p. 557
Chapter 19 Baroque Art in Italy & Spain, The 17th century
Sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italy)
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian sculptor and architect
- While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture
- Designed the colonnade-framed piazza in front of Old Saint Peter's p. 560
- Designed and executed the gigantic bronze "baldacchino" (canopy like structure standing 100 feet tall = 8 story building). It marks Saint Peter's tomb and the high altar - it visually bridges human scale to the immenseness inside Saint Peter's in Vatican City and the dome above
Bernini's "Baldacchino" Baldacco is Italian for "silk from Baghdad" - reminiscent of the cloth canopies, however here, 100' high bronze over the tomb of Saint Peter and is the high altar in Saint Peter's Cathedral, Vatican City, ITALY
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ectasy of Saint Teresa 1645-1652
marble 11' 6'' Rome, ITALY
- Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a Carmelite nun and considered one of the great mystical saints of the Spanish Counter Reformation, having 'visions'
- The work, unmistakably illustrates a mingling of strong spirituality and physical passion and joy
p. 562
Bernini (1598-1680, Italy)
- Devout Catholic
- Bernini wrote plays and produced stage designs -- recall opera's beginnings and strong theatricality
- Knowledge of Michelangelo and Donatello
- Bernini's marble sculpture of Saint Teresa imbues the work with strong theatricality and extravagance
- Makes "marble appear flexible" all forms in action
- The statue seems to move through space and time
- Bernini was the true Italian Baroque artist, of varying talents
p. 566
Painting
Was a highly celebrated art from with illusions of theatrical effects - strong lights and darks and chiaroscuro. During the late 16th century & 17th century elevated the status of painting alongside of poetry and music
Annibale Carracci, Flight into Egypt, 1603-1604, oil on canvas, 4' x 7'6", Rome, ITALY
Carracci (1560 - 1609) from Bologna Italy
p.569
- Bologna had the first art academy in the western world
- Carracci's family were the generational painters that founded it
- "Art can be taught," thus, moving away from the theological principle that art was a divine characteristic from a higher power
- Study of art must include Renaissance traditions of studying anatomy and figure drawing
- Led away from the earlier Renaissance painting tradition in the creation of deep space NOT by linear perspective, which made space one/two directional and rather static in comparison, to creating illusionistic space by chiaroscuro -- with light and shadow
- Painted landscapes were thus, constructions, not imitations of nature
Annibale Carracci, Loves of the Gods
Ceiling frescoes in the gallery of Palazzo Farnese, Rome, ITALY
- Carracci painted for the courts, private commissions and church, canvases' and frescoes
- Ceiling fresco in Rome, Love of the Gods, commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626) for the wedding of his brother - illustrates earthy and divine love in classical mythology
- Derived motifs from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel
- "Quadro riportato" Carracci re-ordered the direction of painting p. 568 by having the "framed paintings" look at the others side by side
p.569
Caravaggio
- (Michelangelo Merisi) 1573 - 1610 named after his birthplace
- He was outspoken against the classical master artists of the past, whom he disliked
- A critic (Bellori) of the time actually called Caravaggio "the Anti-Christ of Painting")
- He was commissioned both privately and publicly
- Caravaggio's paintings were injected with naturalism into both the divine and human dramas
Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew, c. 1597-1601
oil on canvas, 11' 1" x 11'5", Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi, Rome, ITALY
p.570
- "Ray of light into the World of Darkness" IS the illustrated by the technical applications of chiaroscuro as a spiritual message
- Every day genres, a stable, a tavern and imbues them with Christian themes - inferring that even the every day person could experience such miracles and divine interventions
- The painting attributes of chiaroscuro intended to bring viewers as close as possible into the painted scene
Caravaggio, Conversation of Saint Paul, c. 1601
oil on canvas 7'6" x 5'9"
Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, ITALY
- Major shift in painting theory = now the viewer was IN the scene
- Caravaggio highly influenced European art especially in Spain and the Netherlands
- His works inferred the term "tenebrism" = "shadowy manner" - dark subject matter; in the darkness, something is lurking; to emerge from the darkness
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, c. 1614-1620
oil on canvas 6'6.5" x 5'4", Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1653)
- highly celebrated female artist
- trained by her father and influenced by the paintings of Caravaggio
Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting c. 1638 - 1639
now at Royal Collection, Kensington Palace, London UK
- The subject, a Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, with deserved hair, a paint brush in her right hand, a palette in her left the subject looks out the window (looks for divine inspiration? She is the imitator of experience). The subject wears a mask on a gold chain; the mask imitates a face - like painting imitating real life
SPAIN p. 575
Francisco de Zurburan (1598 - 1664)
Francisco de Zurbaran, Saint Serapion, 1628 oil on canvas
3' 11 x 3' 5" Wadsworth Atheneum of Art, CT
VIDEO : The martyrdom of Saint Serapion
Soldier, friar, hostage, martyr, saint
St. Serapion’s life reads much like a medieval action-adventure drama, but it's his death that we are left to meditate on.
Accounts conflict about Serapion’s origins—some say that he was born in England, others in Ireland or Scotland. What is known is that he was a soldier in the army of King Richard the Lion-Hearted and later that of Leopold VI, Duke of Austria. He then went to Spain to participate in the Reconquista (the Christian "reconquest" of parts of the Iberian penninsula—today Spain and Portugal—that had been under Islamic rule) before becoming a friar in the Mercedarian Order. This order was founded in Spain to ransom Christians who had been captured by Muslims. The saint was nailed on an X-shaped cross like the Apostle St. Andrew, and dismembered or disemboweled.
Diego Velazquez (1599 - 1660)
VIDEO: Las Meninas by Velazquez : 6:00
VIDEO: Is Las Meninas the Greatest painting in the World?
Chapter 10
The Baroque in Northern Europe > 1600 + The 17th Century
Flanders a center for great paintings. In the 16th century Netherlands had come under Spanish control (Spanish Netherlands). Flemish Baroque paintings remained to have close connections to Baroque art and the Catholic church - leading area in Europe.
p. 583
Still Life painting in the Dutch Republic
Vanitas Still Life paintings = vanity paintings
Memento mori = symbolic paintings that remind of us death
Such paintings reference mortality, often the abundance of possessions; through them; the passing of time, young beauty turning older, and the creative arts (music, poetry, art) running their course. Commercial goods and cultural refinements.
Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas (the Maids of Honor), 1656, oil on canvas
10' 5" x 9' Museo del Prado, Madrid
VIDEO: Las Meninas by Velazquez : 6:00
VIDEO: Is Las Meninas the Greatest painting in the World?
Chapter 10
The Baroque in Northern Europe > 1600 + The 17th Century
Flanders a center for great paintings. In the 16th century Netherlands had come under Spanish control (Spanish Netherlands). Flemish Baroque paintings remained to have close connections to Baroque art and the Catholic church - leading area in Europe.
p. 583
Still Life painting in the Dutch Republic
Vanitas Still Life paintings = vanity paintings
Memento mori = symbolic paintings that remind of us death
Such paintings reference mortality, often the abundance of possessions; through them; the passing of time, young beauty turning older, and the creative arts (music, poetry, art) running their course. Commercial goods and cultural refinements.
Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life, 1630, oil on wood panel
1' 2" x 1' 11"
Genre = Vanitas: House hold items strewn across a table. Chiaroscuro and shallow space
Class depicted beauty and the opportunity to have such possessions - but he also reminded that death in inevitable and transience -- to be here and then gone.
Violin > human skull " tipped wine glass > a time piece > pen and ink > cracked Walnut
> a metal sphere with a portrait of the artist painting --- thus, memorializing himself.
- Peter Paul Rubens 1577 - 1640, Antwerp
- One of the leading painters in the Baroque period
- Innovations of the pan-European painting style
- a synthesis of the styles of many Baroque and Renaissance artists before him
- His style had wide appeal, gaining international fame
- Court painter and friend of King Philip IV of Spain (recall, Velazquez)
- Works of daVinci & Michelangelo impacted him - interest in human anatomy, the psyche Christian themes and everyday life
Peter Paul Rubens, Arrival of Marie de'Medici at Marseilles
1622 - 1625, oil on canvas
12' 11" x 9' 7" > Louvre, Paris
Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers, goblet, dried fruit and pretzels "The Breakfast Piece"
oil on panel 1'7" x 2'2"
at the Prado, Madrid SPAIN
Clara Peeters (1594 - 1657)
- A pioneer of genre still life paintings, she laid the ground work for many Dutch artists
- She spent time in Amsterdam and Antwerp
- She was renown for her depictions food and flowers, bread and fruit > all the items from an Earthly bounty
- Oil on wooden panels offered smooth surfaces and a type of "slickness" to the items she depicted
- A master of reflective surfaces, glass and silver, to the softness of petals -- her works were magnificent renditions of implied textures to almost hyper reality
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669) born in Leiden and moved to Amsterdam, 1631
Rococo to NeoClassicism: the 18th Century in Europe and America
p. 617
The period:
Louis XIV "Sun King" remains in power and (recall his thinking: God's will, is my power)
Aesthetic decisions (and aristocratic ethos) centralized their ideas on the grandiose - palace-based culture of extravagance.
Rococo culture early 18th century focused on grandiose visual culture influenced by the Baroque but more intimate based in the townhouses (aristocrats and intellectuals) in Paris >> thus the wealthy outside of the monarchs could wallow in these same fortunes and aesthetic values.
Paintings featured smaller canvases, light colors, elegant figures, ornate costumes (and frames), lush landscapes. They depicted the outdoor amusements of French high society.
Characteristics of Baroque Rococo:
Delicate figures, grandiose subject matter, wispy colors, compositions filled with curvilinear line, the concept of artifice, elegant furniture, salon style panting installation and small sculpture.
Some have even said that many of the paintings of the period remind them of "cotton candy"
Contemporary girl on a swing,
London, 2012
p. 624 The French Revolution > 1789 - 1799
By the end of the 18th c. revolutions overthrow the monarch in France and achieved independence for British colonies in America. Feudal system that served as the foundation of social and economic life in Europe dissolved.
The Enlightenment period > End of the 18th century a new way of thinking erupted that critically about the world independent of religion, myth and tradition and attention more on humankind.The period promoted scientific questioning, embraced progressive advancements in technology > the steam engine, semi - automated looms, etc.
Enlightenment thinkers brought on the idea to acquire knowledge it was based on empirical observation and scientific experimentation.
17th c. principal centers were France and England, however it spread throughout Europe and in the American colonies.
The period also made knowledge of ancient Rome imperative for the elite.
Major thinkers of the time:
Rene Descartes - Body / Mind separation to later be known as cartesian dualism
John Locke "knowledge comes through sensory perception of the material world. From theses perceptions, people form ideas."
Sir Isaac Newton "insisted on empirical proof of his theories and encouraged others to avoid metaphysics and the supernatural."
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson
Francois Marie Arouet > Voltaire - was the personification of the Enlightenment spirit. He attacked through his writings the idea of the rule of kings, the selfish privileges of the nobility and the church, religious intolerance and the injustice for the older French regime.
Voltaire believed that humankind could never be happy until an enlightened society removed traditional obstructions to the progress of the human mind.
Revolutions had erupted in France and America - due to the political, social and economic changes the Enlightenment period brought on. The political, economic, and social consequences of this increase in knowledge and the doctrine of progress were explosive! It is no wonder that the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and The American Revolution all occurred during this period.
The Industrial Revolution (begins in England 1740s and spreads throughout Europe and America). Scientific investigation and technological advances -- to control material forces. Research into the phenomena of electricity and combustion, discovery of oxygen and the power of steam!
Steam power replaced on a large scale, human power.
The American Revolution (1765 – 1783)
The paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby (England) epitomized the Enlightenment period.
By 1850 England prided itself on being the world's first manufacturing economy.
Within a century (1750 - 1850) power was harnessed and used in new technologies: steam, coal, oil, iron, steel, and electricity --transforming Europe. New materials were constructing new buildings and structures.... bridges, architecture got higher and higher!
p. 625
These scientific advancements also affected the arts --- in particular through the invention of photography!
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
He presented the democratization of knowledge.
Philosophy presented knowledge, thus making it accessible to all those who could read. He became the editor of the Encyclopedia - a group of articles written by 100+ contributors. The first volume appeared in 1751 and lasted, 35 volumes later until 1780. The masses were reading them and knowledge and idea spread. He also was an art critic and contributed to the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with reviews.
p. 626
Diderot on Chardin's (1699 - 1779) paintings
Chardin painted quiet scenes of domestic life, which expressed simple goodness and ordinary people. Mothers and youngsters who in spirit were far removed from the corrupt society outside. They were the inhabitants of the home.
Diderot said of his paintings....
"There are many of small pictures by Chardin at the Salon, almost all of them depicting fruit with the accoutrements for a meal. This is nature itself. The objects stand out from the canvas and they are so real that my eyes are fooled by them...In order to look at other people's paintings, I feel as though I need different eyes; but to look at Chardin's, I need only keep the ones nature gave me and use them properly....O Chardin, it's not white, red or black pigment that you grind on your palette but rather the very substance of objects; it's real air and light that you take onto the tip of your brush and transfer onto the canvas... It's magic..."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) was the second key figure of the French Enlightenment period, beside Voltaire. He was instrumental in preparing the way ideologically for the French Revolution.
Rousseau argued that the arts, sciences, society and civilization in general had corrupted "natural man" - people in their primitive state. He rejected the idea of progress, and argued for the return of natural values and a simple, honest life. (Noble - savage, you can never go home again)
Aesthetic Realism > "Natural" art
He said: to exist is to feel; our feeling is undoubtedly earlier than our intelligence, and we had feelings before we had ideas."
Thus, nature alone was the guide, he said.
"Man by nature is good....he is deprived and perverted by society."
Rousseau rejected the idea of progress, he elevated feelings above reason as the most primitive. He loved the idea of the peasant's simple life as honest, and pure.
Rousseau's views were popular and were largely responsible for turning away from the Rococo sensibility of artifice and the frivolous and favored the taste of "natural."
Jean-Baptiste Grease
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun
William Hogarth
Thomas Gainsborough
all worked in describing genre subject matter of the time. They often described morality issues, cultural and domestic subject matter depicting happiness is the reward of natural virtue.
p.627
The strict social hierarchy that provided the foundation for Rococo art and patronage gave way to a bourgeois economic and social system. The new bourgeois class enthusiastically bought art and displayed it in their homes; carefully analyzing each gesture of painted sentiment and visual narration.
The First and Second Estates = the clergy and nobility
The Third Estate = bourgeoisie, pedantry and urban and rural workers
(The uprising of the French Revolution)
p. 633
NEOCLASSICISM
One of the defining characteristics of the late 18th c. was a renewed excitement for the Classical Ancient Greco-Roman world.
Wealthy individuals went on "Grand Tours" of Europe, Egypt, etc. this included Robert J. Hubbard going on one for almost a two year period. New worlds were open to those who could afford it - and Hubbard was no exception - bringing back antiquities and artifacts to be put on display in his "museum" for all of Cazenovia to come and see; be educated and entertained.
Two major ancient Roman excavations occurred in 1738 and 1748 at Herculaneum and Pompeii (2 Roman cities on the Bay of Naples, Italy). Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, AD 79 and engulfed the two flourishing cities, burying both in ash and preserving the cities in their tracks. One can travel there today and witness the cities that stood still.
Robert Adam, Etruscan Room in Osterley Park House, Middlesex ENGLAND, 1761
p.634
Winckelmann - A scholar and enthusiast of classical antiquity says:
Good taste, which is becoming more prevalent throughout the world, had its origins under the skies of Greece...The only way for us to become great.. is to imitate the ancients....In the masterpieces of Greek art, connoisseurs and imitators find not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty...A person enlightened enough to penetrate the innermost secrets of art will find beauties hitherto seldom revealed when he compares the total structure of Greek figures with most modern ones, especially those modeled more on nature than on Greek taste.
Rembrandt, Self Portrait, 1661, oil on canvas
- leading Dutch Baroque artist of the time printmaker as well as painter - impactful
- Etchings on copper plates (substrate = copper)
- "Master of light and shadow"
- Visual interpreter of the Protestant conception of scripture
- Educated as a history painter - moved to the lucrative market of portraiture and soon became renown for that genre
- Produced 100+ self-portraits and as a young man, conceived and painted what he would look like as in his 80's
- Rembrandt had a deep psychological insight to human condition
- Light throughout his paintings, direct our eyes, illuminating scenes, and giving a golden light
Rembrandt - Self Portrait
"Skin of paint"
p. 596
Etchings
Graphic medium allowing for multiples
Remember Durer's wood cuts?
Here etchings are created from cooper plates and the glow may have inspired Rembrandt in his use of light in his painted works
Inking the copper plate
-- note the illuminated light from the plate --
1. Copper plate covered with varnish
2. Draw into the varnish
3. Dip plate into an acid bath (acid eats away areas not protected by varnish)
4. ink plate with steps illustrated above
"Wiping" the ink into the etched lines with printers' ink
5. Pull print with paper on top of plate, through the pressure of etching press > Coleman Studios
6. Print (opposite of illustration orientation) now on plate and the availably of printing multiples
Etching Press applies pressure to plate > Coleman Studios
"Pulling" the print
Copper's metal strength greater than wood blocks, thus, more prints can be printed
Rembrandt etching of a Dutch Village
p. 599
Jan Vermeer (1632 - 1675)
Complete on your own from out text
p. 602
FRANCE & Louis XIV (reign from 1661 - 1715 = 54 years) - absolute monarch, who expanded the Louvre
Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV, 1701 oil on canvas
9' 2" x 6' 3" in the Louvre, Paris
- He wanted to determine the direction of French society and culture (although his territory smaller than the Dutch Republic's)
- France became Europes largest and most powerful nation in the 17th c.
- Louis XIV was the biggest patron of the arts
- Belief in a "king's absolute power as God's will"
- masterful political strategy and use of propaganda
- Crafted relationships with nobility -- and kept them "pacified" while keeping control over them
- His personal view of himself was so high that he adopted the title "the Sun King" - like the sun, Louis was also the center of the universe.
- He maintained a workshop of artists and crafts people- painters, sculptors, fabric designers, clothing designers, architects, etc.
- First great architectural project Louis XIV undertook the completion of the east side of the Louvre in Paris -- a synthesis of French / Italian classical elements in 1669 = monumentality in Baroque architecture
- Versailles Palace began shortly thereafter 1670 - converting a hunting lodge into a great palace
- Versailles became the greatest architectural project of the age, defining statement of French Baroque style mixing architecture within designed gardens and parks
Leading French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594 - 1665), emulated the "grand manner" a style calling for the heroic and / or divine subject matter - classical compositions that return to the Ancient Greco-Roman world
Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man
Assumption of the Virgin
Claude Lorraine (1600 - 1682, France), rivaled Poussin who specialized in classical landscape rendered in linear and atmospheric perspective. His compositions incorporated ancient ruins
Chapter 21
use of two point linear perspective
Rococo to NeoClassicism: the 18th Century in Europe and America
p. 617
The period:
Louis XIV "Sun King" remains in power and (recall his thinking: God's will, is my power)
Aesthetic decisions (and aristocratic ethos) centralized their ideas on the grandiose - palace-based culture of extravagance.
Rococo culture early 18th century focused on grandiose visual culture influenced by the Baroque but more intimate based in the townhouses (aristocrats and intellectuals) in Paris >> thus the wealthy outside of the monarchs could wallow in these same fortunes and aesthetic values.
Paintings featured smaller canvases, light colors, elegant figures, ornate costumes (and frames), lush landscapes. They depicted the outdoor amusements of French high society.
Watteau was the leading painter of the Baroque Rococo period - paintings were brighter, delicate stroke, "sweet" subject matter, exquisite values of color difference, shimmering subject matter, tinsel town and cotton candy....
in contrast to the political situation...
Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cytheria, 1717
oil on canvas 4' x 6'
Francois Boucher, Cupid a Captive, 1754, oil on canvas
5' 6" x 2' 10"
detail of Cupid as Captive
Jean Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1766 oil on canvas 2' 9" x 2' 2"
Delicate figures, grandiose subject matter, wispy colors, compositions filled with curvilinear line, the concept of artifice, elegant furniture, salon style panting installation and small sculpture.
Some have even said that many of the paintings of the period remind them of "cotton candy"
Contemporary girl on a swing,
London, 2012
p. 624 The French Revolution > 1789 - 1799
By the end of the 18th c. revolutions overthrow the monarch in France and achieved independence for British colonies in America. Feudal system that served as the foundation of social and economic life in Europe dissolved.
The Enlightenment period > End of the 18th century a new way of thinking erupted that critically about the world independent of religion, myth and tradition and attention more on humankind.The period promoted scientific questioning, embraced progressive advancements in technology > the steam engine, semi - automated looms, etc.
Enlightenment thinkers brought on the idea to acquire knowledge it was based on empirical observation and scientific experimentation.
17th c. principal centers were France and England, however it spread throughout Europe and in the American colonies.
The period also made knowledge of ancient Rome imperative for the elite.
Major thinkers of the time:
Rene Descartes - Body / Mind separation to later be known as cartesian dualism
John Locke "knowledge comes through sensory perception of the material world. From theses perceptions, people form ideas."
Sir Isaac Newton "insisted on empirical proof of his theories and encouraged others to avoid metaphysics and the supernatural."
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson
Francois Marie Arouet > Voltaire - was the personification of the Enlightenment spirit. He attacked through his writings the idea of the rule of kings, the selfish privileges of the nobility and the church, religious intolerance and the injustice for the older French regime.
Voltaire believed that humankind could never be happy until an enlightened society removed traditional obstructions to the progress of the human mind.
Revolutions had erupted in France and America - due to the political, social and economic changes the Enlightenment period brought on. The political, economic, and social consequences of this increase in knowledge and the doctrine of progress were explosive! It is no wonder that the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and The American Revolution all occurred during this period.
The Industrial Revolution (begins in England 1740s and spreads throughout Europe and America). Scientific investigation and technological advances -- to control material forces. Research into the phenomena of electricity and combustion, discovery of oxygen and the power of steam!
Steam power replaced on a large scale, human power.
The American Revolution (1765 – 1783)
The paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby (England) epitomized the Enlightenment period.
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery. ca.
1763 - 1765 oil on canvas, 4' x10" x 6' 8"
Joseph Wright specialized in dramatic, intimate views -- a scientific focus was dramatically lit. An orrery is the mechanical model in the center of the solar system, each planet revolving around the sound. The wonders of scientific knowledge mesmerizing everyone gathered.
By 1850 England prided itself on being the world's first manufacturing economy.
Within a century (1750 - 1850) power was harnessed and used in new technologies: steam, coal, oil, iron, steel, and electricity --transforming Europe. New materials were constructing new buildings and structures.... bridges, architecture got higher and higher!
p. 625
These scientific advancements also affected the arts --- in particular through the invention of photography!
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
He presented the democratization of knowledge.
Philosophy presented knowledge, thus making it accessible to all those who could read. He became the editor of the Encyclopedia - a group of articles written by 100+ contributors. The first volume appeared in 1751 and lasted, 35 volumes later until 1780. The masses were reading them and knowledge and idea spread. He also was an art critic and contributed to the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with reviews.
Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin, Saying Grace, 1740
oil on canvas, 1' 7" x 1' 3"
p. 626
Diderot on Chardin's (1699 - 1779) paintings
Chardin painted quiet scenes of domestic life, which expressed simple goodness and ordinary people. Mothers and youngsters who in spirit were far removed from the corrupt society outside. They were the inhabitants of the home.
Diderot said of his paintings....
"There are many of small pictures by Chardin at the Salon, almost all of them depicting fruit with the accoutrements for a meal. This is nature itself. The objects stand out from the canvas and they are so real that my eyes are fooled by them...In order to look at other people's paintings, I feel as though I need different eyes; but to look at Chardin's, I need only keep the ones nature gave me and use them properly....O Chardin, it's not white, red or black pigment that you grind on your palette but rather the very substance of objects; it's real air and light that you take onto the tip of your brush and transfer onto the canvas... It's magic..."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) was the second key figure of the French Enlightenment period, beside Voltaire. He was instrumental in preparing the way ideologically for the French Revolution.
Rousseau argued that the arts, sciences, society and civilization in general had corrupted "natural man" - people in their primitive state. He rejected the idea of progress, and argued for the return of natural values and a simple, honest life. (Noble - savage, you can never go home again)
Aesthetic Realism > "Natural" art
He said: to exist is to feel; our feeling is undoubtedly earlier than our intelligence, and we had feelings before we had ideas."
Thus, nature alone was the guide, he said.
"Man by nature is good....he is deprived and perverted by society."
Rousseau rejected the idea of progress, he elevated feelings above reason as the most primitive. He loved the idea of the peasant's simple life as honest, and pure.
Rousseau's views were popular and were largely responsible for turning away from the Rococo sensibility of artifice and the frivolous and favored the taste of "natural."
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Soap Bubbles.1733-34
oil on canvas, 24 x 24 7/8 in.,
National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Jean-Baptiste Grease
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun
William Hogarth
Thomas Gainsborough
all worked in describing genre subject matter of the time. They often described morality issues, cultural and domestic subject matter depicting happiness is the reward of natural virtue.
p.627
The strict social hierarchy that provided the foundation for Rococo art and patronage gave way to a bourgeois economic and social system. The new bourgeois class enthusiastically bought art and displayed it in their homes; carefully analyzing each gesture of painted sentiment and visual narration.
The First and Second Estates = the clergy and nobility
The Third Estate = bourgeoisie, pedantry and urban and rural workers
(The uprising of the French Revolution)
p. 633
NEOCLASSICISM
One of the defining characteristics of the late 18th c. was a renewed excitement for the Classical Ancient Greco-Roman world.
Wealthy individuals went on "Grand Tours" of Europe, Egypt, etc. this included Robert J. Hubbard going on one for almost a two year period. New worlds were open to those who could afford it - and Hubbard was no exception - bringing back antiquities and artifacts to be put on display in his "museum" for all of Cazenovia to come and see; be educated and entertained.
Two major ancient Roman excavations occurred in 1738 and 1748 at Herculaneum and Pompeii (2 Roman cities on the Bay of Naples, Italy). Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, AD 79 and engulfed the two flourishing cities, burying both in ash and preserving the cities in their tracks. One can travel there today and witness the cities that stood still.
p.634
Winckelmann - A scholar and enthusiast of classical antiquity says:
Good taste, which is becoming more prevalent throughout the world, had its origins under the skies of Greece...The only way for us to become great.. is to imitate the ancients....In the masterpieces of Greek art, connoisseurs and imitators find not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty...A person enlightened enough to penetrate the innermost secrets of art will find beauties hitherto seldom revealed when he compares the total structure of Greek figures with most modern ones, especially those modeled more on nature than on Greek taste.
The Death of Marat is a painting by Jacques-Louis David (1793) of the murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat.
It is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution.
Neoclassical architects also were greatly influenced by ancient architectural forms as well as those of the Italian Renaissance...
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Charlottesville, VA 1770-1806
Jefferson adopts the Neoclassical style as the "official style of the new American republic" because it represented for him, idealism, patriotism and civic duty.
Doric Capital "D" Ionic "i" Corinthian "c"
Horatio Greenough, George Washington, 1840 marble
sculpted posthumously following Washington's death
