ROCOCÒ. – A term that came into use in France in the 1700s to denote, along with the other term “rocaile,” a particular style of decoration—shell inlays, rock imitations, and whimsical arabesques—with which rustic structures (baths, grottoes, fountains) and furnishings were adorned during the reign of Louis XIV and especially under Louis XV. Today, in a broader sense, the term rococò refers to the visual culture of the 1700s, which, developing from the Baroque, accentuates its whimsy and curvilinear dynamism in a pursuit of grace, lightness, and decorative effects. More than architecture—which often repeats the forms of the previous century—it is painting, sculpture, and above all the so-called minor arts that contribute to this style, particularly in the minute details of furnishings, entrusted to skilled artists and exquisitely harmonized with their surroundings.
I. ARCHITECTURE
Rococò forms were realized as early as the third decade of the 1600s by Borromini (1599–1667), who worked in Rome in rivalry with Bernini. His style spread throughout Italy and abroad, returning enriched by French (Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy) and Spanish (southern Italy) elements.A very active center of rococò was Piedmont, where the Modenese Theatine priest Guarino Guarini (1624–1683), a follower of Borromini, worked alongside F. Juvara (1676–1736), B. Alfieri, and G. B. Planteri. In Rome and Naples, rococò shared the field with the resurgent classical-giant forms (represented by A. Galilei, L. Vanvitelli, and in part by F. Fuga) and often merged with them, as in the façade of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (D. Gregorini, P. Passalacqua), classical in its single order of monumental Corinthian pilasters but rococò in its curvilinear sweep and lively crowning ornamentation. Rococò assumed distinctive characteristics in Sicily and Apulia; here, on one hand, the trite “plateresque” decoration (from the Spanish platero, meaning silversmith), influenced by Spanish styles, flourished from the 1600s onward, centered in Lecce, where the local stone provided a suitable material. On the other hand, brilliant architects such as G. B. Vaccarini, who rebuilt Catania after the 1693 earthquake, and P. Picarale (Syracuse Cathedral) asserted a sense of grace and measure. The structural forms remained those of the Baroque, especially in church façades, with curvilinear layouts and superimposed orders (usually two: e.g., Rome, the church of the Maddalena by G. Sardi [1680–1753], and the Madonna della Quercia).