Dangerous Liaisons: The Art of the French Rococo at Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung

Exhibition Review: Dangerous Liaisons: the Art of the French Rococo at Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung
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Dangerous Liaisons: the Art of the French Rococo at Liebieghaus SkulpturenSammlung
The exhibition, Dangerous Liaisons, Curated by Maraike Bückling, features over 80 exceptional loaned works. The show anchors its ideology on the modern concept of love, and its selected style depicts the seductive power of Rococo in French around 1750. The Dangerous Liaisons is presented in Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in an extensive show. Notably, On view were sculptures, biscuit-porcelain statuettes, paintings, prints, and arts-and-crafts objects from popular international granters like the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, the British Museum or the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, and Wallraf-Richartz Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne, or the Bayerischen Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek, Munich (Liebieghaus.DE, 2015).
In the reign of Louis XV, a French King, Visual artists, writers, and theoreticians reevaluate the definition of emotions and passion. Different artists understood love and emotions differently. They glorified the emotions giving them a new meaning. The new model of love was represented in fine art by other master sculptors such as Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–1791) and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714–1785). Also, painters Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743), and François Boucher (1703–1770) took the new style to comprehensively describe their art (Liebieghaus.DE, 2015). Further, a room in the exhibition depicts an eighteenth-century salon adorned with paintings, furniture, prints, porcelain, and mirrors that portray seduction and passion.
Notable, the opening of the exhibitions gives its audience the romantic feeling of Rococo. The initial room is decorated with paintings, armchairs, wall coverings, mirrors, candelabra, tapestries, and porcelain, furnishing that resembles around 1750. Also, all the details are carefully placed to complement one another, which gives the exhibition room a harmonious image of the time. Additionally, the costumes complement the collection by portraying Rococo’s playful, seductive, and esthetic nature. Also, the curator chose a design and layout that takes the viewer into a romantic, seductive atmosphere. Also, the selection of materials and arrangement gives the impression of fascination and rejection, misimpression and admiration, which gives the show a defining power of style and presentation.
Moreover, the adjoining room entails the sculptures of Étienne-Maurice Falconet. Several of his work is captured in the exhibition, such as Menacing Love of 1757 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), made for Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764) brings about the theme of love and natural pose similar to what can be described as a sensual love goddess. The seated sculpture is made of marble and portrays grace and a secretive look that commands silence and love. Étienne-Maurice Falconet gives this sculpture fluidity and grace that complements Rococo. He is ...