The transfer of the style rocaille from shipbuilding to architecture.Genesis and design principles of the early Rococo in French bâtiments particuliers, 1715-1735

• Applicant: Professorin Dr.-Ing. Anke Fissabre
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2014 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 252295626

The intention of the present project is to examine the ways of transfer of the style rocaille from shipbuilding to the architecture of the early Rococo in France and to analyse the reciprocal influences in detail. In the first part of the project the graphic legacy of François-Antoine Vassé, who introduced the shell motif for the first time in an asymmetrical manner in architecture, from 1710 to 1730 will be assorted and evaluated. The documents will be examined in terms of preparatory drawings and with regard to geometrical auxiliary construction lines. These might have been transferred along with the introduction of the maritime motifs, to order the asymmetry of wall panels according to the same geometrical technique used for the designs of ship sterns. In the second part of the project the formative phase of the French Rococo will be examined by documenting the development of connections of motifs and persons between the baroque shipbuilding and the early Rococo architecture. For the Hôtel de Toulouse and the Château de Rambouillet, both commissioned by Louis Alexandre de Bourbon and designed by the sculpteur ornemaniste Vassé, archival and literature research are planned to documentate the development of both projects. In the third part of the project, building research in four selected key-buildings of early Rococo will be undertaken. Using laser scanning, the architectural survey will produce geometrically precise orthogonal projections of the wall structure to enable an analytical comparison between their design principles and the ship designs. Key buildings will be the Hôtel de Toulouse (1718/19) in Paris, the Maison Brethous (1729) in Bayonne and the Appartements de la Comtesse de Toulouse (1730/36) in the Château de Rambouillet. Without exception the patrons of these buildings, as well as the participating architects and sculptors, took part in marine circles or stood in direct connection with these circles. To trace the further development of design, the interior decoration of the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris, an hôtel particulier of the high Rococo (1735), shall be examined too. The intention of this research project is to illustrate the ways in which decoration motifs and asymmetrical wall structures were transferred from shipbuilding to the architecture of the early Rococo. By documenting the selected key buildings, important informations on the formative phase of the Rococo style will be described and analysed. Additionally, it can be expected that, through this research, the exemplary function of the shipbuilding, which was already evident, but could not have been proved so far, will be shown in their precise details and developments. Hereby, the research project would establish a completely new perspective on the origins of the Rococo style.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants