2. 1600- 1800
Overview
• In the early 1600’s Rome is the leader of the Baroque style
• Strict classicism prevails for much of the seventeenth century in France so the
Baroque style was slower to arrive there than elsewhere in Europe
• Eventually France emerges as a major world power and a cultural center to rival
Rome
• This is largely due to the aims of the French monarchs, particularly Louis XIV, who
called on architects, painters, and sculptors, to represent the court in ‘peerless
splendour’
• The French Revolution- the latter half of the period has France as the seat of the
Enlightenment, a major intellectual movement that asserts the power of reason and
mobilizes a widespread dissatisfaction with contemporary social and political ills that
results, later in the century, in revolution.
• Rococo style rises as the tale end of the Baroque
• With the Enlightenment comes a renewed veneration of antiquity and a Neoclassical
movement in the arts; this gives way, at the end of the period, to Romanticism
3. Chronology
• 1615 Cervantes begins Don Quixote
• 1618 The beginning of the 30 Year War
• 1619 Harvey’s discovered the circulation of the blood
• 1630 The building of the Taj Mahal begins
• 1635 The foundation of the Academie Francaise
• 1642 Rembrandt paints The Night Watch
• 1661 The building of Versailles palace begins
• 1666 Stradivarius makes his first violin
• 1675 The Greenwich Observatory is built
• 1682 The Accession of Peter the Great of Russia
• 1683 Newton expounds his theory of gravity
• 1714 Fahrenheit invents the mercury thermometer
4. 17th Century
1600 -1700
• The reformation had been succeeded by the
Counter-Reformation
• Artists and architects benefited from the
renewed strength of the Catholic Church
• Pope Sixtus V replanned Rome in magnificent
style with churches, fountains and palaces at
focal points in the city.
• Noble families rivalled each other as patrons
• Rome became the Artistic capital of the world
5. • Artists came from Spain, France, England and
Flounders for commissions
• Painters embraced the challenge to create
integrated environments (un bel composto)
meant to heighten religious experience
• A bohemian artists’ colony which still survives
today grew up around the Spanish Steps
• Members of this colony led the way in creating
new art styles and ideas which spread through
out Europe
6. Baroque
1600- 1770’s
• Early Baroque – 1540’s to 1600’s
• High Baroque 1620’s onwards
• Reaction against the artificiality of the 16th
century Mannerism
• Realism was again in fashion, although
interpreted in different ways
• Two most important groups of Early
Baroque were the Naturalists and
Classicists
7. Naturalism
• Based on extreme realism
• Details are naturalistic and painted in
bright clear colours
• As a rule painted directly on the canvas
10. Other characteristics of
Naturalism
• Religious stories told in contemporary
idiom
– ie: the apostles no longer heroes but rough-
looking fishermen
• Extreme foreshortening
13. Classicism
• Looked to realism of High Renaissance
• Painting and classical sculpture for inspiration
• Worked from preliminary drawings
• Monumental figures
• Glowing sensuous colours
30. 18 Century
th
1700 - 1800
•The Rococo
•Neoclassical
• Romantic Era
31. • The Rococo style was fashionable in the
early 18th century
• Neoclassical succeeded around 1793
• Romantic style then succeeded in the
early 19th century (1812)
32. Chronology
• 1717 The first inoculation against smallpox
• 1720 Johann Sebastian Bach completes his first Brandenburg
concerto
• 1735 Linnaeus completes a new system for the classification of
plants
• 1745 The building of Sans Souci palace in Berlin begins
• 1752 Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning conductor
• 1755 A great earthquake in Lisbon
• 1756 The beginning of the Seven Years’ War
• 1765 James Watt invents the steam engine
• 1770 Goethe starts work on Faust
• 1776 The American Declaration of Independence
• 1781 Kant publishes Critique of Pure Reason
• 1787 Mozart appointed Chamber Musician to Emperor Joseph II
• 1789 The storming of the Bastille leads to the outbreak of
revolution in France
• 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte becomes French Emperor
34. Rococo
1760’s
• France was one of the first countries
where Rococo became popular
• Rococo was a reaction against pomp and
grandeur of the court of Louis XIV
36. • Rococo was associated with his successor
Louis XV
• Colours are light with a lot of white and
silver, others colours favoured were:
dusty rose, pale lemon, misty blue, and
turquoise
• not much gold as it was too heavy
• S- curves and C- curves frequently
appear in composition
42. Neoclassicism
• In total contrast to the Rococo was Neoclassicism
• Demand for “heroism and civic virtues’ (Goethe)
• The Paris Salon – art should be governed by rational
rules and not uncontrolled feelings
• Rococo was seen and hedonistic and self-indulgent
• Neoclassical art used spare but precise outline
preliminary drawings
• Figures are posed parallel instead of diagonal to the
picture plane
43. The Classical Ideal
• Increasing influence of classical antiquity in
the second half of the eighteenth century in
Europe
• The achievements of the Renaissance sparked
a renewed interest in harmony, simplicity, and
proportion
• In the midst of a grand gallery, students copy the
great works of antiquity.
• Neoclassical style arose from such first-hand
observation and reproduction of antique works
and came to dominate European architecture
painting, sculpture, and decorative arts.
45. • In Baroque and Rococo contours are formed by
shading, in Neoclassical they are formed by
unbroken lines, not interrupted by light or
shadow
• Even light
• A sense of order prevails everywhere
• Portraits are half or full length
54. Romanticism
1800- 1850’s
• Romanticism, gained momentum as an artistic movement in France
and Britain in the early decades of the nineteenth century and
flourished until mid-century.
• With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism
emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment
values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French
Revolution of 1789.
• Though often posited in opposition to Neoclassicism, early
Romanticism was shaped largely by artists trained in David’s studio,
including Ingres
• This blurring of stylistic boundaries is best expressed in Ingres'
Apotheosis of Homer and Eugène Delacroix's Death of
Sardanapalus which polarized the public at the Salon of 1827 in
Paris.
56. • Landscapes had traditionally been used to
fill in the background of a painting
• As techniques improved they became
more important to artists
• The public still wanted a ‘subject’ and
artists had to comply
57. • In Romantic art, nature—with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability, and potential
for cataclysmic extremes—offered an alternative to the ordered world of
Enlightenment thought. The violent and terrifying images of nature conjured by
Romantic artists recall the eighteenth-century aesthetic of the Sublime. As articulated
by the British statesman Edmund Burke in a 1757 treatise and echoed by the French
philosopher Denis Diderot a decade later, "all that stuns the soul, all that imprints a
feeling of terror, leads to the sublime." In French and British painting of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the recurrence of images of shipwrecks (
2003.42.56) and other representations of man's struggle against the awesome power
of nature manifest this sensibility. Scenes of shipwrecks culminated in 1819 with
Théodore Gericault's strikingly original Raft of the Medusa (Louvre), based on a
contemporary event. In its horrifying explicitness, emotional intensity, and
conspicuous lack of a hero, The Raft of the Medusa became an icon of the emerging
Romantic style. Similarly, J. M. W. Turner's 1812 depiction of Hannibal and his army
crossing the Alps (Tate Britain, London), in which the general and his troops are
dwarfed by the overwhelming scale of the landscape and engulfed in the swirling
vortex of snow, embodies the Romantic sensibility in landscape painting. Gericault
also explored the Romantic landscape in a series of views representing different
times of day; in Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct (1989.183), the dramatic sky,
blasted tree, and classical ruins evoke a sense of melancholic reverie.
59. • If artists did paint landscapes it was for their own
pleasure and often in Italianate style
• Another facet of the Romantic attitude toward nature
emerges in the landscapes of John Constable, whose art
expresses his response to his native English
countryside. For his major paintings, Constable executed
full-scale sketches, as in a view of Salisbury Cathedral (
50.145.8); he wrote that a sketch represents "nothing but
one state of mind—that which you were in at the time."
When his landscapes were exhibited in Paris at the
Salon of 1824, critics and artists embraced his art as
"nature itself." Constable's subjective, highly personal
view of nature accords with the individuality that is a
central tenet of Romanticism.
62. • This interest in the individual and subjective—at odds
with eighteenth-century rationalism—is mirrored in the
Romantic approach to portraiture. Traditionally,
records of individual likeness, portraits became vehicles
for expressing a range of psychological and emotional
states in the hands of Romantic painters. Gericault
probed the extremes of mental illness in his portraits of
psychiatric patients, as well as the darker side of
childhood in his unconventional portrayals of children. In
his portrait of Alfred Dedreux (41.17), a young boy of
about five or six, the child appears intensely serious,
more adult than childlike, while the dark clouds in the
background convey an unsettling, ominous quality.
63. • Such explorations of emotional states extended into the animal kingdom,
marking the Romantic fascination with animals as both forces of nature and
metaphors for human behavior. This curiosity is manifest in the sketches of
wild animals done in the menageries of Paris and London in the 1820s by
artists such as Delacroix, Antoine-Louis Barye, and Edwin Landseer.
Gericault depicted horses of all breeds—from workhorses to racehorses—in
his work. Lord Byron's 1819 tale of Mazeppa tied to a wild horse captivated
Romantic artists from Delacroix to Théodore Chassériau, who exploited the
violence and passion inherent in the story. Similarly, Horace Vernet, who
exhibited two scenes from Mazeppa in the Salon of 1827 (both Musée
Calvet, Avignon), also painted the riderless horse race that marked the end
of the Roman Carnival, which he witnessed during his 1820 visit to Rome.
His oil sketch (87.15.47) captures the frenetic energy of the spectacle, just
before the start of the race. Images of wild, unbridled animals evoked primal
states that stirred the Romantic imagination.
64. • In its stylistic diversity and range of
subjects, Romanticism defies simple
categorization. As the poet and critic
Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1846,
"Romanticism is precisely situated neither
in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but
in a way of feeling."
Ala pope sixtus V Art used as a learning tool Also as manipulation Rep power and wealth
Clergy thought artists exceeded permissible limits On one occasion for his depiction of the death of the virgin Caravaggio took for his model the body of a prostitute pulled out of the Tiber. Commission were revoked on more then one occasion Drama intensified by theatrical use of light and shade, Dramatic gestures to draw the viewer in Fishermen rough Simple meal intense realism Balancing bowl Legs of the chair in our space. The very moment when they realize who the stranger is and painting includes us in this revelation.
more sombre in which chiaroscuro is used to crate a mood of meditation A strong light falls on one side of the sitter’s face the other side in darkness pools of shadows collect around the eyes.
twisting drapery has a life of it’s own In high baroque painting can be likened to a full choir with all the voices making up the harmony No single voice is distinguished from the others the pleasure comes form the blending and substance of the singing In order to take in the whole of the picture the viewers eye is often led to travel in a broad s shape There is often the suggestion that spiritual love may be expressed through erotic passion Speaking of her vision of an angel with a golden spear. ‘ when he pulled it out, I felt that he left me utterly consumed by the great love of god. the pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease.’
New type of paintg The ideal landscape Created by French artists working in Rome Inspired by coastlines of Naples and majestic trees an light But in painting nature is idealised Suggest the enchantment of the vanished golden age.
Another type was port habour scenes Aray of classiical and renassance buidings creat imaginary ports of theatrical splendor Clase attention to movement of the waves Shifting patterns oflight across the water.
Classical emphasis on balanced horizontal and verticals Mood sombre Pale browns Dusky greens
Tender realism Light creates an intensely poetic mood
Portraits Dutch tended to be stiff and posed Meticulously realistic treatment of fabric and feathers 1620’s New informalities artist point of view varies Other times relaxed Brilliant freedom of technique Brushstrokes zigzagged across the surface creating an effect of movement and catching fleeting expressions of laughter. Looking up at the figure Landscape as background Classical columns Loyaly of the dog Full battle dress
finery
At end of 16 th c Netherlands dived into north and south South Flanders remained under catholic church Flemish art expressed the power of the catholic church and splendour of habsburg court Untied Flemish realism with Italian high baroque Deep diagonals Emphasis on passionate expressions Drama of solid heavy muscled bodies in violent action To flatter royal patrons new allegorical Gods of antiquity/ christian virtues / obeying an earthly monarch
Over the top Overly decorated Busy compostions
Mixed clothes of 16 th and exotic Historical inaccuracies forgiven due to the sheer beauty
Demarcation lines between walls and ceilings disappear Later in 18 th c neo class replaced rococo such images were considered dishonest Fete Galante pictures Very free brush strokes Light hearted scenes
too much freedom going back to order Classical Antiquity The remains of Greco-Roman antiquity—coins, gems, sculpture, buildings, and the classics of Greek and Latin literature—fascinated the thinking men and women of the Italian Renaissance. The arts and the humanities, they reasoned, had declined during the "middle ages" that stretched between the end of antiquity and their own time, but by emulating the exemplary works of the ancients, even striving to surpass them, contemporary artists and writers might restore the arts and letters to their former grandeur. In Renaissance Italy, the desire to know and to match the excellence of the ancients often engendered passionate endeavor. The Florentine author Niccolò Machiavelli, for example, described his nightly retreats into his library in these memorable words: "At the door I take off my muddy everyday clothes. I dress myself as though I were about to appear before a royal court as a Florentine envoy. Then decently attired I enter the antique courts of the great men of antiquity. They receive me with friendship; from them I derive the nourishment which alone is mine and for which I was born. Without false shame I talk with them and ask them the causes of the actions; and their humanity is so great they answer me. For four long and happy hours I lose myself in them. I forget all my troubles; I am not afraid of poverty or death. I transform myself entirely in their likeness." Artists likewise worked to transform their art by studying, measuring, drawing , and imitating admired examples of classical sculpture and architecture, and this is reflected in many of the greatest works in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Ingres developed a meticulous neoclassical style Notable for impeccable draughtsmanship and smooth enamel-like finish Although style was the model of classical correctness his subject matter was often distinctly Romantic
Born in Les Andelys, Normandy, and active in Paris from 1612 to 1623, Poussin, like many European artists of his generation, was drawn to Rome. He arrived there in 1624 an unformed painter, but would become a central figure for the Roman and European art of his time—despite the fact that he defined himself against the prevailing Baroque tastes of his adopted city and steadfastly followed his own artistic path. Poussin brought a new intellectual rigor to the classical impulse in art, as well as a unique, somewhat reticent poetry. His sensitivity to the nuances of gesture, design, color, and handling, which he varied according to the theme at hand, permitted him to bring a very focused expression to his art and to create for each narrative a memorable and enduring form . T he wide range of his oeuvre includes scenes of subdued tenderness, bacchic revelry, mourning, righteous civic virtue, and other more difficult to identify states of mind or being.
Benjamin West's influence on the course of American painting was enormous, and it is certain that without him the achievements of most of the major American artists of the time would not have been possible. Born on October 10, 1738, near Springfield, Pennsylvania, West manifested a talent for painting at an early age, and was encouraged to draw by his parents. By the age of fifteen he was something of a local celebrity for his portraits, and by 1756 he had attracted the attention of Dr. William Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia, who enrolled him in his school and devised a special program in classical learning for him. His lessons in antiquity fueled his determination to become a history painter, and in 1760 he sailed for Italy on a journey that would lead him to the pinnacle of artistic success.
While Ingres' work seemingly embodied the ordered classicism of the David in contrast to the disorder and tumult of the Delacroix, in fact both works draw from the Davidian tradition but each ultimately subverts that model, asserting the originality of the artist—a central notion of Romanticism.
Dramatic landscapes expressed mood, emotions and atmosphere Ranks high among the formative figures of Romanticism
Constable and Turner raised the status of landscape painting in England Landscape painting was poorly paid He refused to paint Romantic ideal scenes and wanted to paint his local town Struggled for success for years and was obliged to paint portraits for his profession Unprecedented attention to atmospheric conditions – copious studies of clouds So realistic that one critic joked that Constable’s paintings always made him want to reach for his umbrella Finally found success with hi s 6 footers gaining membership to the RA and winning gold at the Salon
Travelled all round England making sketches to later use in oils His paintings marked a classical influence 1844 ‘Rain and Steam and Speed’ marked a next phase as a precursor to impressionism
