Download UNIT SHEET #31 – 19TH CENTURY NEOCLASSICISM History: late

UNIT SHEET #31 – 19TH CENTURY NEOCLASSICISM
History: late 18th Century Europe:
1789 – French Revolution begins with the First French Republic from 1792 to 1794.
1796 – Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte (made Emperor by 1804) and defeated at Waterloo in 1815, exiled to Alba
1830 – July Revolution and overthrow of Bourbon monarchy. Louis Philippe reigns as constitutional monarch.
Context:
1. Neoclassicism is a reaction against Rococo art-- Rejection of art made primarily to please, was decorative,
escapist, bucolic, pastoral, and fantasy.
2. Neoclassicism is a logical conclusion to 18th century Naturalism – Expresses new sensibility in art which reflects
new thinking in France of middle class people. The nobility of work and the simple life (Rousseau), reason and moral
integrity (not hedonism/luxury) (Voltaire), and edification/content (not escape/fantasy) (Diderot).
3. Neoclassicism is an expression of The Enlightenment (The Age of Reason) – Rousseau, Locke, Diderot, Voltaire.
- Thinking about the world, independent of religion, myth, or tradition.
- Mankind can only find truth by using rational thought and evidence to support it – Doctrine of Empiricism forms
the philosophical basis of Neoclassicism.
4. Revival of interest in Ancient Greece/Rome – Winckelmann’s writings, new discoveries of antiquity,
Herculaneum/Pompeii, Piranesi’s prints of Rome.
5. The French Revolution adopts Neoclassicism and the Greek ideal of liberty and democracy in the light of reason
and in reaction to the repressive monarchy. Propaganda – painting was used to promote the revolutionary ideals
and highest virtues of the revolution.
6. Napoleon adopts Neoclassicism – painting and architecture served political agenda – propaganda – Napoleon
saw himself as the new “Caesar” of a new empire, with Paris as the new Rome. Architectural programs promote
that grandiose self-image – glorification of Napoleon in paintings.
18th Century Neoclassicism Artworks:
David – Oath of the Horatii; Death of Marat
Kaufmann – Cornelia Pointing to her Children as her Treasures
West – Death of General Wolfe
Houdon – George Washington
Soufflot – Pantheon
Jefferson – Monticello
Boyle & Kent – Chiswick House
19th Century Neoclassicism Artworks:
Painting
David
Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernard
Coronation of Napoleon
Ingres
Grande Odalisque
Apotheosis of Homer
Girodet-Trioson Burial of Atala
Sculpture
Canova
Pauline Borghese as Venus
Architecture Vignon
La Madeleine (Paris)
1800
1805
1814
1827
1808
1808
1807-1842
NEOCLASSICISM
Intellectual
Idealistic (collective good)
Somber
Objective
Didactic - ideological
Antiquity (Greece and Rome)
- Events from past used metaphorically
Archaeological discoveries
Pompeii & Herculaneum
Academic, political, and theoretical writing
- Winckelmann
Political and imperial ambitions
- French Revolution
- Napoleon
Manifesto-like
Detached presentation of subject matter
Pontifical and propaganda
Stage-like organization of figures
Paint surface polished
Physical accuracy
Form is linear – clarity of contour
Relief-like shallow space
Harsh clear handling of light and shadow
Sculpture-esque sharpness of modeling
Severe simplicity
Rigid (vertical/horizontal)
orderly
VS.
ROMANTICISM
General Characteristics
Emotional
Individualistic
Impassioned
Subjective
Poetic – drawn to irrationality
Subject Matter
Contemporary life
- Historical events
- Interest in exotic cultures
Liberation of Greece
Modern catastrophes – revolutions
Romantic poets
- Byron
Cause celebre
- Revolution of 1830
- Revolution of 1848
Individual response
Involved in subject matter
Hysterical and histrionic
Staged disorder, apparent randomness
Stylistic Characteristics
Loose gestural paint, “unfinished” quality
Approximate representation of detail
Form expressed in value/color
Deeper space/diagonals
Soft light, high contrast, atmospheric
Diffused soft edges to forms
Visual complexity
Dynamic (diagonals)
Apparent disorder
The Role of “Nature” in 18th Century Art & Architecture:
Relationship between nature (landscape gardening) and architecture in England & France:
French Gardens:
English Garden:
- Formal French garden (as at Versailles)
- Informal “romantic” sensibility
- Duplicated and responded to architecture
- Intimate, picturesque, sentimental
- The ordering and controlling of nature, just as
- Contrived to look natural – buildings set in
architecture orders space
nature to be vignettes
- Symmetry, order, geometry
- Asymmetry, apparent randomness