Chapter 14
ENLIGHTENMENT AND LIBERTY
• All that helped bring the world into the modern era occurred
during the eighteenth century and overlapped, for a time,
with the old political and social order.
• The idea, as stated in the American Declaration of
Independence of 1776, that ”all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights”, would clash with the old order during the last
decade of the century during the French Revolution.
• Until the end of the century Christianity retained its hold
with both Protestant and Catholic churches.
• In the Catholic countries there was no decline in the
building and decoration of churches, monasteries and
religious foundations, nor in the production of painting and
sculpture to go within these structures.
• During the seventeenth century, the Enlightenment came out
of the philosophical and scientific thoughts of Descartes
and with John Locke who promoted a philosophy based on
common sense and with Isaac Newton who proved a rational
explanation of the laws determining the structure and
working of the universe.
• The leaders of the eighteenth century Enlightenment shared a
faith in the power of the human mind to solve every problem.
Key Terms:
Rococo
Poussinistes
Enlightenment
Rubenistes
Learning Objectives:
• The change in subject matter in the Rococo and Neo-Classical
movements.
• The use of the arts by the French monarchy as a way of
escapism.
• The influence of Italian Baroque on German Rococo.
• The ways in which British Rococo was different from French
Rococo.
• The use of the arts as modern propaganda.
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FRENCH ROCOCO ART
• This delicate, sensual and often frivolous art of the first
half of the century seems to have been at odds with the
rational thought of the Enlightenment.
• It was during the Revolution that the artwork was referred
to as Rococo and was dismissed as an attempt to satisfy the
whims of a dissipated upper class.
• The motivating force of this art was a desire to be free
from academic restrictions and it did so with gentle
gradations
and
mingling
of
color
and
the
subtle
juxtapositions of forms.
• The Rococo artist ignored the classical rules of pictorial
composition as well as the classical orders of architecture.
• Rococo first developed in France in 1699 when Louis XIV
called for paintings to be more lighthearted and youthful
for Versailles which was still in progress.
• There were those who believed that drawing was superior to
color in that drawing appealed to the intellect while color
appealed to the senses and they were referred to as
Poussinistes.
• Those who thought that color was a truthful imitation of
nature, which they held to be the prime aim of art, were
called Rubenistes. For them the fact that color appealed to
the senses instead of the intellect was an advantage.
Watteau, de Troy and the Rococo Interior
• Watteau was regarded as the greatest of the early eighteenth
century painters yet his training was that of an artist
craftsman.
• He admired Rubens and the sixteenth century Venetian
colorists and painted a wide range of subject matter.
Watteau, The Dance (fig. 14.2)
• Watteau specialized in the fanciful visions of well-dressed
men and women enjoying themselves in the open air.
• This painting is set in the type of park which had only
recently been laid out without the constraint put on the
treatment of nature and uses much more freedom in the design
of stonework and statuary.
de Troy, A Reading
• This painting
civilized life
because of the
from Moliere (fig. 14.3)
shows another side of the French ideal of
and is often thought to be a portrait group
detail shown in the individual faces.
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• The only link with the past is the volume of Moliere, the
great comic moralist in the early years of the reign of
Louis XIV.
Boffrand, The Princess’s Salon (fig. 14.4)
• This is the finest surviving French interior from this
period, which is located in the Hotel de Soubis, Paris.
• The oval plan creates a looser effect more so than the
rectangle or circle and the manipulation of light, which
floods into the room, is reflected in corresponding looking
glass.
• The success of the design was due to a team effort between
artists and craftsmen and it created a sense of light, airy
and gay which was the aim of the designers.
Boucher, Chardin and Fragonard
Boucher, Hercules and Omphale (fig. 14.5)
• Boucher’s paintings were often set in the boudoir and his
palette was light with an abundance of pearly flesh tints
and a hint of cosmetics.
• All
of
his
paintings
exult
a
sense
of
voluptuous
sensibility.
Chardin, The Governess (fig. 14.6)
• This painting is quite different from Boucher’s, in that the
colors are subdued with grays and browns and everything is
simple and wholesome.
• Chardin represented the upper class in the moralizing
tradition of Dutch seventeenth century genre scenes.
Fragonard, The Meeting from The Progress of Love (fig. 14.7)
• The sensuality of Boucher influenced Fragonard’s work and
this is one of the four paintings from the series.
• All of the scenes were set in a park with statues and stone
balustrades among the flowers and free growing trees.
• Everything is set with anticipation.
THE ROCOCO IN GERMANY AND ITALY
• Even though French Rococo emerged in opposition to the
teaching program at the Academy and was very influential,
German Rococo developed from Italian Baroque.
• Borromini and Guarini inspired the spatial complexity,
intricacy of form and elaboration of German surface design.
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Zimmermann, The Wieskirche (fig. 14.12)
• The Wieskirche exterior was undistinguished while its
interior was a blending of light and color with swirling all
encompassing decorative motifs.
• Zimmermann was trained as a worker in stucco but had a
highly sophisticated understanding of architectural space
and a feeling for ornament.
• The
viewer’s
eye
is
drawn
to
the
altar
by
the
intensification of color and the richness of the decoration
in the white nave, with motifs picked out in gold, pinks and
blues.
• The main purpose of this type of interior in central Europe
was to give the visitor and the peasant pilgrim a vision of
heaven.
Tiepolo, Guardi and Canaletto
• The Germans did look towards France for influence
architectural decorations and the furnishings made
accompany the rooms.
• But in painting Italy still remained the main influence.
in
to
Tiepolo, staircase ceiling of the Residenz (fig. 14.15)
• Tiepolo was the greatest fresco painter of the time and was
called upon to work in this vast palace.
• Here, Tiepolo was required to record the fame of the princebishop von Greiffenklau and he succeeded with the use of
Venetian light and color.
• Unlike other ceiling paintings this one was meant to be seen
from a variety of viewpoints and presents a view of the
world
cherished
by
Enlightenment
thinkers,
who
were
fascinated by distant countries.
Guardi, Santa maria della Salute (fig. 14.16)
• At a time when local patriotism was apparent, Guardi was
seen as the last exponent of the tradition of Tintoretto.
• Guardi’s fame rests with views of Venice which, like this
one, captured the sparkle of sunshine on domes and towers.
Canaletto, Venice, The Bacino di S Marco on Ascension Day (fig.
14.17)
• Canaletto’s main patrons were the British and this type of
cool clear view of Venice appealed to them.
• This painting is more evenly lit than those done by Guardi.
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ENGLISH SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
• In England, Italian Baroque was not viewed in the same
possitive light as it was in Germany.
• And their rational and moral disapproval of that style
isolated England from the rest of Europe in artistic manner.
• The British advocated a return to Classical principles, by
way of Andrea Palladio, and this Classicism also had
political and social implications.
• England saw in Rome republican virtues, which after the
development of a constitutional monarchy, gave political
power to land owning oligarchy.
• A Neo-Palladian house with its dressed stonework, columns
and pediment marked the owner’s social standing in a more
obvious way than the seventeenth century brick houses.
Hogarth and Gainsborough
Hogarth, Marriage a la Mode II (fig. 14.19)
• In this painting Hogarth has coupled ill matched people in a
typical Neo-Palladian room with its columns and Classical
ornamentation.
• To Hogarth the trappings in this room were symbols of
heartlessness or the lacking in affectation.
• The free brush strokes suggest the influence of contemporary
French artists.
Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews (fig. 14.20)
• In England, nature signified the divinely ordered universe
as revealed by Newton, in which everything had its appointed
place.
• The couple is placed at the point where their wellcultivated farm land merges with clumps of trees.
Landscape and Classicism
• The
landscape
park
was
the
most
important
British
contribution to the visual arts of the eighteenth century.
• This approach to landscape could be seen as a symbol of
liberty
when
compared
to
the
controlled
gardens
at
Versailles.
• The Classical past permeated British culture throughout the
eighteenth century while deviations into Gothic and Chinese
architectural styles created amusing contrasts.
• Robert Adam, during a trip to Italy, responded to the
richness, variety and magnificence of imperial Roman
architecture.
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• The ancient Roman baths inspired him
contrasting shapes and sizes of rooms.
to
experiment
with
Adam, Anteroom, Syon House (fig. 14.22)
• This room is off the entrance hall and incorporates imperial
Roman splendor with great gilt trophies of arms on the walls
and tall green marble columns topped by gilded statues.
• The wall surfaces, the furniture, the carpets, even the
doorknobs and keyhole guards were designed by Adam’s office.
Reynolds, Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces (fig.
14.23)
• Reynolds was the first president of the Royal Academy and
was knighted the year after its foundation.
• He made the Grand Tour of Rome where he saturated himself
with the works of Raphael and Michelangelo.
• Reynolds wanted to emulate the ‘grand style’ but knew that
the British would not be interested in the ‘history
pictures’ market; therefore, he devoted himself to the art
of portraiture.
• Male sitters were posed like antique statues and ladies were
treated like figures in mythological compositions.
West, Death of General Wolfe (fig. 14.25)
• West was intent on painting historical subject matter and in
this painting he was dealing with modern history with the
figures in contemporary dress which is said to have shocked
Reynolds.
• The accepted way to present this topic would have been to
treat it as an allegory with the figures in Classical
costume.
• West posed the figures in a Classical way and used an Indian
in the foreground as a personification of America.
NEO-CLASSICISM, OR THE ‘TRUE STYLE’
• Some of the founders of the United States were represented
as figures from the ancient world and some were portrayed in
a more natural way.
• There was a demand for a ‘new’ art that went against the old
way of representing figures as if they came from ancient
mythology.
• The term ‘Neo Classical’ was coined in the mid nineteenth
century and was regarded as the ‘true style’.
• Ancient forms were viewed in a new light by Johann
Winckelmann who affected a complete reappraisal of the art
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of antiquity and gave a sense of aspiring purpose to the
reaction against the Rococo.
Houdon, George Washington (fig.14.27)
• Thomas Jefferson had requested that Washington be presented
as a man, not a god.
• With this statue Houdon has renounced Rococo which was
reiterated during the second half of the eighteenth century.
• Washington is presented as a citizen and as a soldier not as
a leader of a new nation.
Canova and David
• After the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, artists had
new work from which to draw their influence.
• In 1779, Canova visited Rome and began to create a new
sculptural style of revolutionary severity and idealistic
purity.
• The subjects of his sculptures were taken from Classical
mythology.
• Canova freed sculpture from the architectural settings to
which most works had been bound since the early seventeenth
century.
• He also started to sculpt for museums which were now
regarded, for the first time, as institutions for public
education.
Canova, Cupid and Psyche (fig. 14.28)
• This statue is a complex image of love and death, of
eroticism purged of sensuality and of idealism.
• The figures are absorbed with one another without so much as
a glance towards the spectator.
David, The Oath of the Horatii (fig. 14.29)
• David was a product of the French system of artistic
education shortly after it had been made more rigorous.
• The nobility of ancient Roman stoicism and patriotism is the
message of this painting and masculine courage and resolve
is shown in contrast to the feminine tenderness.
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