APAH Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism

Neoclassicism

1760 - 1860

Reaction AGAINST Rococo

• Rococo is immoral and frivolous - ew TO French high society, needs to be reformed

Industrial Revolution (American and French Revolutions occurring)

• appeal to Greek and Roman ideals (democracy) - classicism

Classicism also occurs because Pompeii is discovered

Artwork should have a moral

• focus on liberty and sacrifice (liberty for one’s country - France - sacrifice oneself for the good of the country, country comes first), and noble deeds of the past

Enlightenment - knowledge (build cool buildings, people will learn about them and have more knowledge) → more civic/gov’t participation

“Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrey” Joseph Wright of Derby; Neoclassical; 1765; oil on canvas

During the British Industrial Revolution

• a lot of advancement of science

Enlightenment - thru scientific method

• this enlightenment is similar to those from religious experiences, seen by artworks such as Calling of St. Matthew, but the focus instead is on science

TENEBRISM - Influence by Caravaggio (who made Italian Baroque - Calling of St. Matthew)

• In Calling of St. Matthew, the light comes from Jesus choosing Levi/St. Matthew

• Here, the light comes from the solar system model. This emphasizes the intesity of scientific discovery and how science can lead to enlightenment

Painted scientists like Biblical heroes and Greek gods (classicism, further makes science look great)

• also a red that was often used in Renaissance art, a time where people would also practice classicism

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• an EXTENSION of empirical science (empirical science = observing the natural world - people would paint what they saw as they saw)

• in scientific method, a testable hypothesis would be formed, followed by tests and results, which would lead to theories

• Based on writings of Keplar and Galileo

“Oath of the Horatii” Jacques Louis David; Neoclassical; 1785; oil on canvas

Narrative -

• Roman legend recounted by historian Livy

• City states of Rome vs Alba

• Brothers = Rome, wives (related to the Curatii brothers from Alba who fought the Roman brothers) originally from Alba

• “Conquer or Die” - Sacrifice for the good of your country

Passion - rigid stance of the males and the stark lighting

Call to Action - people of France should sacrifice for your country

French identity seen in the color of the clothing (red, white, and blue) that match the color of the French flag

Difference btwn males and females

• males = rectilinear, emotionless, warriors, athletic

• females = curvilinear, emotional

CONTEXT - JLD was an ardent (passionate) French revolutionist

Classicism

• Doric columns, barrel arches

• Setting - Roman atrium

• Idealized naturalism, athletic male soldiers

Neo

• oil on canvas painting

“Self Portrait” Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun; 1790; oil on canvas

Choice of content - the artist - elevate status of the artist

• like Velasquez’s Las Meninas

• artist - a woman

Reaction by the public - bad, called her vain because she is a woman

Lots of self portraits - Rembrandt

• theatrical outfit, lively expression

Soft light, Ghost of Marie A. - more Rococo

Colors of French Flag (Red, blue, and white) - French identity

Trying to reenter French society

Painted for Ducal Gallery of Uffizi - Duke is Marie Antoinette’s brother → Marie Antoinette is hated → Elisabeth is also exiled due to her relations → trying to reenter French society by attempting to elevate her status. She does this by showing that she is a talented and good artist and that her aristocratic connections are in the past.

Official portraitist to Marie Antoinette - hated and executed

Then exiled into Rome for a decade due to her connections with Marie A.

Competed with male colleagues

• people believed she was talented but vain (narcissistic)

Rise of the “Paris Salon”

Begin a 2x a year art exhibit in the 1600s

Becomes a royally sanctioned art patronage where artists would create art to be accepted by the Paris Salons.

• If accepted, artists could receive commissions from rich patrons

Becomes the Standard of excellence for artists

• Salons set the rules for what is considered “good art”

Opens to foreign artists after French Revolution 1780s

“La Grande Odalisque” (Harem Concubine); Neoclassical; Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1814; oil on canvas

Studied under JLD (worked tg on Madame Recamier Portrait)

Commissioned by Napoleon’s sister, Queen of Naples

Inspired by Giorgione and Titian’s Venuses

ARTIFICIAL ideal female - proportion is off (the legs, like Mannerism)

Eroticism through exoticism - material references the Orient, where people would travel and participate in sexual tourism. These materials, such as the hookah, peacock, and the textiles/jewelry were foreign, thus identifying the female as also foreign. This allows the woman to be a Harem Slave, sexual, and disloyal because she is NOT European

Jean:

• French Neoclassical painter

• Obsessive quest for IDEAL beauty

• Influenced by artifacts uncovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum

“Monticello” Thomas Jefferson; Virginia; 1800; Brick, glass, stone, wood

Context - Jefferson

• Governor of Virginia, author of Declaration of Independence, 3rd president

• AMATEUR architect

• Dissatisfied with British Baroque architecture that surrounded him because he wanted independence and his own American identity, not a British identity

BELIEFS:

Perfect architecture → people will see the architecture and be amazed, leading them to seek education → When the people are more educated, people will participate in the government more (civic participation)

Classical elements - its similar to the PANTHEON

• Doric columns

• Pediment

• Dome w/ Occulus

• Symmetry

• Appears as 1 story (but its actually 2 - through the windows)

Neo

• windows for air circulation in Virginia heat

• Brick, local material → to show pride in the country and not have to import from Britain

• Private home, actually 2 story, but wants to appear 1 story in order to reference the classical buildings like the Pantheon

WHY? (Neoclassical)

• Embodies democracy (by being similar to classical architecture, TJ references the birthplace of democracy) → He is the Governor of VA and wants to link America to those democratic ideals

• French ambassador → he saw a lot of Neoclassical architecture and was inspired by it

• Hated British Baroque → he wanted a new identity for America even tho British Baroque was very popular → doesn’t want that → chooses Neoclassical architecture

“George Washington” Jean-Antoine Houdon; 1790; Marble; Neoclassical

CONTEXT - HOUDON

• French Neoclassical sculptor

• Thomas J. saw him → He is Recommended to GW by TJ

• Big advocate of civic duty

• Educated by copying marble statues

• Idealized naturalism

Roman Column of Authority with 13 rods → 13 colonies

OG SCULPTURE =

• Nude

• Oratory Stance (Like Augustus of Prima Porta)

• Idealized Naturalism

• In a Toga

Instead of a toga, GW wanted a contemporary dress

Revolutionary army badge + contemporary badge → combines the private citizen and the public soldier → call to action and urge for civic participation because some people were used to a monarchy and someone else making political decisions, not them participating

Roman elements = marble, contrapposto stance

Function = Commemorate American Revolution War + Inspire civic participation (audience relates to clothing = Fra Filippo Lippi, Calling of St. Matthew)

Romanticism

1800-1850ish Europe

Criticized ENLIGHTENMENT & Industrialization

• led to homogenization, but Romanticism focused on individuality

PASSIONATE/ARDENT, lots of emotional expression (NOT Romantic)

More GROTESQUE than ideal

Reason → FEELING

Saw mans inhumanity to man (war and slavery) → questions the existence of God

Francisco Goya

Spanish Romantic painter

Court painter to Spanish crown in 1786

Most known for “Disasters of War” series of prints about the Peninsula War - Napoleon (France) vs. Spain/Portugal

Used to be allies, France gets greedy and invades Portugal, turned on each other, France inhumane

“Y No Hai Remedia” from Los Desastres de la Guerra (Disasters of War) by Goya; 1820

Originally commissioned to illustrate Spanish heroes → but Goya represents defeated heroes (The Spanish King does not approve because this shows Spanish as weak and defeated - but Goya wants to include these actual events to honor the sacrifice the heroes made in the inhuman war)

Drypoint etching - more raw and a rough, violent technique, similar to how violent war is

Gruesome emotional intensity (Prisoners being executed)

Tenebrism - emphasizing the Spanish prisoner

Alter Christus (The SPanish Prisoner) - other Chrits (The prisoners also made a sacrifice, a sacrifice for their country)

Hidden enemy - no face = taking away the executors/enemies humanity, depicts them as violent, monstrous, and barbaric

LOS DESASTRES DE LA GUERRA

• Protested French Occupation of Spain by Napoleon because they were inhumane

• Condemned all levels of society due to man’s inhumanity towards the man - this included the royals because the royals hid behind the soldiers that they sent to fight and die

• Series hidden until 1863 - Goya worked for the royals, the royals would not approve of this because this also called them out

“Liberty Leading the People” 1830; oil on canvas; Eugene Delacroix

French Rev. in 1790s, Overthrow Napoleon in 1815, retyr a monarchy with Charles X, but it doesn’t go well so they overthrow Charles X in 1830

Blackade of furniture in narrow Paris streets → intimate chaotic violence where people are stepping on each other and engaging in h2h combat

Depicts CURRENT events - seen from Delacroix’s window (Current events unlike Oath of Horatii - Horatii was a Roman legend)

• shows REAL PEOPLE rising

Man beaten in nightshirt then dragged into street to show everyone what happens if you oppose the monarchy; however, this only fuels people’s rage and leads them to join the Revolution

Rough brush strokes → shows emotional patriotism

• makes the feeling more intense, emphasizing the strong emotion of urgency to join the revolution

Repetitive color of French flag (red, white, and blue)

FORMAL ANALYSIS

Liberty’s stance is similar to Athena’s in Victory of Samothrace - dramatic movement and wet drapery (Hellenistic Greece)

• bringing back EMOTIONAL classicism

Woman looking back at the fighters → call to action

Wears hat signifying freed slaves, but on white people → signifies freedom from monarchy

Inspires statue of liberty (a gift from France → US)

“Slave Ship” Joseph Mallord William TUrner; 1840; oil on canvas; Romanticism

Full name = Slaves Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On

Inspired by “History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade” by Thomas Clarkson → the idea of throwing sick slaves for insurance money

Insurance: sick slave = no money, however, since slaves were deemed property, any dead slaves resulted in money

• While sick, sick slaves were thrown over, they were still alive and their hands were reaching for God (who should be saving them)

LOOSE brush strokes, often unblended

• emphasis on color contrast

• muted vs. vivid color - creates drama

Shows violence of nature and human nature

• the slaves should be saved by the Typhoon is going to kill everyone

Nature’s indifference - the typhoon will destroy both the ship and the slaves int he water

• where is God to save

Vivid sky contrasts muted water

Emphasis on the colors is greater than lines and contour because this was not made to be naturalistic, but about conveying emotion and feelings

Realism

Real = CURRENTLY happening, not the past

• neoc. was all about classical and past ideals

• now, realist want to see real, current things

Back to empirical science

• look at what they are painitng as they paint

Seen a lot in France Late 19th century

EVERYDAY life, not Gods/Royals/Heroes

• But NOT Genre because it didn’t depict a household setting

GOUSTAVE COURBET - Didn’t paint angels because they were not based in reality and he didn’t know what they looked like

“The Stone Breakers” Gustave Courbet; OIl on Canvas; Realism; 1849

Type of people = Poor, people in POVERTY

Rough brush strokes, muted colors (depressing mood), awkward composition (candid - looks like a realistic moment of time)

Cycle of poverty shown through the contrast between the young person and the old man, which demonstrates that no matter how hard you work, you will still grow up to be stuck in this cycle of poverty just like the old man

Isolated figures in black void demonstrates how they are trapped in poverty

NOT as emotional

Depressing mood - faces not shown, shadow on the face, and the oppressive black void → muted colors

Equality - rocks get same attention to detail as people

LARGE - 5’ X 8’ = GRAND size as if GRAND subject matter

→

Salons reacted by calling it ugly because of the unidealized figures, depiction of poor people, and the fact that Courbet painted with a palette knife, which they believed should have only been used to mix paint. Called him untalented and hated it, but he was experimenting

CONTEXT:

1848 Revolution: Laborers against bourgeois (rich ppl.)

Karl Marx wrote about Communist Manifesto, which described the plight of working-class individuals → inspires him to paint about this

Edouard Manet

French painter

Realist who later becomes Impressionist

Influenced by:

• Caravaggio→ dark background, everyday sinner

• Titian - reclining erotic nude

• Goya - rough strokes

“Olympia” Edouard Manet; 1863; Realism; oil on canvas

Realism seen by the unidealized female

• but has no chiaroscuro or warm tones

Olympia = name for prostitutes

NOT Venus, but a FRENCH prostitute

• pale = European = Salons think it’s bad

Flat lack of shading, cadaver paleness, flat expression, stiff/straight neck = unsettling

Paris Salon’s had a bad reaction because the prostitute was French European and there was a depiction of a slave

• black cat pendant = unloyal

"Inspired by “Modern Life” by Baudelair → modern life is bad and immoral

Orchid in hair = flower of prostitutes

Bouquet - gift from client for her services

Highlights Paris’ gross norm of continued slavery

Louis Daguerre

Partners with Niepce

FOUNDER of Photography 1838

• develops the science to cure the image

Originally a French Romantic painter

• but it’s too emotional, but he likes the experimentation aspect

Daguerrotype - based off of camera obscura

• camera obscura was used by Vermeer’s Woman Holding Balance

Photography allows for the creation of art that depicted the actual real

“Still Life in Studio” Daguerre; 1837; Daguerrotype

Photograph required 8 hours of exposure

• shutter had to open and let in light for 8 hours, had to be the SAME set up

• Did a still life because the objects had to be still for 8 hours

Captures moment in time (modern technology)

Through experimentation, later able to cut down exposure to 10-15 minutes

Niepce creates light sensitive surface that enables photography (original surface = asphalt), but Dag creates the chemistry that cures the image permanently

Inspired by Dutch Vanitas still lifes

Reaction - the art is fraudulent and demonic and less artistic because the artists did not make the art, the technology did

“Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art” Honore Daumier; 1862; lithograph

RAISING photography → hot air balloon → scientifically and artificially raising photography

Daumier - does NOT like photography

SATIRE art - about artificially raising the status of photography to high art

Nadar is the mad scientist, too caught up in capturing the perfect shot, shown by losing his hat

• like The Swing, frivolity, carelessness

Foreshadows modern surveillance of society/

“The Horse in Motion” Eadweard Muybridge; 1878; Albumen print

Concept commissioned by Leland Stanford to see if horses become “airborne” (all 4 hooves leave the ground)

String of 12 lines with twelve cameras, the horse runs through, every time it passes a camera, it trips the wire and the camera takes a picture → images seconds apart in succession

A way for technology to identify TRUTH

• some distrust with tech.

Paved the way for film

“The Steerage” 1907; Alfred Stieglitz

Jagged white diagonal of bridge

• separates the upper and lower classes

• the lower has more tattered clothing and they wree disorganized/chaotic, higher = nicer clothing and more organized

• Alfred does NOT like poor people → chaotic and uneducated

Wanted to elevate artistic status of photography

Abstraction over Pictorialism

• no single subject matter but rather the general idea

Elevate the status of Photography as a fine art by focusing on the composition and lighting

• shapes = jagged line to divide; circle on rope in the hat → reject pictorialism and more about abstraction → trying to make photography a high art

About immigrants coming to America - class distinction important to Stieglitz

• only supported immigration of RICH white people because he thinks only they are educated and could improve society

• the bottom are immigrants who are being rejected and having to emigrate

“Untitled #228” 1990; Cindy Sherman; Photography

Narrative - Judith beheading Holofernes (biblical narrative)

• General Holofernes invading Bethulia

• Judith seduces him and beheads him

• the narrative painted a lot during Renaissance

Renaissance ideals - gold, bue, and red colors (the clothing)

• The Renaissance liked the triumph over tyranny → likes this story

Kitsch (from Trade) - tacky, commercial → intentional, represents the artificiality of photography and artwork

Comment on HIGHLY ARTIFICIAL SOCIETY/TECHNOLOGY - this is a set up, artist herself in costume, exaggerated costuming (Halloween mask), photography, dollar store textiles

• when setting up her cosplay, she did not go to museums, she looked it up in BOOKS, not interacting with the actual culture, just reproductions

Red represents the contrast between lust and blood

Innovative: Brightly lit space, no contrast/Tenebrism to create Drama - looks artificial and unnatural

• violent things typically happen in the dark

The woman’s expression is neutral, representing the desensitization to violence seen in contemporary society

• so many action fillms and videogames that it desensitized herself

Her herself in there, but she does NOT consider it a self portrait because she is taking on a character, Judith, and she loses her identity

Intentional desexualization - enlarged fake feet, caked on make up

• society highly sexualizes women

Context - looked at photos of Renaissance artworks in books, NOT museums, commentary on consumer print culture where people only interact with reproductions

Intended reaction - Deeply unsettled and anxious

• unidealized, kitsch, neutral emotion

• like Olympia