CHP. 20- Romanticism: the 18Th and Early 19Th Centuries

Overview

Painting

• ideas set "long ago in faraway places"
• encompassed a variety of past styles
• considered first modern art movement

The Romantic Movement(from my we)

• Emphasized democratic attitudes
• Created for the people of the time
• Looked toward the future
• Used dynamic color; fluid, irregular curves; exotic subjects
• Showed disdain for lofty messages
• ideas set "long ago in far away places"
• encompassed a variety of past styles
• considered first modern art movement

Edmund Burke

• philosopher and social critic who wrote about the "sublime"
• he saw unfinished and preparatory works as superior to finished works because they allowed a viewer to include their own thoughts

Comparison of Neoclassicism and Romanticism

• Neoclassicism: Rational
• Romanticism: Emotional

Romanticism

• Romanticism emphasized democratic attitudes
• It was meant to be art and literature created for and by contemporaries
• Unlike Neoclassicisms, which looked to the past, romanticism was an art of the present – looking toward the future rather than the past
• Whereas Neoclassicism emphasized lofty, unpredictable, rational virtues, Romanticism maximized dynamic color, fluid, irregular curves, and exploited exotic subjects while showing disdain for lofty messages
• Key word for Neoclassicism – rational
• Key word for Romanticism – emotional
• Romanticism placed emphasis on sensitivity, passion, subjective, personal experience, and human feelings in general.
• Eugene Delacroix, a French romantic painter, combined an emotional approach with almost brutal realism-which was a quality unthinkable to the contemporary
• Neoclassicists, such as David and Ingres
• Ingres, in fact, considered Delacroix the devil incarnate while Delacroix labeled Ingres paintings as tinted drawings
• To further anger the Romantics, Ingres referred to Rubens, the hero of the Romantic artists as “That Flemish meat merchant”
• Although Neoclassicism and Romanticism were radically different in style- one rational and the other emotional-they had one vital tendency in common-namely the preference for what were considered important subjects and interesting stories or events
• Neoclassical and Romantic artists shared a conviction that only certain elevate, exotic or unusual subjects were fit themes for painting, and generally looked upon the world as divisible into the significant and the commonplace.
• Both schools considered everything that was ordinary or prosaic as unfit for artistic treatment, but that changes with the Realists.

Part 6: Unit Exam Essay Questions

• Compare the Romantic movement with Neoclassicism. How are they similar? What are the differences?
• (Rubenistes or Poussinistes?) Using your text, study these two paintings and the artists who created them:
  1.The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
  Peter Paul Rubens
  1617
  2.The Burial of Phocion
  Nicolas Poussin
  1648
  Choose the painting you like most. Analyze it in terms of subject, technique, and space. Be prepared to discuss how you made your choice..Must be written in essay form—not just an outline. Should be approximately 250–300 words.

• Compare the Romantic movement in art and literature with Neoclassicism. How are they similar? What are the differences?
• Discuss the new developments in the field of psychology and their relationship to nineteenth-century Romanticism.
• How does Goya create sympathy with or aversion to his painted figures? Use examples from this chapter.
• What qualities of Romanticism can you identify in Cole, Hicks, and Goya?
• Characterize what is meant by "sublime," and discuss the qualities of the sublime in Friedrich's Two Men Contemplating the Moon.
• Discuss how Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People combines allegory with politics.

Chapter Outline

ROMANTICISM: THE LATE 18th AND EARLY 19th CENTURIES

Music and poetry; architectural revival styles

Burke on the Sublime (1757)

Artists

• England: Blake; Constable; Turner
• France: Rude; Géricault; Delacroix
• Germany: Friedrich
• Spain: Goya

American Transcendentalism: Emerson; Thoreau

Painters in the United States: Cole; Bingham; Bierstadt; Catlin; Hicks

Key Terms

aquatint

binder, binding medium

gouache

ground

luminism

monolith

rosin

wash

watercolor

Rococo

Enlightenment

Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Art in Painting and salon

Sculpture by Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1755)

Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot (1713‐1784) History of Ancient Art by Johann Joachim Winckelmann the Grand Tour (1764)

Industrial Revolution

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769‐1821)

fêtegalante

Romanticism

Poussinistes

age of revolutions (American, French, and Greek)

Rubénistes

Crenellation

Madame de Pompadour

the great rivals: Ingres vs. Delacroix

Prix de Rome

the Salon

Neoclassicism

Delacroix’s trip to North Africa and journals

excavations at Herculaneum (begun in 1738) and Pompeii (begun in 1748)

Hudson River School

Summary and Study Guide

Art Works

know these works by sight, title, date, medium, scale, and location (original location also if moved) and be able to explain and analyze these in relation to any concept, term, element, or principle

The Rococo in France  Antoine Watteau, Return from Cythera, 1717‐1719, oil on canvas  François Boucher, Cupid a Captive, 1754. Oil on canvas, 5’ 6” x 2’ 10”. Jean‐Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, c.1768, oil on canvas  Clodion, Nymph and Satyr, c.1775, terracotta

The growing appreciation for a more natural style in France  Jean‐Baptiste‐SiméonChardin, Saying Grace, 1740. Oil on canvas  Élisabeth Louise Vigée‐Lebrun, Self‐Portrait, 1790, oil on canvas

Real images for the people from England  William Hogarth, Breakfast Scene, from Marriage à la Mode, c.1745, oil on canvas

English Portraits in the Grand Manner  Thomas Gainsborough, Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1787. Oil on canvas, 7’ 2 5/8” x 5’ 5/8”.

Enlightenment images of science  Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery (in which a lamp is put in place of the sun), c.1763¬1765, oil on canvas

American Colonials and their sense for a more natural style  Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe, 1771, oil on canvas  John Singleton Copley, Portrait of Paul Revere, c.1768‐1770, oil on canvas

Neoclassicism in the United States: The models of Greek democracy and the Roman Republic  Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1770‐1806  Horatio Greenough, George Washington, 1832‐1841, marble

Neoclassicism in France: The ideals of liberty and empire  Jean‐Antoine Houdon, George Washington, 1788‐1792, marble  Jacques‐Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas  Jacques‐Louis David, The Death of Marat, 1793, oil on canvas  Jacques‐Louis David, The Coronation of Napoleon, 1805‐1808, oil on canvas  Antonio Canova, Pauline Borghese as Venus, 1808, marble

Neoclassicism in other nations Richard Boyle and William Kent, Chiswick House, near London, England, b.1725

Romanticism in England  John Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England, 1815‐1818  Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781, oil on canvas  William Blake, Ancient of Days, frontispiece of Europe: A Prophecy, 1794, hand colored etching

Francisco Goya: The Spanish master  Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, from Los Caprichos, c.1798, etching and aquatint  Francisco Goya, The Family of Charles IV, 1800, oil on canvas  Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1808, 1814, oil on canvas  Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring His Children, 1819‐1823, detail of a detached fresco on canva

Romanticism and Neoclassicism in France during the first half of the 19th century  ThéodoreGéricault, Raft of the Medusa, 1818‐1819, oil on canvas  ThéodoreGéricault, Insane Woman (Envy), 1822‐1823, oil on canvas  Jean‐Auguste‐Dominique Ingres, Grand Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas  Jean‐Auguste‐Dominique Ingres, Apotheosis of Homer, 1827, oil on canvas  Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas

A grand sculpture for the Arc de Triomphe François Rude, Departure of the Volunteers of 1792–La Marseillaise, Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1833‐1836, limestone

English Romantic painters  John Constable, The Haywain, 1821, oil on canvas  Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On),

1840, oil on canvas

The American Landscape  Thomas Cole, Niagara Falls, 1830, oil on panel  George Caleb Bingham, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, c.1845, oil on canvas

This New Thing Called Photography  Louis‐Jacques‐Mandé Daguerre, Still Life in Studio, 1837. Daguerreotype. Nadar, Eugène Delacroix, ca. 1855.Modern print*  Timothy O’Sullivan, A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863. Modern print*

(*Nadar and O’Sullivan took their pictures and produced the negatives in the year listed, the print from this negative however was made more recently by some other dude.)

1.The Rococo Style

Rococo art was the art of a particular social class—the aristocracy—and it was an art devoted solely to pleasure. Louis Vav had set the stage for this art when he centralized the rule of his country, bringing all the nobles to Versailles (Figure 19 67) from their country estates, thus transforming them from semi independent administrators to dependent courtiers. All were dependent on the will of the king and their fortunes depended on their ability to please. While the older courtiers played the pompous game of flattery at Versailles, the younger ones became increasingly restive with the seriousness and formality of the whole affair. Having no real function to perform for society, they devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure, and they developed it into a fine art.

Women came to play a central role in this pursuit, as well as in eighteenth century society and art patronage. The Rococo style itself is often considered to be feminine in contrast to the masculine style of Louis XIV. Typical of the period is the figurine of Madame de Pompadour (Figure 20 7) the mistress of Louis XV and a dominant figure in the court life of her time. Compare it to the portrait of Louis XIV (Figure 20 3). The figurine of Madame de Pompadour has none of the pompous formality of that of Louis. She is shown as Venus, the goddess of love. The scale is small, and the mood is delicately playful and charming, rather than reflecting the grandeur sought by Louis XIV. This young woman had been put in training since her infancy to become mistress of the king after a gypsy predicted she would have that fate. At a masked ball held at Versailles in 1745 the king, dressed as a yew tree, met her for the first time. Within a few months, she had become his official mistress, a position she held for twenty years. She wielded considerable power behind the throne and was a generous supporter of artists and writers. Even after he had turned to other women, she remained the king's best friend and closest confidante. She saw her role as the provider of constant distractions for the king and she did it superbly.

A portrait of Madame de Pompadour painted by Boucher shows her in a casual moment, looking up from a book she had been reading. The portrait was done in the pastel colors favored by Rococo artists. You might wish to compare the pastel portrait of the Cardinal de Polignac by Rosalba Carriers (Figure 20 29) with the Rubens' Baroque portrait of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (Figure 19 43) done one hundred years earlier to illustrate the change to more informal portraiture during the eighteenth century.

The shift from the formal to the informal noted in portraiture is echoed in the architectural change as can be seen from the comparison of grandiose buildings like Versailles Palace (Figure 19¬65) with more intimate buildings of the Rococo. Although the Rococo style began in France, during the course of the eighteenth century it spread to many of the courts of Europe. Perhaps the most outstanding examples of Rococo architecture were built in Germany, with the gem being the Amalienburg (Figure 20 9) built in the park of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. The scale is small and the emphasis was on intimacy and convenience. The exterior of the building utilizes the bombe curving facade that adds a delicate grace to the building. The delicacy and gaiety of the Rococo style makes itself felt most obviously in the interiors of the building. The dining room, with its reflecting mirrors and delicate curvilinear decoration (Figure 20 14), can be compared to the majestic and somewhat overwhelming Galerie des Glaces, or Hall of Mirrors from Versailles (Figure 19 68). The Rococo preferred asymmetry and delicate silver to the symmetry and heavy gilding used in so much Baroque decoration. The charming salon from the Hotel de Soubise in Paris shown in Figure 20 2 is typical of the rooms that members of eighteenth century French society loved to frequent. These rooms were the center of small but brilliant social gatherings where wit and grace were prized above all virtues. As the authors of the text say, WThe Rococo is essentially an interior style; it is a style of predominately small art."

As architecture became smaller in scale, the sculpture and painting intended to decorate it became smaller and more intimate as well. Classical themes continued to be popular, but they took on a different meaning. No longer was homage paid to the great deities, but rather to smaller ones. The seventeenth century group of Apollo and the Muses (Figure 19 73) made for a grotto in the gardens of Versailles, consisting of life sized figures, a stately, impressive grouping that symbolizes the arts and their inspiration. The typical Rococo statuette shown in Figure 20 6 shows a satyr and a nymph playing on a see saw, hardly an inspirational subject, but really quite delightful. Classical scenes of conflict like Pierro Puget's seventeenth century version of Milo of Crotona in Figure 19 72 gave way to gentle themes like Falconet's Venus of the Doves in Figure 20 7, which, as we have seen, was a portrait of one of Louis XV's mistresses, Madame de Pompadour.

Poussin's moralistic landscape paintings, like the one in Figure 19¬61, which shows the burial of the classical hero of Phocion, gave way to landscapes of pure pleasure, like the Return from Cythera shown in Figure 2G16. Elegant aristocrats are shown preparing to return from an outing on the fabled island of Cythera, the Greek island of love. Venus' statue is shown on the right wreathed in flowers, while fat cupids circle the elegantly decorated boat on the left. These paintings of aristocratic parties were known as "Fetes galantes." This work was painted by the greatest master of the fete galante, Antoine Watteau. Although he is the most famous painter of the eighteenth century aristocracy, he was himself from the lower classes. It was only with the greatest difficulty that his parents managed to give him the education he needed to become a painter. He got to know the guard at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris who he persuaded to let him in to see the paintings that Rubens had done for Maria de' Medici. He studied the Flemish master and many feel improved on his coloring. He even went further than had Rubens in loosening his brushwork and his glancing, shimmering lights are forerunners of the Impressionist brushstroke. L'Indifferent (Figure 20 15) demonstrates his exquisite handling of the brush, the glancing white lights that make the satin ripple and glow, and the marvelous sense of airy atmosphere he gets in the background.

Watteau's successors never quite matched his taste and subtlety. The most famous painter of the mid eighteenth century was Francois Boucher, the favorite of Madame de Pompadour. Boucher became her chief stage designer and master decorator. In his paintings the female figure triumphs, women, alluringly undressed, are everywhere, as you see in the image of Cupid a Captive (Figure 20 5). Pierre Schneider feels that the ladies Boucher represents cannot altogether disguise their real occupation, for a trace of vulgarity lurks beneath their elegance. The nymphs and divinities are opera girls (a bit like the show girls of our time) in disguise. One of his contemporaries observed that "Boucher had not seen the graces in the right sort of places."

Boucher served as teacher to the last of the great Rococo painters, Jean Honore Fragonard, whose painting The Sunng is shown in Figure 20 4. His brilliant but impatient pupil won the prix de Rome on his first try in 1752. Boucher had some apprehension about how Fragonard would react to Rome and warned him, "If you take Michelangelo and Raphael seriously, you are a lost fellow." While in Rome he became more interested in the work of Baroque painters like PietrodaCortona, whose painterly approach was more like his own. On his return from Rome, he joined the Academy and tried doing noble pictures, but they were dismal failures. Instead he decided to do the more saleable frivolous subjects. This painting is certainly frivolous, for it shows a young man enjoying a special view of the young woman on the swing. The following story explains the somewhat singular composition. A rich personage had called in the painter called Doyen, and pointing to a young woman with whom he was clearly on terms of intimacy, he explained to the artist that he would like him to depict her soaring high on a swing pushed by a bishop while he himself would be reclining in the grass, savoring the spicy spectacle of her flying skirt. Doyen was taken aback, not so much by the nature of the request as by the fact that it should be addressed to him, a painter of religious scenes. He referred the man to Fragonard, with the result that you see. Fragonard's style was well adapted to such scenes—his lightness and mobility tell the story with a frivolity and superficiality that seems to sum up his age.