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Italian Period Styles

Settocento Rococo, 1700-1750: Secular prettification of the Baroque.

Italy’s declining commerce reduced wealth, and the declining quality of craftsmanship and materials in this period is significant. The general scale of furniture was smaller, prettier; gracefulness supplanted grandeur. Motives favor foliage and ribbons, rocks and shells, Chinese forms, all increasingly naturalistic. Asymmetry and the curved line were the rule. Venice alone retained some of her prestige and wealth, and therefore led in the production of furniture; consequently, most Italian Rococo work is described as Venetian.

Sources: The Encyclopeida of Furniture by Joseph Aronson and History of Interior Design Furniture by Robbie G. Blakemore

 

 

 

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