Chapter Sixteen The Eighteen Century: From Rococo to Revolution

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Chapter SixteenThe Eighteen CenturyFrom Rococo
to Revolution
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Age of Diversity

• Unqualified optimism, extreme discontent
• Trust in science and human reason
• Conscious engagement with social issues
• Revolutionaries and conservatives
• Enlightened despots
• Welfare of citizenry
• Duty and responsibility

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Above Davids Oath of the Horatii Right
Gainsboroughs Haymaker And Sleeping Girl
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The Rococofantasy life of the last European
aristocrats
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The Visual Arts in the Eighteenth CenturyThe
Rococo Style

• Escapism, anti-baroque
• Frivolity, lightheartedness
• Art as entertainment for aristocracy
• Eroticism, voluptuous beauty (a la Rubens)
• Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721)
• Fetes galantes
• Return from Cythera (1717)

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Watteau, Return from Cythera (1717)
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Boucher, Cupid a Captive (1754)
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Fragonard, Love Letters (1773)
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Fragonards The Bolt Note how the hunky
fellow in short pants is bolting the door. What
will happen next???
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Carriera, Anna Sofia dEste, Princess of Modena
(1730) The use of pastels makes this rococo
portrait look especially dreamy
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The Englishman Gainesboroughs Mrs. Peter
William Baker
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The tres rococo Salon de la Princesse, Hotel de
Soubise, Paris
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The ultra rococo nave and high altar of
Vierzehnheiligen Pilgrim Church, Bamberg, Germany
(1743-1772)
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The Visual Arts in the Eighteenth
CenturyNeo-Classical Art

• Archeological inspiration
• New awareness of classical art
• Inspired by discoveries at Pompeii and
  Herculaneum
• Appealed to revolutionaries in France and America
• Roman Republic, French Revolution
• Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
• United opposition to tyranny
• Modeled on ideals of Roman Republic
• Austere poses, orderly decoration
• Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)

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Davids neo-classical Oath of the Horatii (1784)
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Davids Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1800)
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The Visual Arts in the Eighteenth
CenturyNeo-Classical Architecture

• Classical models of architecture
• Austere public buildings
• Thomas Jeffersons State Capitol (1785-1796)

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Literature in the Eighteenth CenturyIntellectual
Developments

• Systematic examination of society
• Pessimistic views vs. Optimistic views
• Renewed interest in Classical culture
• Translations, themes, forms, references
• Rise of Feminism
• Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights
  of Women (1792)

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Literature in the Eighteenth CenturyJonathan
Swift (1667-1745)

• Hatred for human race
• Savage indignation
• Animals capable of reason
• Gullivers Travels
• Satire of human behavior
• A Modest Proposal
• Mans inhumanity to man
• Inevitability of human suffering

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Literature in the Eighteenth CenturyRational
Humanism The Encyclopedists

• Encyclopédie
• Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
• System for the classification of knowledge
• Compendium of human rationality
• Freedom of conscience and belief

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The Late Eighteenth CenturyTime of Revolution

• Technological improvements
• Increased literacy, circulation of ideas
• Governmental abuses
• Louis XV Après moi le déluge
• The Reign of Terror
• Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794)
• Essentiality of constitutional government

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The Late Eighteenth CenturyTime of Revolution

• American Revolution
• Inspired revolution in France
• Jeffersons Declaration of Independence
• Optimistic, rational view
• Political and social freedom
• Equality and justice
• Universality of man and nature

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The Feminist RevolutionMary Wollstonecraft
(1739-1797)

• Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Similar sentiments to French declaration of
  rights of man and American declaration of
  independence, both of which excluded women
• First statement of womens inherent rights
• Women not subservient objects for men, but free,
  rational beings possessed of strength and dignity
  and deserving of respect

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Here ends our lecture upon the 18th Century This
is George Washington, sculpted in 1778 and
looking very neo-classical. He is standing next
to a fasces, a bundle of rods bound together
around an ax with the blade projecting. Fasces
were carried before ancient Roman magistrates as
an emblem of authority. Note the symbolism of how
Washington has covered and softened the ax blade
with his hand and a piece of cloth..