Ch 29-30 2013 - Bvsd

Chapters 29 & 30:
1700-1870
Sequence of artistic styles:
Rococo---Enlightenment----
Neoclassicism---Romanticism---Realism

Ch. 29 -30:
Birth of the “Isms”
• Patchwork of several artistic trends, each
reacting to the previous
• Enormous variety from 1700 – 1800- rapid
shifts in style and subject matter
• No 1 single style dominated, such as in
Renaissance and Baroque
• Rococo = short-lived
• Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism
= overlap & blend & compete with each
other.

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Ch 29-30 Important ideas for NEOCLASSICAL / ROMANTIC
ROCOCO: Primarily a form of decorative interior decoration: curvilinear, delicate ornamentation favored by the French
aristocracy who lived a frivolous existence devoted to pleasure. Its short duration ended in 1760. Mood: playful,
superficial, energetic. Colors: white, silver, gold. Shapes: sinuous, arabesques, S and C curves.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
The majority of the art and architecture discussed in this chapter was influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, a major current in
Western thought. Neoclassical art in particular showed the influence of the Enlightenment in its choice of subject matter—for
example, David's OATH OF THE HORATII or DEATH OF SOCRATES. Later works, such as Goya's THIRD OF MAY, 1808 should
be seen as a reaction to the Enlightenment.
NEOCLASSICISM VERSUS ROMANTICISM
One theme of these chapters is the contrast between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. By the end of the chapters, students
should be able to analyze the differences between these two styles in terms of composition, choice of subject matter, proportion,
color, and so on. Understanding the distinction between these two styles is especially important in French painting, where the
inheritors of these artistic traditions will become the earliest modernists.
INFLUENCE OF NAPOLEON
Students should be aware of the influence of Napoleon on French art by being able to identify which artists worked for Napoleon,
which were sympathetic to his regime, and which were opposed to it. They should consider David, Ingres, Delacroix, and Goya. A
central question for students to discuss is how important a role Napoleon's patronage played in the art of this period.
THE AMERICAN IDENTITY
Artists in the new United States of America tried to capture the spirit of their fledgling republic in their art, but comparing the art of
the young nation with that of its European antecedents reveals strong influences, as well as new unique forms such as naturalistic
painting.

Rococo:
1700s
“ the pursuit of happiness & love”
Roots
C/C to Baroque
Stylistic characteristics

Hotel: French town houses
of the elite epitomized
Rococo.
ROCOCO Germain Boffrand, Salon de la Princesse , Paris, France ca
1737-1740
This is a typical French
Rococo Room.
The room is comprised of
sinuous curves luxuriantly
multiplied in mirror
reflections.
Painting, architecture, and
sculpture combine to form a
single ensemble.
tendrils: A twisting,
threadlike structure by
which a twining plant, such
as a grape or cucumber,
grasps an object or a plant
for support.

François de Cuvilles, Hall
ROCOCO
of Mirrors, Munich,
Germany, early 1700s.
Delicate, Organic, Ornate, Detailed, Reflective, Fanciful, Festive

ROCOCO

ROCOCO
Catherine Palace, Russia, cue card

Portrait of Louis XIV, 1701
BAROQUE.
ROCOCO Antoine Watteau, L’Indefferent, 1716.
ROCOCO

This painting represents a
group of lovers preparing
to depart from the island
of eternal youth and love,
sacred to Aphrodite.
Young and luxuriously
costumed, they perform,
as it were, an elegant,
tender, and graceful
ballet, moving from the
protective shade of a
woodland park, peopled
with amorous cupids and
voluptuous statuary, down
a grassy slope to an
awaiting golden barge.
ROCOCO Antoine Watteau, Return from Cythera, 1717-1719
Fete Galante = ‘elegant outdoor entertainment’

• The beauty of a
material object could
be recreated by use of
a line to create form.
• Color was seen as
transitory &
decorative. The
Renaissance masters
were the models of
“disegno”.
Line vs Color
• Color satisfies the
eye; line satisfies the
mind.
• Texture
• Layers
• Emotion

ROCOCO

ROCOCO

ROCOCO Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717.

ROCOCO Francois Boucher, Cupid a Captive, 1754
Boucher was a follower of Watteau and the
painter for Madame de Pompadour ( the
influencial mistress of Louis XV)
His fame was gained through his paintings of
graceful allegories, with Archadian shepherds,
nymphs, and goddesses cavorting in shady
glens engulfed in pink and sky blue light.
“Boucher’s paintings are highly caloric with little
nutritional value”

ROCOCO
Francois Boucher, Marquise de
Pompadour , 1756.

Fragonard was a student of Boucher
and is considered by many to have
surpassed the genius of his master.
This is a typical “intrigue” picture. A
young gentleman has managed an
arrangement whereby an unsuspecting
old bishop swings the young man’s
pretty sweetheart higher and higher,
while her lover (and the work’s
patron), in the lower left-hand corner,
stretches out to admire her ardently
from a strategic position on the
ground.
The young lady flirtatiously and boldly
kicks off her shoe at the little statue on
the god of discretion, who holds his
finger to his lips.
ROCOCO Jean-Honré Fragonard, The Swing, 1766

ROCOCO Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Bathers, 1766.

Art of the Enlightenment
ROCOCO
Includes both paintings that depict
topics of the Enlightenment as well as
those that demonstrate a new style
and iconography called “Natural” art
and Grand Manner portraiture.
Rationalism
Empiricism: scientific method

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery , 1763-1765.
Role of light: new
meaning

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air
Pump is a 1768, Joseph Wright of
Derby, 1786 oil on canvas

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Coalbrookdale Bridge, 1776

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Crystal Palace, London, 1851

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL Eiffel Tower, Paris,
1889

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Natural Art
Vigee-Le Brun, Self-
Portrait, 1790
Cue card
Natural Art: based on Jean
Jacque Rousseau’s views
on man and his natural
state:
“To exist is to feel…nature
must be the guide..”
Thus, move away from
Rococo & embrace a more
natural style.
Here: she has paused & is
looking directly at viewer.
Female, self-confident.

Natural Art
FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun
Marie Antoinette at age 12,
1790
.
On 7 August 1775 she married Jean-Baptiste-
Pierre Le Brun, a painter and art dealer. Her
husband's great-great-uncle was Charles Le
Brun, first Director of the French Academy
under Louis XIV.
Yes, spelled Le Brun
I apologize!!!

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
William Hogarth, Self-Portrait with Pug-Dog. 1745.
William Hogarth (1697 –1764) was a
major English painter, printmaker,
pictorial satirist, social critic and
editorial cartoonist who has been
credited with pioneering western
sequential art. His work ranged from
excellent realistic portraiture to comic
strip-like series of pictures called
“modern moral subjects”. Much of his
work, though at times vicious, poked
fun at contemporary politics and
customs. Illustrations in such style are
often referred to as Hogarthian.

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL William Hogarth, The Marriage Contract from Marriage a la Mode, 1743.
Democratization of culture &
knowledge
Role of printing presses to
mass produce works of art

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL William Hogarth, Breakfast Scene from Marriage a la Mode, 1745.
Steen, St. Nicholas
Feast, 1665

Grand Manner portraiture: homage to
Rome/gravitas
ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Sir Joshua Reynolds:
aristocratic
interpretation of
“naturalness”—great
people with natural
traits of heroism &
character.
Sir Joshua Reynolds was the
most important and influential of
18th century English painters,
specializing in portraits and
promoting the "Grand Style" in
painting which depended on
idealization of the imperfect.
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Miss Elizabeth Ingram. 1757.

Grand Manner portraiture: homage
to Rome/gravitas
ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Portrait Of Richard Peers Symons
1770.
Sir Joshua Reynolds

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL Sir Joshua Reynolds

Nature & portraiture
ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Thomas Gainsborough:
1727-88
Known for his full-length portraits set in
landscapes
--Nature was worth painting
Elongated figures –regal
Rococo element but her posture is
serene and aristocratic.
She is dressed informally: setting and
clothing are coherent unit
Although he won greater fame in his
time for his portraits, he had begun as
a landscape painter and always
prefered painting scenes of nature to
the depiction of human likenesses.
Thomas Gainsborough,
Mrs. Richard Brinsley, 1787.
.
Thomas Gainsborough

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Formal vs Informal portraiture
Sir Joshua Reynolds: 1723-92 Thomas Gainsborough:
1727-88

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews, 1750.

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Thomas Gainsborough
The Blue Boy
1770

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Thomas Gainsborough
The Painter’s Daughters
Chasing a Butterfly
C1756

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Jacques-Louis David
Self-Portrait
1794.
Leading Neoclassical
painter
1748-1825
Jacques-Louis David

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Factors that sparked the
Neoclassical movement:
one of several competing styles
1. Reaction against Rococo frivolity
2. Derived from French Baroque which
was classically influenced
3. Excavations of Pompeii and
Herculanueum in 1738 & Lord Elgin
Marbles of 1801 (Parthenon)

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Stylistc Qualities
• Emphasized drawing of line
(which appealed to the intellect),
rather than color (which appeals
to the senses)
• Heroic subject matter
• Severe
• Unemotional
• Stability
• Solidity of figures
Brushwork was smooth and
compositions were simple to
avoid Rococo melodrama

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1787.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Emphasized drawing of line (which appealed to
the intellect), rather than color (which appeals
to the senses)
Brushwork was smooth and compositions
were simple to avoid Rococo melodrama
Neoclassical figures more solid looking
than French Classical Baroque

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Jacques-Louis David, The
Death of Socrates, 1787.
Nicolas Poussin, The Rape of
the Sabine Women, 1640s.
(Baroque)
Compare to:

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Nicolas Poussin, The Rape of the Sabine Women, 1640s. FRENCH BAROQUE

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1796-99.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1787.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Angelica Kauffmann, Mother of the Gracchi (Cornelia), 1785.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Angelica Kauffmann, Mother of the Gracchi, 1785.
The subject of this piece is an
informative exemplum virtutis
(example or model of virtue) drawn
from Greek and Roman history and
literature. The moralizing pictures of
Hogarth and Grueze already had
marked change in taste, but
Kauffmann replaced the modern
setting and characters of their works.
The actors are clothed in Roman
garb and posed in classical Roman
attitudes within Roman interiors.
The theme is the virtue of Cornelia,
mother of the future political leaders
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, who
attempted to reform the Roman
republic in the second century B.C.
Cornelia’s character is revealed in
this scene, which takes place after a
lady visitor had shown off her fine
jewelry and then haughtily requested
that Cornelia show hers. Instead of
rushing to get them, Cornelia brings
her sons forward, presenting them
as her jewels.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Neoclassical Sculptor
Houdon was a French neoclassical
sculptor. Houdon is famous for his
portrait busts and statues of
philosophers, inventors and political
figures of the Enlightenment.
Houdon’s biggest influence was of the
Roman bust, often used to revere
political figures and statesmen in Ancient
Rome.
Houdon’s daughter, Sabine Houdon.
Jean-Antoine Houdon

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Houdon, George Washington, 1785.
Houdon, Voltaire, 1778.
Jean-Antoine Houdon

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Houdon, Ben Franklin, 1789. Houdon, Thomas Jefferson, 1789.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL Pierre Vignon, La Madeleine, Paris, France. 1807-1842
La Madeleine is known as the
“Temple of Glory”. It was briefly
intended as a temple of glory for
Napoleon’s armies and a
monument to the newly won
glories of France.
Begun as a church in 1807, at the
height of Napoleon’s power and
reverted back to a church after his
defeat and long before its
completion.
It was designed by Pierre Vignon
in 1763-1828.
The temple includes a high
podium and a broad flight of stairs
leading to a deep porch in the
front. These architectural
features, along with Corinthian
columns mimic Roman imperial
temples.
La Madeleine is a symbolic link between the Napoleonic and Roman
empires.
The building has a classical shell… however, the interior is covered
by a sequence of 3 domes, a feature found in Byzantine and
Aquitanian Romanesque churches.
Vignon clothed this Christian church in the costume of pagan Rome.

FRENCH NEOCLASSICAL
Arc de Triomphe Arch of Constantine

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL Richard Boyle (Lord Burlington), The Chiswick House, c1729.
The Grand Tour: well-educated
people were expected to travel to
major sites in Europe as tourists;
artists & architects also traveled
in order to see places 1 st hand &
paint .
Vedute: paintings sold to these
tourists of famous European
scenes.
Canaletto: Venice
The Chiswick House is one of
the most glorious examples of
18th century British neo-
Palladian architecture. Lord
Burlington, who designed this
elegant Classical villa, drew
inspiration from his 'grand
tours' of Italy. It was finished in
1729.

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Palladio, Villa Rotonda, 1566-1570. HIGH ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Palladio studied Vitruius’ De
Architectura book
Palladio wrote his own book,
entitled The Four Books of
Architecture that would
greatly influence American
colonies later
Villa Rotonda includes
Romand and Etruscan
qualities
The building has four different
vistas or views

ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL
Andrea Palladio
Villa Rotonda, c1566.
HIGH ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
Richard Boyle (Lord Burlington)
Chiswick House, c1729.
ENGLISH NEOCLASSICAL

American Neoclassical
AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL
This work shows a sense of directness
and familiarity
Leading American colonial painter
Baroque & Rococo elements evident
NEW:
Not idealized
Plain
Informality and sense of moment
Manual labor shown
John Singleton Copley,
Portrait of Paul Revere, 1770.

American Neoclassical
AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1771.
?

American Neoclassical
AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1771.
This work depicts the mortally
wounded young English
commander just after his defeat of
the French in the battle of Quebec
in 1759, giving Canada to Great
Britain.
West chose to depict a historical
event and has them all dressed in
contemporary costume, although
military uniforms aren’t completely
accurate.
The significance is that he blended
realism with the theatrical tradition
of portraying historical subjects
and arranged the figures
complexly to suggest the death of
a great saint.
West wanted to present the hero’s
death in service of the state as a
martyrdom charged with religious
emotion.
The combination of traditional heroic painting with modern
realism won viewer’s hearts during that time and influenced
many other historical paintings into the nineteenth century.

AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL
Gilbert Stuart
Portrait of George Washington
(The Anthenaeum Portrait),
1796
American
Neoclassical
Disregard of European traditions:
• No background
• No blended colors
• Implication: greatness comes
from character

AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL
American
Neoclassical

AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Charlottesville, VA, 1770-1806
Thomas Jefferson, the owner and
designer of Monticello was attracted
to classical architecture.
Jefferson admired Palladio
immensely and read the Italians’
Four Books of Architecture.
Later, while the minister to France,
Jefferson studied the century
classical architecture and city
planning and visited the Maison
Caree.
Due to this new knowledge
Jefferson completely remodeled
Monticello, which he had first
designed in an English Georgian
style.
In his remodeling, he emulated Palladio.
The final version of Monticello is somewhat reminiscent of the
Villa Rotonda and of Chiswick House, but its materials are local
wood and brick used in Virginia.

AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL Thomas Jefferson, Rotunda at the University of Virginia

AMERICAN NEOCLASSICAL White House, begun in Washington D.C. in 1792