Chapter Sixteen The Eighteenth Century: From Rococo to Revolution

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Chapter SixteenThe Eighteenth CenturyFrom
Rococo to Revolution
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We know a lot about Rome because of a terrible
natural disaster

• The destruction of towns surrounding the volcano,
  Vesuvius, during its eruption in the year 79 CE
  (AD).
• Towns such as Pompeii, Herculaneum and Oplontis
  were completely buried in ashand thus preserved
  as time capsules of Roman life.
• These towns remained buried for over 1700 years
  until they were rediscovered in the 18th century
  by archeologists.

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Pompeii, 79 AD
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Life in Pompeii is good, so long as you are a
Roman
Or at least it was good
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The eruption of Vesuvius destroys Pompeii, 79 CE
(AD), covering the entire city in choking ash.
But in doing so, it leaves us a remarkably
preserved sample of Roman life as lived sometime
around breakfast.
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Age of Diversity, Age of Enlightenment

• 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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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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Literature in the Eighteenth CenturyIntellectual
Developments

• Systematic examination of society
• Pessimistic views vs. Optimistic views
• Renewed interest in Classical culture
• Translations, themes, forms, references
• English Augustan movement
• Imitated Roman Augustan poets
• Return to order after English Civil War
• A desire to see divine order in the world

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The Late Eighteenth CenturyTime of Revolution

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

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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 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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Literature in the Eighteenth CenturyRational
Humanism The Encyclopedists

• Charles-Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755)
• Distribution of governmental power
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• Humansgood, societybad
• The noble savage
• Contempt for superficial, artificial
• Belief in human equality

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The critical satirists Voltaire and Swift
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Literature in the Eighteenth CenturyVoltaire
(1694-1778)

• A man engagé
• Importance of freedom of thought
• Ecrasez linfame
• Fanaticism and persecution
• Natural religion, morality
• Candide (1759)
• Folly of unreasonable optimism
• Cruelty and stupidity of the human race

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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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The Rococofantasy life of the last European
aristocrats
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Watteau, Return from Cythera (1717)
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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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The tres rococo Salon de la Princesse, Hotel de
Soubise, Paris
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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 Century The
SatiristsJonathan 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