ABSTRACT
When we speak here of 'Rococo' or 'Enlightenment,' we understand by the terms the expression taken by certain spiritual phenomena which—and we are dealing here with quite unique occurrences—succeeded in finding a form correspondent to their 'idea.' The word 'Rococo' conjures up for all our senses a world of subtle charm and loveliness; we hear the skipping airs of the first operettas, and mingling with them the rustle of splendid silken robes. We seem to scent in the air the fine fragrance of powdered wigs, to see the correct and yet mobile figures of a brilliant soeiety moving in step to the air of a Mozart minuet, to be dazzled by the countless lights reflected from the mirror-covered walls and the lacquered cabinets of spacious saloons, we are enchanted by the indescribable wealth of colour of a world splendid with silk and porcelain. We feel clearly that in all this an unique feeling for life has found its unique form of expression, that here 'idea' has become form, irradiating even all external things with the mysterious light of its essence. We see this world as a separate whole, whose unity is in no way impaired by the fact that other worlds with other actualities maintain a parallel existence—the hard struggle for life of the oppressed peasantry, excluded from the enjoyment of this brilliant world, bloody war, the self-denying labours of the man of science—all these worlds had their separate existences, because each had its own separate laws. To take an almost grotesque example—during the War of the Spanish Succession, the export of Paris mannequins (fashion-dolls) for the benefit of the beau monde of Vienna went on without interruption!
