Rococo Ontology

Abstract

Rococo style in art, architecture, and the decorative arts, is frequently understood through its socio-economic milieu. It has, however, another side: although a materialistic style, it centrally expresses elements of ontological idealism. Focusing on rocaille, the basic substance in the Rococo universe, and atectonicity, one of the basic concepts in all Rococo design, this essay examines them as expressions of non-Cartesian subjectivity and of nature not confined to mechanistic causality, seen in the contemporary work of Malebranche and Berkeley. Rococo uses a concept of continuous creation that stretches back to the neo-Platonism of pseudo-Dionysius as mediated by Eriugena. The presence of ontology in non-verbal art sheds some light on what ontology is and how it relates to style and manner.