Transcript Chapter 16 - 18th Century - From Rococo to Revolution

The Eighteenth Century: From Rococo to
Revolution
Chapter 16:
Rococo to Revolution
OUTLINE
The Counter-Reformation Spirit
The Visual Arts in the Baroque Period
Painting in Rome: Caravaggio and the Carracci
Roman Baroque Sculpture and Architecture:
Bernini and Borromini
Baroque Art in France and Spain
Baroque Art in Northern Europe
Baroque Music
The Birth of Opera
Baroque Instrumental and Vocal Music:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Philosophy and Science in the Baroque Period
Galileo
Descartes
Hobbes and Locke
Literature in the Seventeenth Century
French Baroque Comedy and Tragedy
The Novel in Spain: Cervantes
The English Metaphysical Poets
Milton's Heroic Vision
Outline Chapter 16
Timeline Chapter 16
Timeline Chapter 16: Rococo to Revolution
1534
Loyola establishes the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
1601
Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew
1620
Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith and Holofernes
1629
Bernini appointed official architect of St. Peter's, Rome
1632
Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
1639
Poussin, Et in Arcadia, Ego
1642
Rembrandt, Night Watch
1645
Bernini, Saint Teresa in Ecstasy
1656
Velázquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)
1665
Vermeer, The Girl With Pearl Earring
1682
Louis XIV moves court to Versailles
1690Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding;
Second Treatise on Government
1720
Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
1721
J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concertos
The Eighteenth Century: From Rococo to Revolution
The eighteenth century marked the passage in European life from the
old aristocratic order to the beginnings of modern society. When the
age began Louis XIV was still firmly entrenched; before the century
ended Louis XVI and his wife had been executed by the National
Convention of the French Revolution-itself inspired, in theory at least,
by the American Revolution of a few years earlier.
Elsewhere in Europe enlightened despots like Frederick the Great of
Prussia responded to the growing restlessness of their subjects by
reorganizing government and improving living conditions. Frederick's
court even became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centers
of the time; C. P. E. Bach directed the music there and Voltaire spent
two years as Frederick's guest.
18th c. Aesthetics: The contrast between revolutionaries and
conservatives
The contrast between revolutionaries and conservatives lasted right to
the eve of the French Revolution. Jaques Louis David’s, Oath of the
Horati, (1784-17850, a clarion calll to action and resolve, was painted
in the same year as Thomas Gainsborough’s idealized picture of a
Haymaker and Sleeping Girl. The former, in keeping with the spirit of
the times, prefigures the mood of revolution. The latter turns its back
on reality, evoking a nostalgic vision of love among the haystacks.
David, Jacques-Louis
The Oath of the Horatii
1784
Thomas Gainsborugh
Haymaker
and Sleeping Girl
1784
Rococo Art
Rococo Art In the visual arts the principal style to emerge from the
baroque splendors of the previous century was the rococo.
Lighter and less grandiose, it was wonderfully suited to the civilized
amenities of aristocratic life. The chief rococo painters were French
and Italian-appropriately enough, since rulers both in France and in
the kingdoms of Italy made few concessions to the growing demands
for reform. In architecture the builders of Parisian private houses
such as the Hotel de Soubise indulged their taste for fanciful
decoration, while the rococo churches of southern Germany and
Austria represent some of the happiest of all eighteenth-century
Achievements.
Jean Antoine Watteau
Les Charmes de la Vie
(The Music Party)
c. 1718
The Toilette
ND
Pilgrimage to Cythera
1717
Oil on canvas
Francois Boucher
The Toilet of Venus, 1751
François Boucher
1703-1770
Morning Coffee
1739
Jean Honore Fragonard
The Swing
1767
Oil on canvas
Psyche
showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid
1753
Oil on canvas
Thomas Gainsborough
Conversation in a Park
c. 1740
Oil on canvas
Mrs Grace Dalrymple Elliot
c. 1778
Oil on canvas
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
The Institution
of the Rosary
1737-39
Fresco
Education of the Virgin
1732
Oil on canvas
The Neoclassical Style
The other important artistic style of the period was the neoclassical.
Inspired by the increasing quantities of ancient art being excavated at
Pompeii and elsewhere, artists began to turn to the style and subjects of
classical antiquity, which provided a refreshing contrast to the
theatricality of baroque and the artificiality of rococo. Furthermore, in the
history of the Roman Republic (at least as they perceived it)
revolutionary artists of the later eighteenth century found a vehicle for
expressing their battle for freedom. In many cases painters incorporated
into their works discoveries from the various excavations in progress:
the French Jacques Louis David in his paintings for the Revolution as
well as the English Joshua Reynolds in his portraits of society women.
Ancient sculpture provided a stimulus to some of the leading artists of
the day, most notably the Italian Antonio Canova and the French Jean
Antoine Houdon. Both of them worked principally during and after the
revolutions; Houdon even produced a neoclassical statue of George
Washington. Washington and the other leaders of the American
Revolution turned naturally to classical architecture for their public
buildings. Among the finest examples is Thomas Jefferson's State
Capitol at Richmond.
David, Jacques-Louis
Death of Marat
1793
Napoleon in His Study
1812, Oil on canvas
Joshua Reynolds
George Clive and his Family with an Indian Maid
1765
Oil on canvas
Lady Cockburn
and her Three Eldest Sons
1773
Oil on canvas,
William Hogarth
The Orgy
c. 1735
Oil on canvas
Soliciting Votes
1754
Oil on canvas,
Thomas Jefferson, architecture
Virginia State Capitol
Thomas Jefferson
1785-92
“…a conscious rejection of the rococo and all it stood for in
favor of the austere world…of ancient Rome”
Music in the eighteenth century:
Haydn and Mozart In music the emotional style of baroque composers began to give
way to a new way of organizing musical forms. By the middle of the eighteenth
century the classical style was beginning to evolve, and the two greatest composers
of the age, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (both Austrian), used
it to write their symphonies, concertos, and sonatas. Most of these works employed
sonata form, a system of musical composition involving contrasts rather than the unity
of baroque music. Haydn's hundred or so symphonies show an almost infinitely
endless exploration of the possibilities offered by sonata form while also reflecting the
evolution of the modern symphony orchestra. His own personal career furthermore
illustrates the changing status of the artist: After years of serving in the household of
an aristocratic family, he became transformed by his compositions into one of the
most famous men in Europe.
Mozart's relations with his noble employers were far less happy. His music, however,
transcends the difficulties of his life and achieves the supreme blend of eighteenthcentury art's two chief concerns: beauty and learning. Like Haydn, he explored the
possibilities of sonata form and also wrote a number of operas that remain among the
best-loved of all musical works for the stage. The Marriage of Figaro illustrates
Mozart's genius for expressing universal human emotions in music, while in its story it
reflects the revolutionary mood of the times.
Eighteenth-Century Literature
History and Satire Like music, the literature of the eighteenth century
was generally serious. Many writers avoided the lightness of the
rococo, preferring to produce works based on classical models or
themes. They included the Italian dramatist Metastasio and the English
historian Edward Gibbon. An exception is provided by the satirical
writings of Alexander Pope, which poke fun at the pretensions of
eighteenth-century society, although many of Pope's other works are
neoclassical in style. Other writers used satire, in itself a
characteristically rococo medium, as a more bitter weapon against
human folly. Jonathan Swift's writings present an indictment of his
fellow humans that offers little hope for their improvement.
The Encyclopedists
The French Encyclopedists offered a more optimistic point of view.
Denis Diderot and most of his colleagues believed in the essential
goodness of human nature and the possibility of progress, and their
EncyclopÈdie was intended to exalt the power of reason. Not all the
contributors agreed, however. Jean Jacques Rousseau claimed that
society was an evil that corrupted essential human goodness and
called for a new social order. Yet all the leading intellectuals of the day,
including the greatest of them all, Voltaire, were united in urging the
need for radical social change. In novels, pamphlets, plays, and
countless other publications Voltaire attacked traditional religion and
urged the importance of freedom of thought.
Battles for Freedom
By the end of the century the battle for freedom had plunged France
into chaos and demonstrated to the whole of Europe that the old social
order had come to an end. The following century was to see the
struggle to forge a new society.
French Revolution: 1789 - 1799
American Revolution: 1775 - 1783