“ Everything, indeed, in the rococo manner is involved and tortured, though before a superb example of Jacques Caffieri, such as the famous commode in the Wallace Collection, it is impossible not to admire the art with which genius can treat even the defects and weaknesses of a peculiarly mannered fashion. ”

“ The best French work possesses a balance and symmetry which are usually entirely absent from its imitations. Spain and Italy produced many monstrous travesties—it is impossible to imagine anything more grotesque than the flamboyant convolutions of the monumental Roman style of the third quarter of the 18th century. In Germany, weak and lifeless imitations were as popular as might be imagined in a land which was content to take its art, especially its bad art, from France. ”

“ A meaningless mixture of imitation rock-work, shells, scrolls and foliage, the word came eventually to be applied to anything extravagant, flamboyant or tasteless in art or literature. The very exuberance of the rococo forms is, indeed, the negation of art, which is based upon restraint. ”