Rocoʹco Architecture

A debased style, which succeeded the revival of Italian architecture, and very prevalent in Germany. The ornamentation is without principle or taste, and may be designated ornamental design run mad. The Rock-temple of Ellora, in India, is most lavishly decorated.

“The sacristy of St. Lorenzo … was the beginning of that wonderful mixture of antique regularity with the capricious bizarrerie of modern times, the last barren fruit of which was the rococo.”—H. Grimm: Michel Angelo, vol. ii. chap. xi. p. 173.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.