A Glance to the end of the 18. Century French Art I

Jean-Honore Fragonard
‘The Swing’ 1776

Rococo Art invites us to a journey through a world of imagination and fantasies...It’s evanescent ,flightly,lustful and emotional...It chooses to express this feelings in a soft way for it aims to appear pleasing then giving a message...It attracts us to the mysterious depths of the parks,gardens and forests...

Rococo is an art of luxury and reflects the lifestyle and philosophy of aristocracy...The paintings are usually made by order...They are suitible for small places and in small sizes...

Nomore can we see the exgerated sublimity and holy emotions of the Baroc Art...What’s being adored in Rococo era is Earthy and Fleshy plesures,love,lust,melancholy and yearning...

What causes melancholy and yearning is that aristocracy never being sure of their future anymore...In Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’, we are invited to a forest where some places in it are in the dark,some in light and some fogged...Even the place itself which the event takes place awakens different feelings in us!!.In this painting a nasty depiction of a nobleman and his mistress is under consideration..A spontanious moment is revealed in sight.The nobleman who is likely to be fallen into thebushes is having his mistress’ underskirt view and pointing at that...This conveys to the sexual closeness between them.. The shape of the hat can be related with the view he’s been seeing...The shoe flying out is the symbol of the lost virginity and innosence anyway...The gesture of the statue at the left gives us the hints of an affair...

Without a doubt the focal point of the painting is the lady in the swing...She pulls the attention by her dazzling pink-puffed up dress and the illumination on her...At the moment,She rises to the light but there has been another hidden fact which is she’s going to fall into dark when the swing goes back...This refers to the dark future of aristocracy and her ending up old in the future even she’s at the top of her youth and beauty at the moment...The bishop who is pushing her in to this inappropriate situation conveys to the moral values of the era that has been spoiled...The figures in this painting expresses the typical Rococo style porcelainlike beauty...