M3W8NeoclassicalArtandArchitecture1.pptxPresentation Dr. Marc A. Cirigliano
Neoclassicism in Art & Architecture
Image from Wilipedia:
Blond Odalisque
(Marie-Louise O'Murphy, petite maîtresse to King Louis XV)
1752
A burning issue after mid-18th century in France is whether or not the system, the government, and the ruling aristocracy are corrupt.
People on the inside, some politicians and intellectuals, wondered if the corruption and injustice of the old regime, the Ancien Régime, could be reformed.
For example, this painting is masterful, but is it decadent?
Francois Boucher
By mid-18th century, a growing number of intellectuals and some statesmen realized that France was corrupt & morally bankrupt. In 1747, art critic La Font de Saint-Yenne, proposed a public exhibition of the royal collection. Under Louis XVI, the royal museum idea became policy.
Many of these intellectuals advocated a return to Republican virtues as an antidote to the abuse of authority & corruption. Between 1776 and 1787, Comte d’Angiviller commissioned a series of sculptures of the Illustrious Men of France—"Hommes illustres de France"—to decorate the Grand Gallerie du Louvre. David’s Oath of the Horatii is an example of the serious attempt to renew French history painting, exalting great men and events of French national.
Art & Politics in France from Mid-18th Century On
An attempted cultural reform will be influenced by three intellectual and cultural currents:
The Enlightenment
The Archaeological Discoveries at Herculaneum and Pompeii
European Neoclassicism
Art & Politics in France from Mid-18th Century On (cont.)
1650-1800 = The Enlightenment is a major transformational historical movement
Science, empiricism & rationalism replace religion, spirituality & superstition
Representative democracy replaces hereditary monarchy & aristocracy
Due process, human rights & equality replace privilege, elitism and social hierarchy
Evidence based explanations replace traditional authority & superstition
Progress (going forward) replaces conservatism (going backward)
1. The Enlightenment Background
For example, in France we have three glaring abuses of power that were injustices against the middle and lower classes, the non-aristocratic classes (click on link for the details):
Lettres de cachet – where you could get a sealed letter from the King to imprison someone without a trial or any public discussion
Capitainerie de chasse – whereby aristocrats had their exclusive hunting rights protected on all their land, so if anyone, even a peasant who worked that land for the aristocrat, hunted an animal or bird, they could be tried on the spot and even executed.
Disenfranchisment – in 18th century France, only men who were literate, owned property and paid taxes were eligible to vote. Plus, before the Revolution, the Monarchy, aristocracy and the Church dominated the national legislature.
These are three major examples of aristocratic supremacy with the accompanying political and social inequality in 18th century France that helped fuel the desire for reform and then revolution.
Thick layers of volcanic ash from the eruption of Vesuvius covered these two Ancient Roman towns in 79 CE.
These towns were abandoned. Soon names and locations forgotten.
The Herculaneum was rediscovered in 1738.
Pompeii was rediscovered in 1748.
And with these rediscoveries is an intense interest in the material culture of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, which helped create Neoclassicism.
2. Archaeological Discoveries - Rediscovery of Pompeii & Herculaneum
Stuart and Revett’s book Antiquities of Athens, 1755
Accurate measurements of the ancient masterpieces of Athens
Architecturally accurate drawings
Down to minute details
Outstanding!
Johann Joachim Winckelmann’s History of Art in Antiquity in 1764
Ground-breaking Hellenist, one of the founders of scientific archaeology
European-wide influence of ancient art and architecture on painting, sculpture, literature and even philosophy
He did mislead us all by deliberately suppressing the fact that Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture and architecture was painted in colors
Out of the Discoveries of Herculaneum and Pompeii Come a European-Wide and Newfound Cultural Enthusiasm for Antiquity (Ancient Greece and Rome)
Neoclassicism was a broad variety of European movements in the decorative arts, visual arts, architecture, literature, theatre, music, and fashion
So, the intellectual and cultural impetus for Neoclassicism comes from:
Archaeological discoveries
Cultural enthusiasm for these new discoveries
Enlightenment attempts at political reform
Neoclassicism embodies reason and responsibility in contrast to the corruption & immorality of the Ancien Régime. It embodies the eternal laws of nature.
3. Neoclassicism
Moving towards a trend counter to the Rococo with still-life and genre painting
Image from The Louvre:
Pipes and Drinking Vessels
(also known as The Smoker’s Case)
1737
Chardin was not nearly as well received during his lifetime as he is today, where people love his engaging still-lifes.
Jean-Siméon Chardin
Image from WikiArt:
The Governess
1739
The moral here is that a young aristocratic gentleman is corrected by his commoner governess. The idea here is that that, in a moral society, no one is above the rules.
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
Image from The Getty Museum:
still-life-with-fish-vegetables-gougeres-pots-and-cruets-on-a-table
Still Life with Fish, Vegetables, Gougères, Pots, and Cruets on a Table
1769
A masterful still-life painting. Note the asymmetrical balance and wonderful rendering of surface textures, along with the tonal unity.
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
The moralizing genre paintings of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a rejection of the flamboyance and frivolity of the Rococo.
Image from Wikipedia:
Broken Eggs
1756
The theme of broken eggs symbolizes, at least, a disorderly home fraught with strife.
But, perhaps more to the point when dealing with an adolescent girl, the loss of virginity out of wedlock or, perhaps, even an unwed pregnancy.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
The Village Bride
(slightly cropped)
1761
oil on canvas
36 x 46 1/2 inches
(91.4 x 118.1 cm)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Please read the following article on Jean-Baptiste Greuze:
Dana Martin, "Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Bride ," in Smarthistory, January 7, 2016, accessed May 8, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/jean-baptiste-greuze-the-village-bride/.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Neoclassicism
Image from Wikipedia: Belisarius_Begging_for_Alms
Belisarius Receiving Alms
1781
The French surname David is pronounced: Da-VEED, with the accent on the second syllable.
In 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome. He went to Rome to study Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters, along with Ancient Roman art and architecture.
This painting is an example of his early Neoclassicism.
Jacques-Louis David
Belisarius, a general under Byzantine emperor Justinian I who had won victories against the Vandals, Goths and Bulgarians
Later, accused of treason, became an outcast and a beggar
His eyes were put out
A woman on the street gives him a donation while one of his soldiers recognizes him
The theme is one of charity, mercy, and patriotism
Although shown in a Neoclassical style simpler than the opulent Rococo, we will see in the next picture, The Oath of the Horatii, a composition where David perfects his Neoclassicism.
Iconography of Belisarius Receiving Alms
Image from Wikipedia:
Oath of the Horatii
1784
approx. 10’ x 14’
The Neoclassical masterpiece
Jacques-Louis David
Roman legend about two warring cities: Rome and Alba Longa
Three brothers from Roman Horatii will fight three brothers from Alba Longa Curiatii family
Three brothers swear oath to sacrifice their lives for the good of Rome
Sisters weep for their losses = White married to Curiatii = Brown to Horatii
Taken from First Book of Livy
The painting is a metaphor: Self-sacrifice for the greater good opposes then contemporary French aristocratic social norm of total and uncontrollable self-gratification
Iconography of David’s Oath of the Horatii
Image from Hellenica World:
One early drawing suggests a Baroque style, but David changed his mind as he went forward.
Compare in the next two slides.
David rejects a Baroque approach.
The Neoclassical that he is inventing is more linear and angular. At least, for the male figures.
Look at the change that David made in his own mind as his imagination came up with a very different approach.
Images from JSTOR: jstor.org
Here are two other preliminary sketches that also show very different ideas for the painting.
Look at the next slide to compare these with the final painting.
Although the garb is classical, the colors and poses hearken to the Rococo.
This is a subtextual comment on artistic styles and, also, yes, a sexist depiction of women as weaker.
Image from Wikipedia:
Study_for_the_Oath_of_the_Horatii -_Camilla
Preparatory drawing
by David
A very sparse symmetrical setting with three identical arches based on the Doric order
of Ancient Roman architecture, from the rise of scientific archaeology.
A sharply contrasting chiaroscuro, an Italian term used in art history for “light & shade,”
establishes drama. Learned in Rome while studying Caravaggio’s work.
In the Baroque manner of Caravaggio and Rubens,
David pushes the main action, the sons pledging their lives to defend Rome, to the foreground.
He portrays the climactic moment of their oath.
David idealizes his figures, after studying Raphael and Poussin.
Often idealized figures represent the world as it should be, not as it is.
At the same time, the architectural structure is weathered and aged,
perhaps to reinforce Rome’s eternal presence through the ages.
David uses a clear line, basic colors, a stark setting and focused but simple gestures, again,
derived from Raphael and Poussin. These forms embody (and do not simply illustrate)
the somber, serious theme of pledging your life for your country.
A schematic showing how the architectural perspective of the composition
helps focus our attention on the climactic moment of the oath.
Looking at some of the actual and implied lines in David’s composition.
Looking at some of the circular shapes implied by the Roman arches.
Why do this?
Later, we will see how some modern abstract artists actually look at the visual ideas in “old” masterwork paintings as “creative sources” for their own work.
Moreover, Clive Bell says that the narrative here that any thematic content in any art is irrelevant.
What is important are the purely visual elements, and whether or not they are successful in creating “significant form.”
In the next two slides, we will explore Jacques-Louis David’s The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons from 1789.
Met curator Perrin Stein on subjectivity in Jacques-Louis David’s
Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons, 1787. khanacademy.org
Click the image to start the video.
Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789, oil on canvas, 10' 7-1/8" x 13' 10-1/8" or 3.23 x 4.22m (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Click the image to start the video.
French Neoclassical Architecture
Image from McGill University School of Architecture: mcgill.ca
The Pantheon
1758-1790
French Neoclassical architecture
Make sure to study the page in this week’s readings “Soufflot, The Panthéon (Church of Ste-Geneviève), Paris by Dr. Paul A. Ranogajec”
Jacques-Germain Soufflot
A rejection of Rococo and Neoclassical Architecture:
Queen Marie Antoinette’s Le Hameau at Versailles
Queen Marie Antoinette’s Le Hameau at Versailles
Contrary to the Rococo or Neoclassicism, we have a return to a simpler nature in a successful attempt to create a peasant village for Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles with Le Hameau (The Hamlet), 1783-83, by her personal architect Richard Mique.
There are three main causes for this return to a rustic, peasant-like nature, something that runs counter to the then prevailing Rococo refinement and the incipient Neoclassical quest for universal rules and order.
The irregular, asymmetrical and semi-wild English landscape garden that became known in France after 1750.
The Chinese landscape garden, disordered and seemingly “natural,” that became known in France after 1749.
The ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French philosophe, who contended that then current societal rules imprisoned and hindered human beings.
As William Fleming explains, the influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “… his rustic little opera Le Devin du Village (The Village Soothsayer) was performed for Louis XVI at Versailles with great success. His ideas were partly responsible for the country cottage ...”
See the next slide for a then contemporary description of a Chinese garden by a French Jesuit in China.
Published in France in 1749, from a letter by French Jesuit Father Attiret who was in the service of the Emperor of China. Attiret describes the Emperor’s landscape gardens with corresponding buildings at the Emperor's summer residence in Yuanming, close to Beijing (forgive the 18th century British spellings by Sir Harry Beaumont):
But in their Pleasure-houses, they rather chuse a beautiful Disorder, and a wandering as far a possible from all the Rules of Art. They go entirely on this Principle, "That what they are to represent there, is a natural and wild View of the Country; a rural Retirement, and not a Palace form'd according to all the Rules of Art" When you read this, you will be apt to imagine such Works very ridiculous; and that they must have a very bad Effect on the Eye: but was you to see them, you would admire the Art, with which all this Irregularity is conducted. All is in good taste; and so managed, that it's Beauties appear gradually, one [40] after another…
Image from Dreamstime:
The Queen’s House at Le Hameau (The Hamlet) at Versailles
1783-86
Contrary to the Rococo or Neoclassicism, we have a return to a simple nature in a successful attempt to create a peasant village for Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
Richard Mique
Image from Chateau du Versailles:
queen-hamlet history-of-the-premises
The Mill in
Le Hameau
Other painters outside the Rococo tradition
Self-Portrait
1782
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun was the court painter for Queen Marie Antoinette. Here is an example of her work in a self-portrait.
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
Image from Wikipedia:
Self- portrait_with_Her_Daughter
Self-Portrait with Her
Daughter, Julie
1789
oil on canvas
130 x 94 cm
(Musée du Louvre)
Rejection of Rococo flamboyance in favor of the down-to-earth simplicity of Ancient garments, then referred to as robe à la grecque.
With a simple background, as well, all this heightens the fundamental bond between mother and daughter.
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
Image from UMB, The Roman World: Rome
We can see the influence of Antique art on French artists after the discoveries of Herculaneum and Pompeii and the concurrent rise of scientific archaeology.
Here we see how the simple Roman Republican virtues of Portia & Cato, first century BCE, might influence Vigée Le Brun here. Clearly this double portrait is a rejection of the Rococo both formally and thematically.
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait with her Daughter," in Smarthistory, May 16, 2017, accessed May 8, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/vigee-le-brun-self-portrait-with-her-daughter/.
Click the image to start the video.
Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Madame Perregaux ," in Smarthistory, November 25, 2015, accessed May 8, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/elisabeth-louise-vigee-le-brun-madame-perregaux/
Click the image to start the video.
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
Madame Perregaux
1789
oil on oak panel
99.6 x 78.5 cm
Wallace Collection, London
English Genre Painting and the Rise of Science
A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery
(in which a lamp is put in place of the sun)
c. 1763-65
oil on canvas
4′ 10″ x 6′ 8″
Derby Museums and Art Gallery, Derby
Joseph Wright of Derby
English Enlightenment
On the Enlightenment and the rise of science, please read:
Dr. Abram Fox, "Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery ," in Smarthistory, January 8, 2016, accessed May 8, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/joseph-wright-of-derby-a-philosopher-giving-a-lecture-at-the-orrery/.
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures
c. 1785
oil on canvas
40 x 50″
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Angelica Kauffmann
English Neoclassicism
Read the following article: on the newfound moralism of the Neoclassical movement:
Dana Martin, "Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures ," in Smarthistory, January 7, 2016, accessed May 8, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/angelica-kauffmann-cornelia-pointing-to-her-children-as-her-treasures/.
In the next comparison, see two conflicting visions of national leadership, English King George III and George Washington, the first American President.
The Rococo refinement and flamboyance of King George III, who ruled by Divine Right, contrasts strongly with the austere (by comparison) Neoclassicism of George Washington, who ruled by right reason after being democratically elected.
Image from The American Revolution Institute:
george -iii-by- allan - ramsay
George III
1762
Allan Ramsay
Image from Wikipedia:
George Washington
1796
Gilbert Stuart
Neoclassical
Rococo
