Chinoiserie refers to a recurring theme in European
artistic styles since the seventeenth century, which reflects
Chinese art and is characterized by the use of fanciful imagery of an imaginary China, by
asymmetry in format and whimsical contrasts of scale, and by the attempts to imitate
Chinese porcelain and the use of lacquerlike materials and decoration. Chinoiserie entered the European repertory in the mid-to-late seventeenth century; its popularity peaked around the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was easily assimilated into
rococo, then declined somewhat, for it seemed to European eyes the very antithesis of
neoclassicism. Chinoiserie is expressed entirely in the
decorative arts of Europe, and its expression in architecture was entirely in the field of whimsical
follies. By contrast, the serious transformations that Chinese models effected in the eighteenth century, on the plain style of Early Georgian English furniture, notable in the
cabriole leg, or on the "naturalistic" style of
English landscape gardening, are not considered instances of "Chinoiserie".
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