REFLECTIONS OF LOVE IN ROCOCO ART

Abstract

It is said that love is the greatest food for the soul, but most people have left the world without experiencing this beautiful feeling. Many thinkers such as Socrates and Plato have said good words about love. There are philosophers who have a more rigid point of view, who think that love is a trap set for the continuation of the human race. Scientists in the field of psychology think that love is a temporary intensity of emotion and eventually turns into either love or hate. Love differs from person to person. Every soul experiences it differently. Although there are different equivalents in Islamic mysticism, Christianity, and Brahma religion, each belief style speaks of love in a unique way. According to Islamic Sufism, it is the love of God and it is a sublime feeling that cannot be reached by everyone, in Christianity it is equated with virtue, in Brahma, it is annihilation in God. Such an intense and sublime feeling is well reflected in art. Love has been the subject of many art forms from ancient art to the present. Each period has a different perception. In some periods, it was emphasized over mythological gods, while in others, the love of ordinary people was the subject. The art movement in which romantic love scenes are most intensely depicted is Rococo. It is an art movement that started at the beginning of the 18th century and fell out of favor before it reached the end of the century. In Rococo, cheerful pictures of romantic couples flirting with flowers and love plays are seen accompanied by idyllic landscapes such as a secluded garden or a secluded forest. Rococo artists, who used light and colors skillfully, were accused of shamelessness by their contemporaries, and some were even excommunicated. However, they never broke their magnificent love line until the French Revolution began and the Rococo movement ended. Instead of telling love through the mighty gods of mythological stories like ancient or Renaissance artists, they described the happy and romantic moments of poor or middle-class people. As a result, it has been revealed that Rococo artists are painters who deal with romantic and joyful love topics in such a stable manner throughout the entire history of art and guide the perception of love of today's people by creating the most emotional and happiest scenes ever.