Rococo

Rococo, 18th-century European artistic and architectural style. The term derives from rocaille (French, “rock work”), whose arabesque and ingenious forms are found in many rococo works. The style, characterized by lightness and delicacy, emerged c.1700 in France, finding expression in the works of François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and others. Some of the greatest achievements of rococo sculpture and decoration are found in the palaces and pilgrimage churches of Austria and southern Germany.