Rococo: Before Bedtime

In Heidelberg, pilgrims loosen their purse strings after thrilling to Balthasar Neumann's extravagant Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Saxony's Augustus the Strong ruthlessly unlocks the secrets of porcelain manufacturing, fueling a craze for exotic figurines. On the Adriatic, Canaletto's sunny paintings of Venice gloss over its gritty reality.

Waldemar looks at the pursuit of pleasure in the Rococo age, to which a huge amount of cultural energy was devoted. For the first time in history, pleasure and happiness were seen as unalienable human rights that everyone was free to pursue and is reflected so poignantly in the art.

When you spend as much time as the Rococo did having fun and escaping reality, madness soon sets in. The 18th century is seen as the era of frivolity and enjoyment, but in an age of such decadence there was also the brutish satire of Hogarth, the mysterious masked figures of Longhi, the anguish of Messerschmidt and the depths of Goya's macabre genius.