Rocaille

It took its name from the mixture of rock, seashell and plaster that was used to create a picturesque effect in grottos during the Renaissance, and from the name of a seashell-shaped ornament which was frequent feature of Rocaille decoration.

The first major craftsman in the style was Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, followed by Jean Bérain the Elder, Gilles-Marie Oppenordt, Nicolas Pineau, and the sculptor-modelers Thomas Germain, Jacques Caffieri, and the German Jean-Claude Duplessis.

[10] Another important figure of the rocaille style was the ébéntiste Charles Cressent (1685–1768), who was a master craftsman both in the guild of wood carvers and bronze ornament sculptors, a rare accomplishment earned respectively in 1708 and 1714.

He is best known for his commodes, book cases and desks, which were often inlaid with rosewood and violet wood and equipped with particularly fine rocaille ornament of gilded bronze, including infants intermingled with birds and cascading vegetation.

He introduced several stylistic innovations, including the espagnolettes à aigrette, small busts of young women, applied to the corners of his commodes and desks.

The panels in the frames often also had decorative painting, usually of arabesques or colorful floral patterns, and often featured animals or exotic subjects, set in China, Japan, or Turkey.

The discovery of Greek antiquities beginning in 1738 at Herculanum and especially at Pompeii in 1748 turned French architecture in the direction of the more symmetrical and less flamboyant neo-classicism and the Louis XV style.