French GDP and achieved this by several methods during his Reign and one way he achieved this was by reversing the sumy laws on the beeswax candles Louie was
Keen to compete with Venice which was also the capital of candle production in Europe he was also wary that he had spent much of the country’s Budget on fruitless Wars and needed to raise funds without imposing tax is on the aristocracy s trudon a small Grocers founded by Claude trudon in
1643 had been providing the candles for Versa for a number of decades now Mr tron’s candles were favored because of the quality he brought to the product beeswax candles were sought were sought after commodity and it was common to find bootlegged versions on the market they were often cut with flour
Butter and and pigs fat trudon developed a method to manufacture candles so that they were free of any harmful substances the wax would be filtered several times before being left to bleach in the sun and the result was a pure white candle unlike anything else on the market and
Cryon are still in operation to this day as luxury candle manufacturers and if you’re ever in Paris and you go past one of their shops do have a look because their candles are amazing gentle plug it’s not entirely clear when the nobility were permitted to buy beeswax
Candles for personal use however by 1688 the comedian je de laer had written a satire on candle consumption in Paris noting that previous generations of parisians had reserved wax for the alter and for the Lou and the Royal Palace laier commented that by his time Nobles preferred to to suffer poverty and
Deprivation so long as they could afford to light themselves up with beeswax candles Drew Don’s candles were of course very expensive costing 30 gold coins per candle and to put this in perspective a soldier’s annual salary was 150 gold coins so it was extortionate candles were actually used
In the court of Versailles in place of currency they they held that much status among the Nobles and the courtiers and the people who were running the maon DU it’s absolutely fascinating so Louis the 15th died in 1715 leaving the throne to his great grandson Louie the 15th at this point
Louis the 15th is 5 years old and is far too young to Reign the Duke doron forms a Regency on behalf of the the young king now the Sun King had grown excessively Pious towards the end of his Reign to the extent that he had banned theater and gambling in Paris and had
Imposed a 6 p.m curfew on the nobility so that they would focus more on prayer and spiritual growth not the most popular of moves from the start of his Regency the Duke Dior Leon relaxed these impositions scrapped the excessive piety giving the aristocracy their first taste of freedom
For over half a Century following the many wars Louis the 14th had waged France could no longer sustain any military offenses either and this period first half of the 18th century in France this was known as a great period of Peace when the art comes to reflect it
From the Baro classicism invoked by Louis the 14th emerged the steel reg and then the roko and you can see the beginnings of the roko in this painting so here’s Lou the 14th he’s surrounded by his um ancestors so you have HRI the 10th um you have Lou the 13th who was
Father to Louis the 14th Louis the 14th son Louie the Grand Duke and then Louie the grand Duke’s son so the grandson of Louis the 14th guess what his name isou Louie another Louie um he was a Duke and then his son Lou the 15th Duke dju this painting was completed
Posthumously as well this is Madame dador there was a measel outbreak in France in 1712 and she kept the young Doan safe in 1699 Louis the 14th apparently declared I want a much much lighter and more gentler style to decorate my Palace and it’s starting to appear so you’ve got a
Little bit of an arabesk a slight flourish underneath this carving of Apollo you have a fon or slight Garland of posies and Roses falling casually down and then over the classical architecture which would have dominated In classical Louis 14th style these beautiful trees are emerging and pushing up and covering it nature is
Starting to reclaim what’s hers so let’s have a look at the rcoo it has a negative reputation often in art history it’s seen as a little bit of titilation it’s described as decorative frivolous decadent or the dreaded Art For Art’s Sake and this is quite an unfair reading of the movement
Any work of art risks becoming frivolous and self-indulgent when the conditions in which it was created have been forgotten or destroyed the English word ornament like the French orn is derived from the Latin noun ornamentum which has its eological roots in the verb ordinary to put in logical order or to
Organize we need ornament we lack it in today’s day and age we go past buildings they’re blank they’re streamlined they’re they’re missing something quite integral ornament directs the eyes and the mind and the heart towards an authority describing the boundaries and tone of a building why we have a
Building and for those who are still a little bit dubious about the role of ornament consider the lack of ornamentation on the buildings today and how confused people seem to be nowadays just bear it in mind mind as food for thought so the roko or the haai was used
By the aristocracy to regain a sense of identity and self-expression after the death of their absolute monarch Louis the 14th with more money and Freedom the aristocracy were able to purchase land between Paris and Versailles to build what was known as an oel partic most more of a house than a home
These great buildings used to welcome guests from a variety of backgrounds behaving as public buildings for the nobility to conduct their Affairs most of these hotels were built along the Sha as well and were understood to occupy two Realms the city but also the countryside and there in
Lies the beginning of what’s considered the classic roko interior traditionally the roko is characterized by as symmetrical organic flourishes which you can see here really it’s borrowed from the Italian grotesque which basically is a type of rural country s from Italy that the Nobles in Paris quite liked and thought
It resonated with them because they missed their country dwellings um so it was quite appropriate for a group of people who’ve been uprooted from their ancestral lands you can also see there are many natural rot motifs in this there are Sea Scrolls there and there um which are isolated um canther sleeves from
Corinthian column and just very quickly for those who don’t know what the Corinthian order is um the Roman Corinthian column is correlated to opulence sophistication luxury and Grandeur a can the leaves resemble a crown so you can see these leaves here here those are a caner sleeves and you
Can see how they’ve been appropriated and changed by the French nobility and the roko for their own expression however it was also necessary to have a sense of balance you couldn’t have your um carvings too thick or too thin if they were too thin they’d look
Misly nor could you have them too big too thick too large because then they’d be considered overly opulent and decadent and this was especially true when candles came into the mix and we’re Illuminating these features as well rooms were much smaller and intimate which Louis the 15th himself
Preferred none of this Grandeur of the Hall of Mirrors smaller rooms allowed for greater ease of communication and intimacy bringing a sense of warmth wanting to talk to people wanting to socialize um friendliness up here you have an example of lre or Wayne scotting um these were
Carved motifs on a wall which were always gilded and they often contained things called trophies or coues which are kind of like sort of circular shapes in which the aristocracy would include um references to personal Pursuits and interests walking around these hotels you’d often find mythological figures allegories of Science and art the
Seasons whatever The nooman Wanted initially this was used to inate houses the laberry was intentionally carved to take advantage of the changing light and of the candle light the lighter schemes in room in the room were um able to become a reality as well thanks to beback scandals you wouldn’t
Want to be painting your walls white which was very expensive if your house was lit up with tall candles it just wouldn’t make sense you’d have smoke and stickiness all over the place and it would be vile um the rcoo is also associated with shells and um originally the word Roco
Derived from the word cookie um which is like a sort of broken shell Garden um but I’m not entirely confident that this is correct um because I was doing some research for this presentation there were a lot of um ancient French heraldry that had shells on it would make sense
If you’re Noble person or a nobleman you no longer have your ancestral home you want to prove who you are you don’t really have your escuin anymore you’re going to stick scallop shells on the wall instead possibility um mirrors as well you can just see this beautiful light little mirror so
Different to the very heavy barck that we were looking at earlier um mirrors replace classical figures and the sole purpose of a mirror was to make the rooms appear larger to create greater depth they weren’t actually there to expand or to um reflect the light because the Tain or the backing of the
Mirror was too dark in order for that to take place mirrors were there really for optical illusion and for trickery they were quite fun um and finally the classical figures they did exist but they were often painted as overdoors they were part of the lbre and the rain cotting
And they often pertain to love or again the Pursuits and disciplines of the building’s owner decoration in these houses served as a game you couldn’t directly look or stare because it was also considered polite so you couldn’t say oh that’s a nice bit of shell work and Roses or like
That no that would be considered really rude and go it was a very tricky game to play and it also betrayed their insecurity as um one of the ruling classes in 18th century France so moving back to candles in 1719 s houdon becomes the Royal manufacturer of
Wax and Europe couldn’t keep up with the demand for wax during the 18th century in France it was normally provided um to the um sorry I wrote something wrong so in France people obtained wax from Normandy Britany Alia and Champa however because the demand was so high because it
Outstripped the Kingdom’s ability to supply this material in bulk wax had to be imported from Constantinople Alexandria and other countries from the East there were many other candles on the market as well some were made of sper maet so basically the liquid in the head of sperm whales and
Those were imported from China and if you really really wanted to celebrate and show off your light you would have firework candles you would have beeswax candles cut with gunpowder not entirely safe but certainly had a fantastic effect why not so the use of these wax candles became standard for the Parisian Elite
By the 1750s and 60s in the um essay on the history essay on the general history and on the morals and spirit of Nations voler recounts the history of France up to the reign of Louis the 14 and uses the beeswax candle to prove the improvements in living
Standards across Europe this is also confirmed by the encyclopedia published in 1765 by Dido which states under the entry for SE or wax that especially today wax is no longer used no longer uniquely reserved for the altar or for the Lou and everybody can now like themselves with beeswax
Candles s trudon was particularly praised by digo and was championed as the gold standard in Candle manufacturing at the time so it it is a huge deal and it it’s been it’s been mainly overlooked by historians up until recently so let’s get some rcoo in motion let’s actually see how this works
So this is the otel subes it is my favorite building in the whole world it’s in the AR nasal in Paris and if you’ve never been you have to go I insist um so the otelu bees is the absolute prime example of the rcoo it was first first built in the 14th
Century with its ownership tracing back to the Knights Templar it subsequently served as the Paris residence of the Duke of peys it’s sort of in the maray in the P so it’s kind of poked in so it’s not like a big house on the Shan but it was bought by the Rohan subis
Family in 1700 jambon was commissioned as early as 1732 by U mariac the 80-year-old Duke Doohan to redesign the hotel as a Pala for his 19-year-old bride marry Sophie to cor young bu fron said that the sciences and the Arts had such a great Rapport that the principles of one are the principles
Of the other he knew what he was doing he demonstrated an excellent understanding of light in his lecture in which he describes the importance of candle height insisting that they not be too high or they’ll make the ladies look aged which they’ll never forgive you for but fron suggests
Teared cabam to overcome this difficulty while this could be seen as typical frivolous asymmetry of the roko it actually reveals that Bond understands light as liquid the light flows downwards and outwards as appro as appropriate points to facilitate the candle’s burning rates if light were a beam this wouldn’t matter in January
1745 it’s also worth noting Jr was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London for his understanding of light and how it interacted with architecture um but fron began redecorating the interior of the hotel sub from 1735 to 1739 and we’re going to have a look at the prince’s chamber
First it looks really Grand once you’ve stepped into it has anyone been here before you have I made you go okay so it seems really Grand it’s about the size of this room minus the kitchen it it’s really big um and it’s draped in red and gold and um
Damus and um it’s actually quite delicate when you take a moment to look because it gives pracy to texture and depth it doesn’t pit light against Shadow as the barck seemed to so you’ve got these coues here so that’s a cartouch they’re dotted around the room and they have
Mythological couples again it’s a paliative for a 19-year-old girl for marriage um in this one we have the rape of Europa throughout the day such scenes display an array of tonalities and forms that alter depending on the position and intensity of the Sun but under the veil
Of night they would exude animacy by the dancing flames of Candlelight but fr’s deployment of these luminescent narratives throughout the hotel subes is exemplary for this very reason sadly I don’t have an example of that from the hotel subbies but I do have an example from the bathroom of Louis the 15th
Completed in 1771 and we’ve got Diana at her bath so you’ve got the change in daylight but it also appears to be a change in narrative as well there’s great relief in the photo um at night her stomach and her breasts are full um the nyph is reaching out by her knee and
The flickering can by the king’s bath um would make her body appear to be animated and moving and you’re less aware of action as well the spying man who’s hiding behind the tree and this is a typical game employed in by the style so where’s actin does that mean we’re the Peeping
Toms um there’s also a bed this would be a public room a lot of the time you you know you walk into big French State homes and you just see a bed in the living room you think what why what’s going on well it asserts the legitimacy of the
Family they’re tied to the king their vocation as nobleman although that has dried up the ballast around the bed as well it resembles an alar rail it’s the Purity and privacy but also the spectacle we’re here we’ve survived the bed represents family lineage and the the four posts of the top as well
Almost resembles a bino um reassert yeah it reasserts the legitimacy of the family but also the classic couples in lavish decoration trembling under the candle light were designed to facilitate the conjugal act it’s a really erotic room it’s great it’s beautiful it’s wonderful um it says yes to family
How many things say yes to family nowadays and this is what it would have looked like at night so imagine this room shimmering and trembling and dancing in candle light and you’re standing before the family bed very atmospheric the light will be rushing up as liquid from the chandelier and
Pouring out across the room much like a fountain the reflections from the rosette follow the viewer as well around the room again enhancing the agency of light and I found a little Sati as well of the staco coming to life with the bright candles underneath and this young lady obviously having a
Moment and here’s a closeup of the rosette as well so the Arabesque appears to form Cupid’s bows and there are tiny tiny little Flames here do you see right on the Ed and the wings of the putty as well here are in the rosette there’s a scabard as
Well in the cou light is being drawn up from the lust from the chandelier and shoots out across the room like a million tiny little arrows that will pierce your eyes falling for the next beautiful guest that you may meet at the hotel DUIs by comparison this is the
Princess’s Salon which is adjacent to the prince’s room Buffon has included the addition of the oval salons for both The Prince and princess’s apartments and this was a new kind of room that served as a transitional Place between Grand State rooms and multi multi-purpose rooms that kept the feeling of privacy and
Intimacy light seems to gleam down the sides do you see as though water is dripping down the carvings on the L and the rosette seems quite dry by comparison as well reinforcing the imagery that the chandelier seems to behave like a giant Fountain of Light
And of course it’s a round room it takes better advantage of the light as well than a orthogonal traditional Square Room um it’s a very playful light beautiful room going around and spinning around it mimics the dizzying feeling of falling in love with somebody and as I
Said the aristocracy love to play games they knew what they were doing um The Narrative cycle as well is the cycle of is the story of cupid and psyche psyche here she was warned by Cupid not to look at him in daylight and then her sister’s EG say oh go on you
Need to see what he looks like you don’t know what he’s going to be like so she listens to them she holds up a candle the wax Pours and drips onto his skin waking him up and then he flees so curiosity got the better of me
And I started to wonder are there any rcoo churches that also aren’t German roko churches do we have any french roko churches and then I found 18 like pages and pages and pages of 18th century French chapel and it’s a crime that none of them have really been seriously
Researched so this is from the king’s personal oratory in Versa it was completed in 1741 by Jac V he is the man who carved all of the lber in the hotel subis that we just looked at and you have Vines and grap leaves you have sheeps of wheat obvious nods to
The Eucharist you have angel wings underneath the scallop scallops also represent Christian pilgrimage as well and again angel wings around the king’s emblem it absolutely beautiful not Unbiased and then I found some altars so we have the design for the altar of SEL piece in Paris have any of you been to sel piece again very big um you have two angels lifting up a monstrance which is erupting light in straight orthogonal beams but then the
Candles are reaching upwards as well Heaven and Earth meet the logic of God the truth and beauty of Heavens are almost touching the unstable light of the bees and the light of the world there’s also the deposition underneath and there’s a very similar one in verse I as well made of solid
Gold um so again same principle having that illuminated by candles the idea of Christ moving and twitching dying expiring candles expire too um um the church sansul piece is also built with the gnome on inside which is basically a small opening in the church where the sun shines through at the
Equinox and at the spring and at the autum atox the sun travels across this meridian line and it was built in order to facilitate further scientific experiments with light we also have the design for the altar of s of oon and um I also found another engraving of the Cross which is
In a couple of slides um light again is depicted in straight beams surrounding a circular cloud or bino and you have two sculp shells there as well and it’s so big and it’s so animated um just to finish off I wonder whether the rcoo could
Also be seen as an homage to the family so this is the de by Fran bu which was painted in 1739 for those of you who are unfamiliar with France LA’s work he’s famed for painting venuses with um flowery Cupids dancing around them and is known for specializing in nudity uh
He’s great artist but also underrated because that’s apparently what everyone wants to focus on um isn’t it beautiful isn’t it intimate and small and look at those candles taking pride of place as well on either side of the truma or the mirror you’ve got candles you’ve got a
Little clock in the corner by the sunlight you have a Buddha as well enlightened Oriental importing exporting learning about the world they’re drinking coffee in a small intimate space you’ve got a tiny little lacer piece of laca furniture here as well picking up the light and you’ve got children and I
Think it’s really an appreciation for the world around us and the senses that God has given us to understand his creation and just to finish off there are some very touching paintings by bu and his prote fragar of the Holy Family so this is the Adoration of the Magi it
Was painted 1755 to 1760 and look Christ is the brightest point in the painting in the Magi they’re delineated in shades of black and brown even the angel in the Star seem to be fading in the background as Christ is revealed to the world and here this one is also called
The light of the world it was painted um by B from Madame de pomidor for her shatow of belu and Mong in um 1750 you’ve got this this beautiful soft golden white falling down onto the Christ child and our lady but again here is the lightest point in the
Work something also appears to rise towards the light as well there’s he’s created this Dynamic where the top and the bottom are sort of coming together in unison through his use of light and our lady’s foot so gentle so tenderly painted two eggs by her foot as well she
Wouldn’t dare Crush those eggs she would crush the head of the serpent though which I think is what this is sort of nodding towards but it’s just such a poised thoughtful and gentle painting it’s tender which is what the Brock lacks sometimes tenderness and gentleness towards
Others so this is the WR on the flight to Egypt by fragar it’s I’ve never seen this until I was trying to prepare for this um presentation um it was painted in 1774 and um firstly Joseph doesn’t have eyes he cannot really see and also we can’t see Mary’s eyes either and it
Makes sense because they’re both Lo they’re both lost and confused it’s the fog of uncertainty but blind faith in God however again it is the Christ child’s eyes that we see as he is the light of the world and he is God and he can see and he knows and then to
Finish the education of the Virgin pained in 1773 by Jean onor fragar now he’s painted this subject several times in his life and this version he had submitted to the salon and it was rejected and look at the way that St an’s hands are placed by Mary just
Gently on her hip gently by the cat who’s leaning into her look how Mary’s leaning into her mother’s bosom as well as she reads it is a soft and intimate scene and it is quite beautiful and quite touching and um yeah that’s basically the presentation thank you we’ve got about five minutes for
Questions I didn’t go past half past there you go go on Phillip is your thesis that roko is an entirely French thing then exported places like Austria and Southern Germany and indeed I see it in churches in Spain and Portugal and Italy that’s what that’s that’s what we were
Basically started in France it did start in France yes and then it was exported um the French taste to Spain Italy Austria and Germany yeah it did begin in France I had heard before um perhaps this is what you were saying but that it was the what happened when a candle was sort of blown in the wind and and the kind of asymmetrical shape that was formed that kind of formed the um type of of Ru
Architecture you oh absolutely I just didn’t know if I had time to say that but yeah that um certainly influenced the um Roco style so if we have a look at the um Candle so if we look at these they’re very much look like Flames or a candle that’s that’s kind of that the waxes exactly exactly so the the art is sympathetic to the medium so if you imagine a candle melting down as as well you’ve got two moths
Trapped within the design as well you know Comm and saying them off the flame and the dangers and then you’ve got the Fons and garlands dripping down as well so yes absolutely and did you say it was called Rai in French yes and so roko is
The Italian name for Rai roko is the English name oh is it yes why do they call it in Italy I think they I think they must call it roko but the English picked up on the roko from the Rai in the N early 19th century as a way to deride the French
Style do you have any more questions come the French Revolution the scene as decadent yes it was it was um I respect that this was a very biased presentation and um of course the nobility lived the life of absolute luxury and and um the French people did
Not have enough food did not have well they hardly had anything we still had to well exactly yes not even for beback candles um Tallow was the main um source of light for many people even nut oil if you were very poor um yeah it is what it is but
Um yeah it is all from the point view of the nobility in France so I’m quite a narrow sphere to live in as well I should imagine if you go to the um Castle Museum in the in the Victorian Street that’s we created and they rep this
Smell so the street as well um there’s one of back alley one of the there a a a Candle Maker sort of shop and it’s full with like basically fat candles and they recreated the with the smell and it is awful like and it’s not as intense as it
Would have been like apparently like it made your eyes like he made you cry CU it’s just so just yeah just just awful yeah I thought imagine your house smelling like that all the time have to you need the lights yeah thank you than thank you