VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

A look at how Neoclassical works serve different expressions of Revolution

American RevolutionRevolt against what are considered tyrranical British forces

Revolt for American Independence

American expression of the Enlightenment will reject the “inherent” power of Royal and aristocratic authority

Jefferson, inspired by the French Philosophes, uses Reason to argue for freedom

Jefferson’sMonticello, Charlottesville, Virginia

Based on pagan temple design Pediment Hemispherical

dome Columns portico

Ancient InfluencePantheon, Rome, Italy

Houdon’s George Washington, 1788

Stands in Contrapposto but is in contemporary wardrobe Classical themes

support current causes

Refers to Roman symbols of authority

Women’s Revolution

Call for women to be included in the equality of humankind

Call for participation in the political process

Will lead to the suffragette movement in the 19th century

Emphasizes REASON in allowing women access to the political process

SuffragettesElizabeth Cady Stanton

French RevolutionA bourgeoisie revolt against an oppressive and corrupt monarchy and its supportive aristocracyWomen’s March on

Versailles, 5-6 October 1789

Kauffmann’s Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures, 1785

An image of the revolutionary mother, one who is willing to sacrifice her sons for the cause

David’s Oath of the Horatii, 1785

The message is one of self-sacrifice rather than self-indulgence

A call to arms 4 years before the Revolution

THESE REVOLUTIONS ARE OF COURSE GIRDED BY THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Scientific RevolutionDepends on detailed observation (influenced by optics discoveries of the Baroque age)

Diderot’s Encyclopédie is the classification of “all” human knowledge (in 28 volumes)

Reveals an optimistic belief in mankind—that he can know everything and list it

Influenced by Carolus Linnaeus, who established the classification system in biology

Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie Title Page

Father of Newtonian Physics

Emphasizes Empiricism

Develops Theory of Gravity

Isaac Newton

In order to popularize science, artists will show scenes of the Scientific Revolution in dramatic and entertaining way

Dramatic lighting influenced by the Baroque period.

Message is that Science brings light into a world of political and social darkeness

Wright’s, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air-Pump, 1768

EMANCIPATION “Revolution”

Enlightenment principles of equality and freedom lead to the call to emancipate black slaves throughout the Western World

Wedgwood supported the idea of gradual emancipation of slaves

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley, an emancipated Haitian slave who led the legislative campaign in France to abolish slavery and grant black people full citizenship in the colonies

The Point is:

Neoclassical works react against the excessiveness of the Rococo period, a period in which the split between the poor and wealthy brought about the need for Revolution

Neoclassical works use Greco-Roman themes and figures to reveal a contemporary message of freedom, equality, and reason