Rococo Style, style of 18th-century painting and decoration characterized by lightness, delicacy, and elaborate ornamentation. The Rococo period corresponded roughly to the reign (1715-1774) of Louis XV of France. Its exact origins are obscure, but it appears to have begun with the work of the French designer Pierre Lepautre, who introduced arabesques and curves into the interior architecture of the royal residence at Marly, and with the paintings of Antoine Watteau, whose delicate, colour-drenched canvases of aristocratic men and women in idyllic surroundings broke with the heroism of Louis XIV style.

The term rococo comes from the French rocaille, “rock-work”. In decoration the fully fledged style is characterized by decoration based on arabesques, shells, elaborate curves, and asymmetry; in painting it is typified by iridescent pastel colours and light-hearted rather than weighty subject matter. The outstanding Rococo painters were François Boucher, best known for his boudoir scenes with plump, pink nudes, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, renowned for his scenes of coy assignations in leafy glades and curtained alcoves. In decoration, the Rococo style reached its peak in the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris, work on which began in 1732, and to which a number of artists and decorators contributed, most notably Gabriel Germain Boffrant and René Alexis Delamaire.

Rococo style spread quickly to other European countries, particularly Germany and Austria, where it was grafted on to the then popular Baroque modes to create a style of great lavishness and profusion, especially in churches and sacred places. It culminated in the work of the Flemish-born Bavarian architect and designer François de Cuvilliés, particularly the Amalienburg Pavilion (1734-1739) near Munich, the interiors of which resemble jewel boxes in their elaboration of mirrors, gold and silver filigree, and decorative plasterwork.

Rococo gave way to the austere Neo-Classical style late in the 18th century and disappeared completely and abruptly after the French Revolution in 1789.