Analyzing Fête Champetre In 1730, the painting titled Fête Champetre was created by Jean-Baptiste Pater using the medium of oil on canvas. This work of art depicts the visual elements of color, light, line, composition, and space, all of which correspond to the conventions of its Rococo artistic movement. After Baroque art lost its popularity, it was replaced with Rococo art. The French Monarch named King Louis the XIV, who lived at the Palace of Versailles, was very interested in classical styles and classical conventions before Rococo art became known (Rococo lecture notes). When the king passed away in 1717, the Rococo style came to light. Because his son was too young to rule, a Duke relative took over as the temporary ruler, and moved the aristocracy to Paris, France (Rococo art lecture). By doing so, more French conventions were established and their art moved away from classical styles to the Rococo style. The Rococo style depicts the well-dressed French aristocracy doing leisurely things in a park or country setting, which is known as fête galante (Stokstad, 1141) Color plays a role in this two-dimensional artwork. Like many other Rococo paintings, Fête Champetre shows the use of pastel colors. One of the key Rococo conventions was pastel pinks and greens (Rococo art lecture), which acts as the overall color scheme in this panting, though there are other colors, too. The pastel pinks and greens can be seen in the trees and some of the clothing on the people. Another color style portrayed in this piece is the use of warm colors, which consist of red, yellow, and orange. The clothes that these aristocratic people are wearing are in different values of the warm colors, which means how light or dark a color is. The sky beyond the trees and the dress of the woman in the middle of the bunch of people on the right side of the canvas are cool colors, which consist of blue, green, and purple. Light is another element of visual analysis that is used to construct the illusion of the forms, or shapes, in the artwork. Although the faces of these aristocrats are not too detailed, the folds in their clothes are very defined through the use of modeling. Modeling is the distinction between light and shadow that gives an illusion of depth. The subjects in this painting look very three-dimensional even though it is a two-dimensional artwork. Fête Champetre has different kinds of lines that are visible. One of the key conventions of the Rococo style is painterly with curvilinear lines (Rococo art lecture). Painterly is the kind of style where there is an emphasis on the color and brush strokes, and curvilinear lines are lines that curve and are more natural. A majority of the well-dressed people are creating an eye line where they are looking at the lady dressed in cool colors in the midst of the group of people on the right side. These eye lines create invisible lines that make the viewer look to where these aristocrats are looking at. In a sense, it makes the woman the focal point of this composition because the eye lines are indirectly pointing at her. The piece is an open form because the trees along the side of the canvas are cut off, leaving the viewer to imagine what the rest of the trees would look like, but they know that it would exist if the painting was extended out more. The trees represent lush vegetation, which is also a key convention of Rococo art (Rococo art lecture). Because there is a story that is being told about what the French Aristocracy do during their free time, this composition is a narrative. There is a sense of flirtation among these wealthy people, another key convention of Rococo art as well, (Rococo art lecture). This can be seen in the way some of the men and women are looking at each other, and also how close they are to one another. The artist makes use of the visual analysis element of space to achieve the false appearance of three-dimensional space. The way that the mountains and a tilted tree can be seen far into the distance of the painting is called deep space, which is when the painting appears to extend for miles. The tilted tree also appears smaller than the trees that are closer, meaning that the artist used diminution of scale. This means that the size of the object is bigger when it is up close and appears smaller when it is further away. Pater could also be using vertical location, where the higher up an object is on a canvas, the further away it appears to be, and vice versa. Overlapping can be seen among the trees and the people, which is when the objects are slightly on top of one another, and the object on top conveys that it is closer to the viewer. The positive space, or the physical and tangible objects that one thinks they can touch, are the people, the dog, and the trees. The negative space, or air around the objects, would be the sky in the back and the distant mountains. Rococo art tends to illustrate the important figures of the French Aristocracy doing leisurely things, which is once again called fête galante. As seen in this picture, these well-dressed people seem to be enjoying the nature setting that surrounds them, and are taking pleasure in the fun activity of hanging out with other people of their stature and chatting. Above these people and between the trees, there is a statue of two Putti and a dolphin made from marble (Norton Simon wall label). Putti, or fat babies with wings, are usually nude and are often connected to these scenes of passion in the Rococo art movement (Rococo art lecture). They seem to act like a sort of cupid, which again gives off the flirty and amorous impression of this painting. The Duke also created salons in town houses during the Rococo period, which is a room or event where people can entertain their guests with artworks and socialize (Rococo art lecture). While painting Fête Champetre, Pater integrates the key conventions of Rococo art into the visual elements of color, light, line, composition, and space. By combining the elements and conventions together, the artist was able to convey the distinct characteristics of French art and allow the viewer to visually see the style that is Rococo art.