I
n 1700, Louis XIV still ruled as the Sun King of France, presiding over his realm and French culture
from his palatial residence at Versailles (FIG. 25-32). By 1800, revolutions had overthrown the monarchy
in France and achieved independence for the British colonies in America (MAP29-1). The 18th century
also gave birth to a revolution of a different kind—the Industrial Revolution, which began in England and
soon transformed the economies of continental Europe and North America and eventually the world.
Against this backdrop of revolutionary change, social as well as political, economic, and technological,
came major transformations in the arts. Indeed,Pilgrimage to Cythera (FIG. 29-6), painted in 1717 and set
in a lush landscape, celebrates the romantic dalliances of the moneyed elite. In contrast, the 1784 Oath of
the Horatii(FIG. 29-23) takes place in an austere Doric hall and glorifies the civic virtue and heroism of an
ancient Roman family. The two works have little in common other than that both are French oil paint-
ings. In the 18th century, shifts in style and subject matter were both rapid and significant.
Rococo
The death of Louis XIV in 1715 brought many changes in French high society. The elite quickly abandoned
the court of Versailles for the pleasures of town life. Although French citizens still owed allegiance to a
monarch, the early 18th century brought a resurgence of aristocratic social, political, and economic power.
Members of the nobility not only exercised their traditional privileges (for example, exemption from cer-
tain taxes and from forced labor on public works) but also sought to expand their power. In the cultural
realm, aristocrats reestablished their predominance as art patrons. The hôtels (town houses) of Paris soon
became the centers of a new, softer style called Rococo.Associated with the regency (1715–1723) that fol-
lowed the death of Louis XIV and with the reign of Louis XV (r. 1723–1774), the Rococo style in art and ar-
chitecture was the perfect expression of the sparkling gaiety the wealthy cultivated in their elegant homes
(see “Femmes Savantes and Salon Culture,” page 753).
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