The term, “ Baroque” can be used expansively to describe European art throughout the first half of 18th century. However, with the dawn of the century, and with the death of the French King Louis XIV in 1715, new forces emerged to challenge long –accepted traditions of European social, political, and cultural life. In the art of the early 18th century, the Rococo style represents this significant change in taste from Grand Manner of 17th-century painting, sculpture, and architecture.
1682 – King Louis XIV of France establishes his royal court at Versailles.
1717 – Watteau enters Departure from the Island of Cythera to the French Academy under painter of the fete galante.
1725 – Paris Salon first held at the Palais du Louvre.
1728 – Chardin admitted to the French Academy as a painter of animals and fruit.
1738 – Excavation of Herculaneum.
1740 – Outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession.
1748 – Gainsborough working on the portrait Mr. and Mrs. Andrews.
1756 – Seven Years’ War begins , it spreads across Europe and its colonies.
1759 – Voltaire’s novel Candide published.
1764 – Winckelmann’s The History of Ancient Art published.
1765 – Diderot writes Essay on Painting
1768 – Reynolds made first president of London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
1789 – The Storming of the Bastille heralds the French Revolution.
1793 – King Lois XVI of France executed; David paints The Death of Marat.
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte crowned Emperor of the French
1824 – Ingres submits Vow of Lois XIII to the Paris Salon.
¤ Jean-Antoine Watteau ( 1684-1721)-French
¤ Jean Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779)-French
¤ Jacques-Louis David ( 1748-1825)- French
¤ Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( 1780-1867)-French