The Spiritual Rococo: Decor and Divinity from the Salons of Paris to the Missions of Patagonia (Visual Culture in Early Modernity)

A Groundbreaking Approach To Rococo Religious Décor And Spirituality In Europe And South America, The Spiritual Rococo Addresses Three Basic Conundrums That Impede Our Understanding Of Eighteenth-century Aesthetics And Culture. Why Did The Rococo, Ostensibly The Least Spiritual Style In The Pre-modern Canon, Transform Into One Of The World’s Most Important Modes For Adorning Sacred Spaces? And Why Is Rococo Still Treated As A Decadent Nemesis Of The Enlightenment When The Two Had Fundamental Characteristics In Common? This Book Seeks To Answer These Questions By Treating Rococo As A Global Phenomenon For The First Time And By Exploring Its Moral And Spiritual Dimensions Through The Lens Of Populist French Religious Literature Of The Day-a Body Of Work The Author Calls The ’spiritual Rococo’ And Which Has Never Been Applied Directly To The Arts. The Book Traces Rococo’s Development From France Through Central Europe, Portugal, Brazil, And South America By Following A Chain Of Interlocking Case Studies, Whether Artistic, Literary, Or Ideological, And It Also Considers The Parallel Diffusion Of The Literature Of The Spiritual Rococo In These Same Regions, Placing Particular Emphasis On Unpublished Primary Sources Such As Inventories. One Of The Ultimate Goals Of This Study Is To Move Beyond The Cliché Of Rococo’s Frivolity And Acknowledge Its Essential Modernity. Thoroughly Interdisciplinary, The Spiritual Rococo Not Only Integrates Different Art Historical Fields In Novel Ways But Also Interacts With Church And Social History, Literary And Post-colonial Studies, And Anthropology, Opening Up New Horizons In These Fields. Gauvin Alexander Bailey. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1 “The Dream of Happiness”: The Literature of the Spiritual Rococo and the Christianity of Reason Spiritual Rococo and the Eighteenth-Century Salon Sermons of the Spiritual Rococo and Christianity of Reason Treatises of the Spiritual Rococo Treatises of the Christianity of Reason 2 “As Bizarre a Style as Ever Occurred”: Rococo in France Origins and Development of the Rococo, the “Goût Moderne” The “Genre Pittoresque” An Architectural Conduct Book: The Hôtel de Soubise Serious Matters in Rococo Painting Rococo Spirituality and French Rococo Church Décor 3 “Bright Shining as the Stars”: Spiritual Rococo in Central Europe The Master Printers of Augsburg Central Europe, the Catholic Enlightenment, and French Spiritual Literature Cuvilliés and the Wessobrunner Stukkatoren Italy and Central European Ceiling Painting Architecture, the Cartouche, and the Central European Church Interior Architecture “Fashioned of Ornament”: Dominikus Zimmermann and Johann Michael Feichtmayr Heaven on Earth 4 “Irregular Ornament in the Finest French Taste”: Spiritual Rococo in Portugal and Brazil Spiritual Rococo, the Portuguese Salon, and the Luso-Brazilian Enlightenment Enter the Rococo: Paris and Augsburg Prints in Portugal and Brazil Portuguese Regionalism and the Benedictine Abbey of Tibães Brazilian Rococo Minas Gerais Rococo and Its Diffusion 5 “O Happy Vision!”: Spiritual Rococo in Spain and Spanish South America Non-Iberian European Immigration to the Cono Sur Rococo in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago Mission Rococo in Paraguay and Patagonia Bourbon Reforms and French Spirituality in the Cono Sur Epilogue: “Superfluous Stucco and Laughable Decoration”: Rococo, Religion, and the Global Enlightenment Appendix A: French Spiritual Literature in Central European Collections Appendix B: French Spiritual Literature in Luso-Brazilian Collections Appendix C: French Spiritual Literature in the Spanish Southern Cone Bibliography Index Plates "A groundbreaking approach to Rococo religious d?ecorr and spirituality in Europe and South America, The Spiritual Rococo addresses three basic conundrums that impede our understanding of eighteenth-century aesthetics and culture. Why did the Rococo, ostensibly the least spiritual style in the pre-Modern canon, transform into one of the world's most important modes for adorning sacred spaces? And why is Rococo still treated as a decadent nemesis of the Enlightenment when the two had fundamental characteristics in common? This book seeks to answer these questions by treating Rococo as a global phenomenon for the first time and by exploring its moral and spiritual dimensions through the lens of populist French religious literature of the day-a body of work the author calls the 'Spiritual Rococo' and which has never been applied directly to the arts. The book traces Rococo's development from France through Central Europe, Portugal, Brazil, and South America by following a chain of interlocking case studies, whether artistic, literary, or ideological, and it also considers the parallel diffusion of the literature of the Spiritual Rococo in these same regions, placing particular emphasis on unpublished primary sources such as inventories. One of the ultimate goals of this study is to move beyond the clich?e of Rococo's frivolity and acknowledge its essential modernity. Thoroughly interdisciplinary, The Spiritual Rococo not only integrates different art historical fields in novel ways but also interacts with church and social history, literary and post-colonial studies, and anthropology, opening up new horizons in these fields."--Provided by publisher