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Popes, Peasants, Monarchs, and Merchants:

Art of the Enlightenment and Neoclassical Art


ART ID 121 | Study of Western Arts
Slide concept by William V. Ganis, PhD NYIT Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology

With modifications by Arch. Edeliza V. Macalandag, UAP

The Renaissance (14th-16th centuries) and the Enlightenment (1650-1800) name two distinctly different periods of European history. They both heralded major changes in culture, art, philosophy, science, and mathematics. The Renaissance is associated with advances in literature, architecture, humanism, and a world economy, while the Enlightenment is associated with the scientific method, industrialization, rationality, astronomy, and calculus.

The Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment


Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was a cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe, that sought to mobilize the power of reason, in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted science and intellectual interchange and opposed superstition,[1] intolerance and abuses in church and state. Originating about 1650 to 1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza (16321677), John Locke (1632 1704), Pierre Bayle (16471706), mathematician Isaac Newton (16431727), and historian Voltaire (16941778).

The Age of Enlightenment


From about 1650-1800, Europe and the New World experienced an Enlightenment that introduced new paradigms of morality. This, too, was a period of discovery, but is generally limited to the realm of science, mathematics, and technology. Logic and reason reigned as thinkers became convinced that society and the natural world were like a giant, united machine. While it may be complicated, it could eventually be dismantled, studied, and mastered. The scientific method, which relied on the notion of objective observation leading to verifiable conclusions, spurred developments in astronomy, philosophy, medicine and physiology, transportation, chemistry, and ethics.

The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society


The Enlightenment expanded the boundaries of European knowledge. It offered a new way of thinking critically about the world and about humankind. The Enlightenment employed reason and empirical evidence, and promoted the scientific method. The Doctrine of Empiricism The Doctrine of Empiricism, promoted by John Locke, argued that the mind is a blank tablet upon which our experience of the material world, acquired through the senses, is imprinted. Ideas are formed on the basis of this experience. Locke also believed that the law of Nature grants people the natural rights of life, liberty, and property, and that the purpose of government is to protect these rights.

The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society


The Doctrine of Progress The philosophies in France identified individuals and societies-at-large as part of physical nature and argued that through the application of reason and common sense the problems of society could be remedied. They believed that knowledge was the basis of freedom and that through knowledge societies could be systematically improved. A compendium of knowledge The comprehensive compilation of articles and illustrations in the Encyclopdie provided access to all available knowledge. The Comte de Buffon's Natural History provided a kind of encyclopedia of the natural sciences.

The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society


Revolutionary change Advances in manufacturing technology, together with advances in heating, lighting, and transportation, produced the Industrial Revolution, which also led to an expansion in the growth of cities and of an urban working class. The increase in the demand for cheap labor and raw materials also promoted territorial expansion and colonial exploitation. The new state and direction of society gave rise to "modern" art, which, with a new awareness of history, responded to and addressed these changes.

The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society


Enlightenment's champion Houdon's marble bust shows Voltaire, whose writings and critical activism contributed to the conviction that fundamental changes were necessary in government in order for humankind to progress. Scientific advances Biomechanical and chemical studies of living nature advanced that field of human knowledge. In the field of life sciences, the study of the human body- its structures, function, and disorders- was at the center of scientific interest. Industrial transformation The discovery of steam power led to the invention of steam engines, which were used for industrial production and for transportation. Power was further harnessed using coal, oil, iron, steel, and electricity. Scientific and technological advances also led to the development of photography and to changes in architecture.

drawing from dissection of a woman who died in the ninth month of pregnancy

William Hunter
Child in Womb from Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus
1774

The wonders of the universe: Joseph Wright of Derby's realistic painting shows a demonstration of an orrery, the mechanism of which is scrupulously and accurately rendered.

Joseph Wright of Derby A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery


ca. 1763-1765 oil on canvas 4 ft. 10 in. x 6 ft. 8 in.

The wonders of the universe:

Joseph Wright of Derby's realistic painting shows a demonstration of an orrery, the mechanism of which is scrupulously and accurately rendered.

Joseph Wright of Derby Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump


1768 oil on canvas 6 x 8 ft.

Bridging the ages with iron: Abraham Darby III and Thomas F. Pritchard designed and built the first cast-iron bridge. The bridge's exposed cast-iron structure prefigures the skeletal use of iron and steel in the nineteenth century.

Abraham Darby III and Thomas E. Pritchard


Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale Coalbrookdale, England
1776-1779

VOLTAIRE VERSUS ROUSSEAU: SCIENCE VERSUS THE TASTE FOR THE "NATURAL"
While Voltaire thought the salvation of humanity was in science's advancement and in society's rational improvement, Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that the arts, sciences, society, and civilization in general had corrupted "natural man" and that humanity's only salvation was to return to its original condition. The "Natural" Landscape The eighteenth century developed a taste for depictions by artists of "natural" landscapes. Growing travel opportunities, including the "Grand Tour," also increased interest in the depiction of particular places and geographic settings. The taste for the "natural" in France: Rousseau placed feelings above reason as the most "natural" of human expressions and called for the cultivation of sincere, sympathetic, and tender emotions. Because of this belief, he exalted as a model for imitation the unsullied emotions and the simple, honest, uncorrupt "natural" life of the peasant.

The Sentimentality of Rural Romance: The expression of sentiment is apparent in Jean-Baptiste Greuze's muchadmired painting of The Village Bride, which shows a peasant family in a rustic interior.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze The Village Bride


1761 oil on canvas 3 ft. x 3 ft. 10 1/2 in.

The charm of the ordinary: Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin's Grace at Table, which shows an unpretentious urban, middle-class mother and two daughters at table giving thanks to God before a meal, satisfied a taste for paintings that taught moral lessons and upheld middle-class values.

Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin Grace at Table


1740 oil on canvas 1 ft. 7 in. x 1 ft. 3 in.

..

Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin The Soap Bubble


ca. 1739 oil on canvas 61 x 63 cm

Portrait of a woman artist: lisabeth Louise Vige-Lebrun's naturalistic Self-Portrait shows the self-confident artist in a lighthearted mood.

lisabeth Louise Vige-Lebrun


Self-Portrait
1790 oil on canvas 8 ft. 4 in. x 6 ft. 9 in.

The charm of the ordinary: Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin's Grace at Table, which shows an unpretentious urban, middle-class mother and two daughters at table giving thanks to God before a meal, satisfied a taste for paintings that taught moral lessons and upheld middle-class values.

Adlaide Labille-Guiard
Self-Portrait with Two Pupils
1785 oil on canvas 6 ft. 11 in. x 4 ft. 11 1/2 in.

The taste for the "natural" in England: Visualizing Morality through Satire: William Hogarth expresses the taste of the newly prosperous and confident middle class in England in his moralizing satires of contemporary life. In his carefully detailed painting of the Breakfast Scene from Marriage la Mode, Hogarth comments on the social evil of the arranged marriage.

William Hogarth Breakfast Scene from Marriage la Mode


ca. 1745 oil on canvas 2 ft. 4 in. x 3 ft.

Grand manner portraiture:

Thomas Gainsborough's portrait, painted in a soft-hued light and with feathery brushwork, shows Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan dressed informally and seated in a rustic natural landscape of unspoiled beauty. Gainsborough's painting is also an example of "Grand Manner portraiture," in which the sitter is elevated and the refinement and elegance of her class is communicated through the large scale of the figure relative to the canvas, the controlled pose, the "arcadian" landscape setting, and the low horizon line.
Thomas Gainsborough Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
1787 oil on canvas 7 ft. 2 5/8 in. x 5 ft. 5/8 in.

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces


1765 oil on canvas 7 ft. 10 in. x 5 ft.

Great people and noble deeds: Honor, valor, courage, resolution, self-sacrifice, and patriotism were included among the "natural" virtues that produced great people and great deeds. Defending Gibraltar: Sir Joshua Reynolds's painting shows an honest English officer who was honored for his heroic defense of Gibraltar with the title Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar. Sir Joshua Reynolds Lord Heathfield
1787 oil on canvas 4 ft. 8 in. x 3 ft. 9 in.

Charles Wilson Peale


George Washington
ca. 1779-81 oil on canvas 95 x 61 3/4 in.

General Wolfe's heroic death: Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe shows a contemporary historical subject with realistic figures in modern costume, but in a composition arranged in the complex and theatrically ordered manner of the grand tradition of history painting, which West uses to transform the heroic battlefield death into a martyrdom charged with religious emotions.

Benjamin West The Death of General Wolfe


1771 oil on canvas approximately 5 x 7 ft.

Paul Revere, Silversmith: A sense of directness and faithfulness to visual fact is conveyed in John Singleton Copley's Portrait of Paul Revere, which shows the figure informally posed in a plain setting with clear lighting.

John Singleton Copley Portrait of Paul Revere


ca. 1768-1770 oil on canvas 2 ft. 11 1/8 in. x 2 ft. 4 in.

Antonio Canaletto Basin of San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore Venice, Italy
c.a. 1740 Oil on Canvas

Jean-Antoine Houdon Voltaire


1781 marble approximately life-size

The charm of the ordinary: Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin's Grace at Table, which shows an unpretentious urban, middle-class mother and two daughters at table giving thanks to God before a meal, satisfied a taste for paintings that taught moral lessons and upheld middle-class values. Jean-Antoine Houdon

Voltaire
1778 marble 18 7/8 in. high

Jean-Antoine Houdon George Washington


1788-92 marble 6 ft. 2 in. high

THE REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN CLASSICISM


Models of Enlightenment: A defining characteristic of the late eighteenth century is a renewed interest in classical antiquity, which is manifested in painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as in fashion and home decor. The geometric harmony of classical art and architecture embodied Enlightenment ideals, while classical cultures of the Greek and Roman republics, with their traditions of liberty, civic virtue, morality, and sacrifice, served as ideal models of enlightened political organization. The excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii also stirred public interest in the classical past. The ancient world also became the focus of scholarly attention, notably in the work of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the first modern art historian, who characterized Greek sculpture as manifesting a "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" and who drew attention to distinctions between Greek and Roman art.

Setting the Stage for Neoclassicism in Art A Roman example of virtue: Angelica Kauffmann contributed to the replacement of "natural" pictures with simple figure types, homely situations, and contemporary settings with subject matter of an exemplary nature drawn from Greek and Roman history and literature. Her Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures treats the theme of virtue with the example of Cornelia presenting her own sons as her jewels. Angelica Kauffmann Mother of the Gracchi
ca. 1785 oil on canvas 3 ft. 4 in. x 4 ft. 2 in.

Neoclassicism in France Planting the seeds of glory: Jacques-Louis David, the Neoclassical painter-ideologist of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic empire, favored the classical and academic traditions. His painting of the Oath of the Horatii depicts a heroic story of courageous and patriotic selfsacrifice set in pre-Republican Rome, in which carefully modeled rigidly statuesque male figures enact a virile drama in a shallow space defined by a severely simple architectural framework. The rectilinear forms and noble virtues displayed by the men are contrasted with the curvilinear collapsing forms of the women, whose weak female nature is shown overcome by emotion and sorrow. Jacques-Louis David Oath of the Horatii
1784 oil on canvas approximately 11 x 14 ft.

Jacques-Louis David Death of Socrates


1787 oil on canvas 51 x 77 1/4 in.

A martyred revolutionary: In a spare Neoclassical composition, David painted the assassinated revolutionary JeanPaul Marat as a tragic martyr who died in the service of the state.

Jacques-Louis David

The Death of Marat


1793 oil on canvas approximately 5 ft. 3 in. x 4 ft. 1 in.

Napolean's ascendance:
In the large The Coronation of Napoleon, David documented the pomp and pageantry of Napoleon's coronation in December of 1804. The action is presented as if on a theater stage, and makes a complex statement about the changing politics in Napoleonic France. Jacques-Louis David The Coronation of Napoleon
1805-1808 oil on canvas 20 ft. 4 1/2 in. x 32 ft. 1 3/4 in.

Jacques-Louis David Monsieur Lavoisier and His Wife


1788 oil on canvas 8 ft. 8 1/4 in. x 7 ft. 4 1/8 in.

tienne-Louis Boule

Cenotaph for Isaac Newton (never built)


1784 ink and wash drawings each 15 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.

Roman Grandeur in France: Jacques-Germain Soufflot's grand design for the Neoclassical portico of Sainte-Genevive, now the Panthon, in Paris, was inspired by the Roman ruins at Baalbek in Syria.

Jacques-Germain Soufflot

The Panthon (Sainte-Genevive)


Paris, France
1755-1792

A Napoleonic "Temple of Glory":

La Madeleine was intended to serve as a "temple of glory" for Napoleon's armies and a monument to the newly won glories of France. Pierre Vignon's grandiose design includes a high podium and broad flight of stairs leading to a deep porch in the front, which recall Roman imperial temples.

Pierre Vignon La Madeleine Paris, France


1807-1842

Pierre Vignon La Madeleine Paris, France


1807-1842

The emperor's sister as goddess: Napoleon's favorite sculptor, Antonio Canova, carved a sharply detailed marble portrait of Napoleon's sister, Pauline Borghese, as Venus shown reclining in a sensuous pose on a divan. Antonio Canova Paulene Borghese as Venus
1808 | marble | life-size

Antonio Canova Paulene Borghese as Venus


1808 marble life-size

Antonio Canova Paulene Borghese as Venus


1808 marble life-size

Antonio Canova Perseus with the Head of Medusa


ca. 1800 marble life-size

Antonio Canova Cupid and Psyche


1787-93 marble 5 ft. 1 in. x 5 ft. 8 1/4 in.

Karl Gotthard Langhans


Brandenburg Gate Berlin, Germany
1788-91

Invoking Palladio: Lord Burlington's Chiswick House is a free variation on the theme of Palladio's Villa Rotonda. Its simple symmetry, unadorned planes, right angles, and stiffly wrought proportions give it very classical and "rational" appearance. In contrast, the interior is ornamented in a Late Baroque style, while the informal gardens are irregularly laid out. Richard Boyle and William Kent Chiswick House near London, England
begun 1725

Richard Boyle and William Kent Chiswick House

near London, England


begun 1725

John Wood the Younger The Royal Crescent Bath, England


1769-1775

Palladian splendor: John Wood the Younger's plan for the Royal Crescent in Bath links thirty houses into rows behind a single, continuous, majestic Palladian faade in a great semiellipse.

A Greek portico in England:


In the volumes of Antiquities of Athens, James Stuart distinguished Greek art from the "derivative" Roman style. His design for the portico at Hagley Park reconstructs a Doric temple known as the Theseion.

James Stuart Doric Portico Hagley Park, Worcestershire, England


1758

Wedgwood and Co. Vase with Bridal Preparation Scene


black basalt stoneware 1769-1775 18 in. high

Adapting Pompeian decor: Robert Adam's delicate Pompeian design of the Etruscan Room at Osterley Park House is symmetrical and rectilinear. Decorative motifs, such as medallions, urns, vine scrolls, sphinxes, and tripods derived from Roman art are sparsely arranged within broad, neutral spaces and slender margins.

Robert Adam Etruscan Room Osterley Park House Middlesex, England


begun 1761

NEOCLASSICISM IN THE UNITED STATES

Thomas Jefferson Monticello Charlottesville, Virginia


1770-1806

Jeffersonian idealism: Thomas Jefferson wanted to adopt a symbolic Neoclassicism as the national architecture of the United States. He re-designed his own home of Monticello to emulate Palladio's architecture, with a faade inspired by the work of Robert Adam. Pierre L'Enfant's plan for the city of Washington, D.C., is logically ordered. In his design for the Capitol, Benjamin H. Latrobe said he wanted to re-create "the glories of the Greece of Pericles in the woods of America."

Horatio Greenough George Washington


1832-1841 marble approximately 11 ft. 4 in. high

Benjamin Latrobe Capitol Building Washington, DC


1803-1807

Major LEnfant Plan of Washington Washington, DC


1791

Benjamin Latrobe Tobacco Capital Washington, DC


1809

Benjamin Latrobe Corncob Capital

Washington, DC
1809

Free at last: The Neoclassical style Jefferson championed so successfully for the architecture of the new democracy was invoked by American sculptors as well. The following sculpture depicts freed African American slaves.

Edmonia Lewis Forever Free


1867 marble 3 ft. 5 1/4 in. x 11 in. x 7 in.

Hiram Powers

The Greek Slave


1843 marble 5 ft. 5 1/2 in. high

Hiram Powers

The Greek Slave


1843 marble 5 ft. 5 1/2 in. high

Summarizing Neoclassical principles: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres adopted what he believed to be a truer and purer Greek style than that employed by David. His conservative Neoclassical taste and strict adherence to the doctrine of ideal form is seen in the Apotheosis of Homer, which is a catalogue of painters, sculptors, poets, philosophers, writers, and playwrights who since ancient times had remained loyal to classicism. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Apotheosis of Homer
1827 oil on canvas 12 ft. 8 in. x 16 ft. 10 3/4 in.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Paganini
1819 pencil drawing 1 ft. x 8 1/2 in.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Grande Odalisque
1814 oil on canvas 2 ft. 11 in. x 5 ft. 4 in.

Sources http://websites.swlearning.com/cgiwadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=0155 050907&discipline_number=436 Art Through the Ages, 12th/11th ed., Gardner

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