rococo and neoclassicism

Chapter 29Europe and America

1700 - 1800

Rococo,

The Enlightenment, Neoclassicism

Napoleonic Europe 1800-1815

The US in 1800

• Profound changes politically and culturally in Europe and America• The spread of the luxurious and decorative style known as Rococo. • Rococo – aristocratic style, delicate, soft, moody, themes of love and

seduction

• The Enlightenment helped to make the political changes with its emphasis on critical thinking independent from the Church. Reason, empirical evidence, and scientific questioning of established beliefs - Voltaire

• Paintings that reflect societies interest in science – Wright of Derby• Rousseau’s emphasis on the “natural,” feelings, and emotion – paintings of

peasants, quiet mundane subject, or narratives of life stories

• Neoclassicism and Romanticism in the early 19th century Europe and America.

• Reasons for the broad range of subject matter, from portraits and landscape to mythology and history.

• The initial reaction by artists and the public to the new art medium known as photography

Rococo: The French Taste

• Examine the luxurious artistic expressions of salon culture which culminated in the style known as Rococo.

• Understand the completeness of the style, in decorations, accessories, paintings and sculpture, interiors, and architecture.

• Examine the extreme development of the Rococo style in Germany.

Figure 29-2 GERMAIN BOFFRAND, Salon de la Princesse, with painting by CHARLES-JOSEPH NATOIRE and sculpture by J. B.

LEMOINE, Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, France, 1737–1740.

Figure 29-3 FRANÇOIS DE CUVILLIÉS, Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, Nymphenburg Palace park, Munich, Germany, early 18th century.

Figure 29-5 ANTOINE WATTEAU, L’Indifférent, ca. 1716. Oil on canvas, approx. 10” x 7”. Louvre, Paris.

HYACINTHE RIGAUD, Louis XIV, 1701. Oil on canvas, approx. 9’ 2” x 6’ 3”. Louvre, Paris.

Baroque

Figure 29-6 ANTOINE WATTEAU, Return from Cythera, 1717–1719. Oil on canvas, approx. 4’ 3” x 6’ 4”. Louvre, Paris.

Three Studies of a Lady with a Hatc. 1715Chalk on paper, 210 x 313 mm

Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Rubens, Garden of Lovec. 1633Oil on canvas, 198 x 283 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid

Giorgione, Pastoral Symphony

Gilles1718-20Oil on canvas, 184,5 x 149,5 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Figure 29-7 FRANÇOIS BOUCHER, Cupid a Captive, 1754. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 6” x 2’

10”. The Wallace Collection, London.

Rubens, Allegory of War, Flemish, Baroque

Figure 29-1 JEAN-HONORÉ FRAGONARD, The Swing, 1766. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’

11” x 2’ 8”. The Wallace Collection, London.

Scientific Art of the Enlightenment

• The motivation of the Enlightenment and the interest in science and the natural world and its effect on artistic expression.

• The philosophical concepts of Voltaire as they relate to artistic expression.

• The early applications of technology and scientific advancements to art.

• The expression of scientific ideas in art , and art as recording observations in the natural world.

WILLIAM HUNTER, Child in Womb, drawing from

dissection of a woman who died in the ninth month of

pregnancy, from Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus,

1774.

Figure 29-10 JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery (in which a lamp is put in place of the sun), ca. 1763–1765. Oil on canvas, 4’ 10” x 6’ 8”. Derby Museums and Art Gallery, Derby, Derbyshire.

Figure 29-11 ABRAHAM DARBY III and THOMAS F. PRITCHARD, iron bridge at Coalbrookdale, England (first cast-iron bridge over the Severn River), 1776–1779. 100’ span.

The Taste for the Natural

• The philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in contrast to Voltaire, his interest in the ‘natural’ as opposed to the ‘artificial,’ and artistic expression of these ideas.

• The different styles of the “natural” in France, England, the United States, and in Italy.

• The choices of ‘ordinary’ life, the natural world, and sentimentality as subjects in art.

Figure 29-13 JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE, The Village Bride, 1761. Oil on canvas, 3’ x 3’ 10 1/2”. Louvre, Paris.

Figure 29-12 JEAN-BAPTISTE-SIMÉON CHARDIN, Grace at Table, 1740. Oil on

canvas, 1’ 7” x 1’ 3”. Louvre, Paris.

The Natural Taste in France

Chardin, The Ray1728Oil on canvas, 114 x 146 cmMusée du Louvre, Paris

Figure 29-14 ÉLISABETH LOUISE VIGÉE-LEBRUN, Self-Portrait, 1790. Oil on canvas, 8’

4” x 6’ 9”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

ÉLISABETH LOUISE VIGÉE-LEBRUN, Self-Portrait,

Figure 29-15 WILLIAM HOGARTH, Breakfast Scene, from Marriage à la Mode, ca. 1745. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 4” x 3’. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG113

The Natural Taste in England

Terms and Conditions

The Tête à Tête

The Inspection

The Toilette

The Bagnio

The Lady's Death

The English Grand Manner Portrait

• The English Grand Manner portrait as an expression of the natural taste in Rococo form.

Figure 29-16 THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1787. Oil on canvas, approx. 7’ 2 5/8” x 5’ 5/8”. National Gallery of Art,

Washington (Andrew W. Mellon Collection).

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, Mrs Sarah Siddons1785Oil on canvas, 126 x 99,5 cm

National Gallery, London

Figure 29-17 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, Lord Heathfield, 1787. Oil on canvas, approx. 4’ 8” x 3’ 9”.

National Gallery, London.

Sir Joshua ReynoldsPortrait of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse,

exhibited 1784.

Figure 29-18 BENJAMIN WEST, The Death of General Wolfe, 1771. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ x 7’ National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (gift of the Duke of Westminster, 1918).

Natural Taste in the United States

Figure 29-19 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, Portrait of Paul Revere, ca.

1768–1770. Oil on canvas, 2’ 11 1/8” x 2’ 4”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (gift of

Joseph W., William B., and Edward H. R. Revere).

John Singleton Copley

Watson and the Shark, 1778,, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Figure 29-20 ANTONIO CANALETTO, Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, ca. 1740. Oil on canvas. The Toledo Museum of Art

Italian Natural Taste and Tourism

Neoclassicism (Revival of Classicism)

• The discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii create an interest in classical art.

• The formal elements of classical art and their revival in 19th century art and architecture.

• Neoclassical art and architecture in France, England, and in the United States.

• The adaptation of classical and mythological subject matter in Neoclassical art.

Fig, 29-21 Robert Adam, Etruscan Room, Osterley Park House, Middlesex, England, begun 1761. Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Figure 29-22 ANGELICA KAUFFMANN, Cornelia Presenting Her Children as Her Treasures, or Mother of the Gracchi, ca. 1785. Oil on canvas, 3’ 4” x 4’ 2”. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (the Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund).

Neoclassical Art in France

Figure 29-23 JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, Oath of the Horatii, 1784. Oil on canvas, approx. 11’ x 14’. Louvre, Paris.

The Three Horatii Brothers1785Black chalk, wash and white highlights, 580 x 450 mmMusée Bonnat, Bayonne

David, The Death of Socrates

1787

Oil on canvas, 130 x 196 cm

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Figure 29-24 JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, The Death of Marat, 1793. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 3” x 4’ 1”. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de

Belgique, Brussels.

Figure 33-55 PIET MONDRIAN,

Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930. Oil on canvas, 2’ 4 5/8”

x 1’ 9 1/4”. Private Collection.

David, Madame Récamier1800Oil on canvas, 173 x 244 cmMusée du Louvre, Paris

Neoclassical Art and Architecture Early 18th century

• Understand classical elements of art and architecture, Palladian influence, and their revival in 19th century England.

Figure 29-25 JACQUES-GERMAIN SOUFFLOT, the

Panthéon (Sainte-Geneviève), Paris, France, 1755–1792.

Figure 28-27 RICHARD BOYLE (earl of Burlington) and WILLIAM KENT, Chiswick House, near London, England, begun 1725. British Crown Copyright.

Figure 22-56 ANDREA PALLADIO, Villa Rotonda (formerly Villa Capra), near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1566–1570.

Figure 28-27 Alternate ViewPrincipal Facade with entrance gate

© 2005 Saskia Cultural Documentation, Ltd.

Figure 28-31 THOMAS JEFFERSON, Monticello, Charlottesville, United States, 1770–1806.Monticello

The Neoclassical in the United States

The University of Virginia

Monticello

Figure 28-32 Drawing of view of Washington, 1852, showing BENJAMIN LATROBE’S Capitol (1803–1807) and MAJOR L’ENFANT’S plan (created in 1791) of the city.

Rococo• aristocratic style, delicate, soft, moody, themes of love and seduction•Profound changes politically and culturally in Europe and America•The Enlightenment helped to make the political changes with its emphasis on critical thinking independent from the Church. Reason, empirical evidence, and scientific questioning of established beliefs - Voltaire•Paintings that reflect societies interest in science – Wright of Derby•Rousseau’s emphasis on the “natural,” feelings, and emotion – paintings of peasants, quiet mundane subject, or narratives of life stories

Neoclassicism •Interest in antiquity – culturally, politically and artistically as an embodiment of the perfect society -- reinforces Enlightenment thought and Voltaire•Themes of honor, civic duty, and heroism shown in compositions that are rational, balanced, frozen in the moment; painting style is linear with an egg-shell surface, light can be used dramatically to intensify the desired feelings (compare to High Renaissance)•In architecture, classical themes and elements are used to promote a sense of power and authority and rational order ( compare to Early and High Renaissance, Greek, Roman)