18th A HI Exam 2 (Final)

Benjamin West, Self-Portrait, 1760s

• 18th cent America/colonies - European influences on education

  • Artists trained like Europeans or went to Europe

• West thought English art was superior but used “American” to promote himself

• His clothing and simple background are very different from London’s stuff

• America = melting pot of influences

• self-governess, self-accomplishment, self-made, similar to what enlightenment is!

Painting in England in the Eighteenth Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Thomas Gainsborough, Robert and Mary Andrews, c.1748─9.

• Helped establish a school of landscape painting in Britain. Was a founding member of the Royal Academy.

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Gainsborough, the Blue Boy, 1770.

• Who? His nephew? The son of a wealthy hardware merchant? Homage to Anthony van Dyck in clothing.

• Reynolds suggested warm colors, Gainsborough contradicts him. Rivalry.

• Famous due to owner allowing people in house to see it.

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Gainsborough, Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, c.1785

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Gainsborough, Mrs. Siddons, 1783─5

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord Heathfield, 1787. “Grand Style”

• One of the founders and 1st president of the Royal Academy of Arts, knighted by King George III in 1769.

• The Academy was in London, founded 1768.

• Before this, there were some small, private academies sponsored by art and science organizations, manufacturing and commerce, in 1755. Hogarth was part of this group, thus his commercial interests.

• First exhibit of contemporary art dates 1769, with 136 artworks. Public lectures as well. 77 students, but by 1830, 1,500 students. Followed by Gainsborough and West.

• Each elected member had to donate a work for their diploma. ”Discourses” are a series of lectures. Taste and discernment.

• His portraits engage the audience –in knowledge, imagination, memory and emotion. Helped raise the status of artists in Britain.

• Here, Lord Heathfield was a national hero, defended Gibraltar against France and Spain in 1779. He holds the key of the rock. Rock has religious parallel.

• English officer, commandant of the fortress of Gibralter during the American Revolution, defended it against the Spanish. The key he holds is the fortress of Gibralter.

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Reynolds, Lady Elizabeth Delme and Children, c.1777─80. Idealized, majestic feminine grace, pyramidal composition.

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

West, Death of General Wolfe, 1770

• Earlier west painting

• Wolfe losing battle in red coats (england i think lol) surrounded by loyal followers

• American blue coat is still honoring him

• made him look kind of like a hero? not exactly anti-england

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

West, Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1770

• history genre = narrative

• West is creating myths on how America was founded

• William Penn trading with natives “PEACEFULLY”

• Believes that he was well traveled/exotic enough to both represent england and US i think

• Thought he could paint Natives right

• Promoted lots of myths, ideals, and humility

Painting in England in the Eighteenth-Century: Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Benjamin West

Jean-Antoine Houdon, Portrait of George Washington Standing, 1780s, Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Carrara marble.

• Born at Versailles in 1741, studied at the Academy, won the Prix de Rome

• Portrait sculpture specialist.

• He met Benjamin Franklin in Paris, who invited him to come to DC, in 1785, the year he began this work.

  • There was a need because there were new buildings like capitals

  • WHY FRENCH ARITIST? US didn’t really have good sculpture schools yet esp with marble

  • Why Houdon? Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin recommended Houdon. 18c America favored Neoclassicism and white marble.

    • Carrara marble is from Italy!

• Houdon took measurements and drawings from life = ACCURATE

• Right hand – cane, left arm rests on fasces, or bundle of wooden rods, an ancient Rome symbol of power through justice. Cape and rod on top, and plow behind him. Depicted in military attire rather than classical.

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Houdon, Bust of Benjamin Franklin, 1778

• Kind of how kings had portraits EVERYWHERE, now in America these people wanted SCULPTURES everywhere

• again accurate

• mouth looks like it’s about to speak “speaking likeness” to make the sculpture more lively

• looks to the side to “extend beyond”

• simple clothing but the buttons arent perfectly closed, gives it more timely moment?

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Houdon, Bust of Thomas Jefferson, 1789

• jefferson was an architect

• looking to the side

• contemporary clothing

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Houdon

FR sculpture

worked in rome until he met US patrons and worked at US

accurate sculptures

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche, 1790s. Canova was from Venice

• Grandfather was a stone mason.

• Went to Rome to study in 1780

• one of the first to transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism, and Michelangelo.

• Commissions from French and English patrons

• Commissioned In 1787 by John Campbell, British politician. After he died, the sculpture went to the Louvre Museum in 1824.

• artistic goal: Divine beauty. Images of beauty.

  • overall aesthetic for antiquity/neoclassical

• Classical subject in very complicated composition and in risky marble

  • showing off his technique

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Michelangelo, David, 1504-05

• european grand tour era

• unfinished carvings leading to it in hallway

• first colossal/LARGE marble sculpture I think?

  • made to be seen from far away

  • unproportionate because it was supposed be angled

• Not Carrara marble because stone was given by maria de medicini but he was sad because he likes Carrara

• prior to him, sculpture was lower in the hierarchy compared to painting

  • more manual

  • He made this an “elevated” art form

• Now sculptures in 18th cent are looking at works like him like classical antiquity but through the lens of renaissance

PRE - Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Accademia, Florence. (museum) 1500s

• artist would cast their sculptures

  • they would make a small clay sketch, then life size plaster, then figure out distance with like nails, then use those measurements to carve into the final

• could be used by art students

PRE - Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Canova, plaster replica of George Washington, 1820

• George wanted to be represented in American Military clothing but since he was in Italy he made it super ancient Rome

  • not approved by George lol

• Recommended by Thomas Jefferson.

• Commissioned by the North Carolina State House that burned in 1831.

  • that’s why this one is a plaster cast

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Canova, Theseus and the Centaur, 1790s.

• looked into beauty and aesthetics and HEROIC figures a lot and even tomb monuments

• Theseus fought centaurs who caused chaos at a friend’s wedding, after drinking too much and attempting to kidnap the bride.

  • classical antiquity stories are like this idk lol

  • so these artist are like finding new subject to depict from these stories

• Canova liked to do hard subject/composition to do

  • every angle is interesting to look at

    • different from michealengelo

  • he had the freedom to do this because he had different kinds of patrons

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Canova, Perseus and Medusa, 1804.

• In 1796, Napoleon invaded Italy and took the Apollo Belvedere to Paris.

• Pope Pius VII commissioned

• Canova’s version.

Neoclassical sculpture: in Europe and the United States

Industrial Revol

• Science and art <3

• New wave of ideas, efficiency, and access to goods

• Merchants, factories without restrictions, dirty neighborhoods, coal production, bad air quality

• Neoclassicism is popular

• Intellectualism and scientific discourse

• mechanical arts

• trains and canals

Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial Revolution in England

Joeseph Wright, Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight, 1765

• Wright was part of the lunes society (met every Monday)

• Birmingham

• He denounced the equalities during the industrial revolution

• During this era, it was a lot of artists

• they’re looking at a tourist souvineer

• Light-dark contrast gives mysterious and spiritual setting

  • science was becoming a “religion”

  • light = enlightenment idk

Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial Revolution in England

Wright, A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, 1766

• Demonstration/conversation piece of scientific thing - kinda a cool miracle device

• Everyone looks with awe

• candlelight for that mysterious, spiritual, enlightenment vibe, which was popular for the middle class

• adopts religious painting parallels to give that vibe

Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial Revolution in England

Wright, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1760

• Vacuum air pump

• depicted the first man that started to experiment with animals and air like oxygen

Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial Revolution in England

Wright, The Blacksmith’s shop, 1771

• his patron's were middle class

• this one show the coal/iron industry or sum like that

• darkness is his signatures

Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial Revolution in England

Wright, Firework Display at Castel Sant'Angelo, 1776

• fireworks were imported from china

• increasingly used

• element of awe for ppl

• lunar landscapes become popular bc the emotions attached to that

Joseph Wright of Derby and the Industrial Revolution in England

Romanticism

• based on straightforward idea unified aesthetic is NOT possible because the human experience is so diverse

  • there isnt just one aesthetic idea or path

• nostalgic interest in antiquity, middle ages, and renaissance

• interest in historical cultures outside the Greco-Roman past, to include Viking, Celtic and Nordic cultures

• an interest in regions outside Europe, to include Egypt and Turkey, deemed exotic by western standards

• an exploration of nature as vast, untamed, and powerful, as opposed to the classical aesthetic of a human-centered cultivated landscape.

• an exploration of human emotions outside a classical restraint to include fear, awe, horror, anger – or, the sublime, which was defined as a higher level of magnitude than found in ordinary circumstances

  Romanticism in England and Germany

Horace Walpole

• an aristocratic writer, art historian and politician in England.

• He revived the Gothic style. through his strawberry house building

• He wrote the first Gothic novel, “The Castle of Otranto” in 1764.

  • Set in a haunted castle, fusing middle ages and terror. became an aesthetic

  • He wrote this based on a nightmare he had in his home.

  • Blended romance, ancient, modern, fantasy, etc

• He sought an alternative to the Neoclassical style. Draws on Shakespeare

Romanticism in England and Germany

Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, West London, 1749

• First example of gothic revival style

• Built cottage without a plan. Which is unlike neoclassism

• takes on points of gothic style

• WHITE which is kinda strange

• 1768 William Sawrey Gilpin publishes Essay on Prints that defines the “picturesque” as an aesthetic experience

Romanticism in England and Germany

Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill House BEFORE RESTORATION, Twickenham, West London, 1749

Romanticism in England and Germany

Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill House’s GALLERY, Twickenham, West London, 1749

• Paper mache ceiling

Romanticism in England and Germany

Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill House’s LIBRARY, Twickenham, West London, 1749

Romanticism in England and Germany

Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill House’s LIBRARY, Twickenham, West London, 1749

Romanticism in England and Germany

John Nash, Royal Pavilion at Brighton, 1815

• British Raj style begin in 1787 for King George IV. Nash’s work is from 1815.

• Artist are bringing in more exotic and fantasy like buildings

• at Brighton beach

• Unlike neoclassism, the style kinda of mismatched to create something new

Romanticism in England and Germany

Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, Palace of Westminster, begun in 1840 to replace medieval parliament building destroyed in 1834 fire

• interesting how US gov building is neoclassism and theirs is gothic

Romanticism in England and Germany

Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1834, “Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons. English Romantic painter.

• unlike what we have not seen in art up until romanticism. very interesting that the gov building burning is the subject

• horrifying but maybe beautiful/strong = romanticism

Romanticism in England and Germany

Northcote, Henry Fuseli,

London, British portrait painter

• studied with Joshua Reynolds at the Royal Academy.

• Went to Italy in 1775, returned thee years later, when Henry Fuseli was there, establishing his career.

• Very different because the unique light and the fact that he not looking at us

• dramatic, mysterious

Romanticism in England and Germany

Fuseli, Self Portrait, V&A. Drawing. In his forties.

• Known for his wit and for defying convention. Hands are his artistic tools.

• kinda modern looking

• hes thinking and different subtle psoe

Romanticism in England and Germany

Fuseli, The Debutante, 1807

• did a lot of caricatures

• testing boundaries of portraying beautiful young woman

Romanticism in England and Germany

1781 Johann Heinrich Fuseli’s The Nightmare illustrates an early example of the exploration of the subconscious

• one of the first to explore subconscious which started a crazy trend

• Swiss Artist, Keeper of RA Schools. Friend of William Blake.

• Traveled to London in 1764, met Joshua Reynolds, studied in Rome 1770-78.

• This painting was exhibited in London, during the annual summer exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1782.

• Influenced by William Shakespeare. He was an intellectual, with radical ideas.

• His earliest patrons were the Coutts family, whose wealth came from Virginia tobacco plantations.

• Coutts paid for his to study in Rome. But Fuseli was also an abolitionist, and in the 1790s, his major patron was William Roscoe, a banker and abolitionist.

• This painting shows a woman deep in sleep. Incubus/demon sits on her chest. “Nightmare seduced by a demon.”

• Night demons, both male and female, date back to antiquity. Sleep paralysis. In Swedish folklore, it is a “mare” or goblin. 13c.

• Upon display, people were both horrified and fascinated. Anticipated Surrealism, Freud, Jung, ideas on the unconscious, sexuality was disturbing. Folklore, tales of witches and demons inspired Fuseli. Woman as sex object. Influenced Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.

• 1818, Edgar Allan Poe evoked this painting in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” from 1839.

Romanticism in England and Germany

Fuseli, Oedipus Cursing his Son Polynices, 1786.

• Fuseli began his career as a history painter.

• Michelangelo as influence. This is from Sophocles’ story where Polynices had expelled his blind father from Thebes and left him a beggar, then asks his father for support in overthrowing his brother.

• Naturally, Oedipus is enraged, and curses that each son will die at the hand of each other, which they do in battle. Daughter Ismene weeps, while Antigone has worked to keep her father alive.

Romanticism in England and Germany

Fuseli, Oath of the Rüttli, 1779

• Legendary oath of unity by Swiss Confederacy, from 1300

• about 3 men from 3 regions bonding together

• By city of Zurich.

Romanticism in England and Germany

Henry Fuseli, The Artist Moved to Despair by the Grandeur of Antiquity, 1778

• emotions he had in Rome, like the awe-inspiring, but now that era is gone

• conflicting feelings

Romanticism in England and Germany

William Blake, The Ancient of Days, 1794, from Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel

• 1761 Scottish writer James Macpherson translates a fictive lost manuscript, Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, that promotes the study of Norse mythology outside classical antiquity

William Blake, (1757-1827).

• English. Lived in London his entire life.

• He was against the established church but believed in a higher realm of spirituality that transcended nations and peoples.

• The ideas of the French and American Revolutions influenced him.

  • see it in this archetypal creator figure. Urizen. Prophetic books began in 1797.

  • Urizen is the head, the brains. He hated religious oppression and the evils of the Church, and the obedience of the Church that limited the spirit of life. In this way, he was against rationalism and empiricism.

• Theorizing the creator

• holding a creating tool

• He thought religion pressed people and total obedience to the church limited ppl

• But thought something transcended everything and a church could not explain that

Romanticism

• still questioning religious principles in romanticism

• No clothes = pure human form, but who wants to see god in that way?

• questioning what God looks like

• shift toward analysis of the historical past

Romanticism in England and Germany

William Blake, Little Girl Found, in Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1794

• Even though there was an industrial revolution, there was a kinda a want for handmade and craftmanship creations

  • ppl now using italic print, so it looks more like cursive

• 1789 William Blake publishes this book as an exploration of human passions

  • Invention of a new way of printing with hand-colored images

• 1794 poem about parents looking for their 7-year old daughter, lost in the desert. Lyca. They find a lion in the end. Do not fear the wild in nature.

• Blake was trying to find universal concepts like parent’s love

Romanticism in England and Germany

William Blake, Pity, c. 1795

• From William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Shakespeare describes pity:

  • "And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d 
Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye"

• Italy looked at Shakespeare a lot?? idk

• baby figure is the soul of someone

• woman on bottom died but her soul is being lifted by an angel

Romanticism in England and Germany

William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper, (poem: When my mother died I was very young), 1789

• Blake pointed out the corruption of society that allows

• Blames the church for giving poor people false hope in such a way that it bolsters such socio-economic inequalities and suffering

• blake wanted regulations for coal miners and factory workers

• thought there was corruption because ppl want money. ppl were greedy

• touches on religion “saving” you

Romanticism in England and Germany

Jacques Louis David

• Paris, 1748-1812, until the 70s

• was connected and involved with FR revolution

  • Revolution = 1789-1799

• wanted to express new ideas of new FR gov that was for all people

  • Lots of enlightenment

  • diversity & inclusivity

• neoclassicism with messages of his moralizing ideas

  • like chardin

• showed stories of ancient Rome that would be understood by modern audiences?

• thought skill and merit was important - did school at FR academy in rome

• his uncle was the architect for the king who paid for his education

• wanted to study boucher

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

FR Revolution

1789-1799

Reasons:

• Immediate cause: public treasury was bankrupt & recession

  • American Revolution, 7 years’ war, etc. bankrupted them

  • taxes on middle class increased

  • parliament resists ^

• Middle class - no one but the middle class paid taxes

• the poor - there were famines, and there was nothing being done

• enlightenment

  • started writing what would be better for the PEOPLE, not just monarchy

• The king & this group make an oath on a tennis court to make a constitution

• reorganized everything

• Bastille Day - Kind of like 4th of July - political prisoners were freed/revolted???

• constitution was not that good so they started the FR revol war?

• King got executed

• war ends in 1802, napoleon in 104

Jacques Louis David, Self Portrait, 1794

• intense stare

• this was painted when he was against the rules of the economy

• wanted to come off as a person FOR THE PEOPLE and as a painter

  • house jacket

  • painting supplies

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, Equestrian Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki, 1780

• Potocki was a translator? and uplift Poland & bring art there

  • Riding a horse, blue, gold showed wealth

  • But instead of looking down from his high horse, he took his hat off like a respectful person

• David’s early patrons were aristocrats who wanted to get rid of the monarchy

• David about to finish school, early work/before revol

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, Belisarius Receiving for Alms, 1781

• graduated David, is a member of the academy, before early revol

• classical antiquity but showed a story

  • Ancient general belisarius was favored by his leader

  • Jealous people lied about him, and that caused him to become blind

  • He’s begging

• Symbolises religious tolerance, loyalty, miltary

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1785

• More and more ppl were protesting, & even in the academy, people didn’t like the rules

• Antiquity, Most famous painting

• Everyone knew this story bc it was a play

  • 3 Roman brother soldiers of the Horatii family who took an oath with their father to stand united against another family even though their sisters are married to them

  • So woman are crying, and the baby in it = generational trauma

• Symbolized:

  • Showed that people were more popular united than individually

  • How long do we have to keep fighting like this

  • true patriotism isn’t easy

  • There was devalutation of females in this era, so it’s a little bit of feminism

• Triangle/3 composition/organization

• Roman arch in back

Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787

• David was applying for the director of the academy

• Socrates convicted of youth corruption

  • too many strange ideas

  • drank

• David improved grueuze’s emotional portrayals by being more authentic

• Socrates tried to improve the intellectual youth

  • criticized religious institutions and politics

  • humans are capable of rational though therefore superior to animals

• Idea of nationhood getting big

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, The Death of Marat, 1793

• david was elected deputy of jacobins and signed off death warrants?

• Marat was murded in payment of massacre by a woman

• Martyr of the cause so wounds are christ like

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, Portrait of Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier, 1788

• husband and wife chemist

• members of jacobin party

• wife studied with David to illustrate husband’s findings in chemistry

• she had a hat on but David made he more casual. also added chem equipment

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, Napoleon in his study at the Tuileries, 1812.

• Leader of French Republic, then French Empire. Born in Corsica.

• He supported the French Revolution. Military expedition to Egypt. Crowned emperor in 1804. Hereditary regime. 1815 exile.

• Napoleonic Wars.

• He insisted on imperial formalities, dinner dress, military attire.

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jean-Leon Gerome, Bonaparte before the Sphinx, 1886.

• Orientalism.

• Academic style famous in 1880s.

• Napoleon decided to seize Egypt to break British trade routes.

• 1798, expedition with 167 scientists, mathematicians, etc.

• They discovered the Rosetta Stone, 1809 writings on Egypt opened routes from Grand Tour. Failed in Egypt, ill and bankrupt.

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Antoine-Jean Gross, Napoleon visits Plague-Stricken in Jaffa, 1804.

• During Egyptian campaign, near Tel-Aviv, Palestine. 1799.

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Jacques Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801

• Great St. Bernard Pass. Napoleon in France 1799, determined to return to Italy, while Austrian forces were in Genoa, he hoped to surprise them.

• French victory in Italy, Napoleon as First Consul there, diplomacy with Charles IV of Spain.

• King commissioned this to show his relationship with Napoleon, to be hung in Royal Palace oof Madrid.

• Napoleon wanted a version as well. King abdicated in 1812, as Joseph Bonaparte took over, as King of Spain. After Napoleon fell, he came to the US and settled in Bordentown, NJ.

• Napoleon crossed in fine weather, on a mule with guides. Hannibal and Charlemagne also crossed the Alps for battle.

• Napoleon refused to sit for portraiture, so David worked from a bust, and draw the famous grey Marengo that was at Versailles, imported from Egypt

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005

• is an equestrian portrait of a youthful black male painted by the contemporary artist

• It is based on Jacques-Louis David’s 1801 equestrian portrait, Napoleon Crossing the Alps.

Jacques Louis David and the French Revolution

Sublime

an art term first used in the eighteenth century; connected with experiences of grandeur, vastness, or power that inspire awe, terror, or other strong emotions.

Classical

artworks from, or in a style deriving from, ancient Greece or Rome.

aesthetics

principles, which vary from culture to culture, concerned with the nature of beauty and taste in art and architecture.

neoclassism

a style of art and architecture that emerged during the eighteenth century in Europe and the Americas, inspired by Classical Greek and Roman examples, and characterized by order, symmetry, and restraint.

Romanticism

• Global volatility between 1780-1870 eroded Enlightenment ideals

• Wealth was created by colonization, slavery, and industrialism for a select few at the expense of the human spirit and morality

• Romanticism–a new cultural trend which emerged in response to world volatility and increasing industrialism–was widespread by the 1830s. It was characterized by imagination, emotional expression, intuition, and individualism.

• Europe increasingly banned the slave trade, but four million African Americans were enslaved in the U.S

• The philosophical concept of the sublime is the key to understanding Romanticism. It refers to experiences that affect the viewer deeply without being beautiful in the Classical sense

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781

• Gothic–a western European medieval style of the mid-twelfth to fifteenth century (Italy) or mid-sixteenth century (elsewhere), characterized in architecture by the use of pointed arches and ornate decoration

• The Gothic novel, invented in the late 18^th century, is associated with Romantic literature, e.g. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein

• Fuseli created four versions of the scene and engravings were widely distributed Leering ape-like creature”  sits on the woman’s torso, while she is clearly sexually aroused

• Horse with glowing eyes suggestively thrusts head through curtains, and the red drapery suggests “flowing blood”

• Fuseli’s interest in dreams as a place where repressed fantasies escape the rational mind pre-dates later Freudian theory

Romanticism

William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar, 1795–1805. Color print, ink and watercolor on paper

• Blake was an English painter, poet, and printmaker. He was deeply religious and thought modern science was destroying creativity. He apprenticed for 5 years as a commercial engraver

• The Book of Daniel is about an ancient ruler who went insane and was forced to live as a wild animal as punishment for excessive pride

  • Human/monster hybrid with reptile markings and talons. Crawls in shallow, stage-like space framed by tree trunks

• thought modern science was destroying human creativity

Romanticism

Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Plate 43 from Los Caprichos, 1799

• Goya also created social satire with themes of witchcraft, ghosts, and monsters that satirized a corrupt world

  • Owls, bats, and lynx are creatures of magic and danger in Spanish folklore

• Back then they thought nepolean would get rid of corruption by creating a new government

• Genre painting — an art historical category for paintings that show scenes of everyday life

• as he’s sleeping, witch craft eery animals give him nightmares

Romanticism

Francisco de Goya, The Third of May, 1808, 1814

• Important date so it’s the title

• When FR came into Spain. Spanish was fighting back. BRUTAL. so made ppl turn against the FR. Goya wanted to emphasize that

• Composition shows who’s who

• Drama is created by single light source (the lantern) and extreme light and shadow division in light

• Christian imagery: Spanish figure is a martyr for Spain; raised arms recall the crucifixion (and stigmata)

• Foreground body echoes the raised arm pose

• Gruesomeness is emphasized, and loose brushstrokes create a sense of immediacy

Romanticism

Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon Visiting the Pest House at Jaffa, 1804

• Artist are making stories: Made up scene of where Napoleon had to visit a makeshift hospital

• composition makes it clear who is who, who is sick, who is dead

• Napoleon thinks hes so strong so he’s not scared to touch the sick? Kind of giving Christ idk

• History painting was still considered the pinnacle in the hierarchy of genres

  • a genre of painting that takes significant historical, mythological, and literary events as its subject matter

• A new genre, the fête galante, was added to the hierarchy, which were paintings of aristocratic social gatherings

• Content also broadened to include the dramatization of recent events (e.g., Benjamin West, Death of General Wolfe, 1770)

Romanticism

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818–19

• •It’s part of the history painting genre but is a contemporary event of a shipwreck off the coast of Senegal, West Africa

• Géricault researched the event and interviewed survivors, 15 of the 150 who were sent out on the raft and cut loose by the captain

• French Romantic paintings: focus shifted from gods, saints, and leaders to less exalted people

• Political element–symbol of the incompetence of King Louis XVIII, who appointed an aristocratic yet unqualified captain

• HUGE controversary

Romanticism

Baroque

a style of art and decoration in western Europe c. 1600-1750, characterized by a sense of drama and splendor achieved through formal exuberance, material opulence, and spatial projection in order to shape the viewer’s experience

Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867–68

Romanticism

Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

• fighting against arivrosty again

• Delacroix considered himself a Classicist despite his association with Romanticism

• He was a friend of Géricault -- posed for a corpse in The Raft of the Medusa

• Depicts the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris

• Melds romantic fantasy with real events

• Allegorical “Lady Liberty” of FR leads the charge

• Different social classes are represented

• People are asking what does it mean to be french?

Romanticism

58.9 Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827

•Military campaigns and colonies increased access to foreign goods and art objects which Romantics found inspiration in

•The Orientalizing of others was appealing to Romantics, but is off putting today

•Imperialism was justified by Europeans through cultural misperception and invented ideas about race

•Rather than submit to a rebel army, Sardanapalus destroyed his harem, his wealth, and himself—this painting renders the ”orgy of death”

•The king himself is the only point of calm

Orientalist fantasy of male violence and eroticism

It’s inspired by Romantic poet Lord Byron’s play about the fictional Assyrian king, Sardanapalus, and his harem

The turbans and elephant heads signal an “oriental” setting

Romanticism

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814

Odalisque is the French term for a harem woman

She has an idealized, Renaissance inspired face, but a distorted body. Her nudity is justified by her foreignness (and thus, lack of European values)

has a bunch of exotic stuff around her. like the pipe, fabric, etc

only allergory/myth/ OR FOREIGN woman could be naked in paintings

showing the beauty of exotic cultures

•Monochrome – made from shades of a single color

•Renaissance – a period of Classically inspired cultural and artistic change in Europe from approximately the fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries

•Ingres upheld the Academic standards of precise drawing, Classical composition, and idealization

•He was understood at the time as the opposite of Delacroix

•He depicted exotic subjects in his work

The light comes from the front, minimizing shadows, making her form stand out

Monochrome underdrawing 

•Ingres placed a traditional narrative context–a nude, Classical cast–into a present-day setting, which was allegedly the Islamic world of his day

•Painting’s surface is smooth compared to Delacroix’s thick brushstrokes

Romanticism

Guerrillla Girls, 1980/1990

• commentary on how only women can get in met if they are a nude figure in art

Romanticism

• The surface of Ingres’s painting is smooth, linear compared to Delacroix’s thick brushstrokes

• Ingres was seen as principled and traditional, while Delacroix was labeled a Romantic rebel who challenged the Academy

Romanticism

Caspar David Friedrich, Moonrise Over the Sea, 1822

• In Germany, landscape paintings were popular during romanticism

• The idea that nature is powerful, vulnerable, authoritative, and beautiful (more than humans) humanity is rendered vulnerable by nature. nature is the subject

  • Friedrich was religious and had God & nature ideas like this. Friedrich wanted to express his belief that God could be felt in nature

  • In comparison, (neo)classism thought humans dominated the earth/nature, and was human-centered. Nature should be tamed and cultivated with farms and furniture for humans

• Rückenfigur – a person in the foreground of an image facing away from the viewer, inviting the spectator to experience the person’s perspective and emotional reaction; from the German for “back figure”

  • Used a rückenfigur to encourage viewer participation

• Three horizontal layers: the shore, the sea, and the sky

• it was argued that landscapes were lower in hierachy or like they were easy BUT Romantic painters raised the status of landscape painting, arguing that it offered important ideas and evoked powerful emotions

• “The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also omit to paint that which he sees before him.” --Caspar David Friedrich

Romanticism

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Slave Ship, 1840

• Turner was a prolific and successful English painter, interested in the elemental force of nature and the sensory overload it produced

• Brushwork grew increasingly exuberant over the course of his career

• Recognized now for semi-abstraction and expressiveness

• Painted during the anti-slavery movement in Britain, which was 60 years after the event in the painting

• Depicts an actual event of sick and dying slaves being thrown overboard so the slaver could collect insurance money

• The painting captures the sublime terror of a churning sea, while light and color overlay the horror and human misery of the scene

Romanticism

John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821

• nostalgia for idyllic rural life at a time of industrialization and ignored conventions in landscape painting

• Didn’t paint the sublime

• He sketched outdoors in oil before creating the full studio painting

• Rendered clouds accurately

• No people so questions what the landscape means? but argues that the nature or civilazation can still tell the story

Romanticism

Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, 1836.

• We see human cultivation in plants, lands, etc. TAMING nature and native Americans???

• Cole was part of the Hudson River School

• Cole painted himself in the lower center

• The wilderness represents liberty and the chance to build a new society

• Depicts a bend in the Connecticut River

• Americans celebrated wilderness (instead of ruins), which was central to the new national identity

• The scene asks viewers to reflect on westward expansion – the conflict between wilderness and man’s taming of nature – though Cole was ambivalent on the topic

Romanticism

Antoine-Louis Barye, Tiger Surprising an Antelope, model, c. 1831, cast after 1855

• Animalier – a sculptor specializing in small-scale representations of animals; applied mainly to a group of mid-nineteenth-century French artists

• Nature inspired self-discovery and reflected human moods

• The sublime, untamed quality of nature and animals were most popular

• Animals appealed to Romantics

• Barye specialized in small-scale representations of animals (animalier)

• He studied living and dead animals, resulting in anatomical accuracy in his art

• Sublime theme of violent, life-and-death struggle

• table top pieces and more accessible to patrons

• emergance of zoos

Romanticism

Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867–68

• WOMAN and poc wowza!

• Lewis was American and chose subjects such as enslavement, freedom and indigenous rights

• She was part Chippewa (Ojibwa) and African American

• She studied at Oberlin College and in Rome

• Nineteenth-century sculpture retained a Neoclassical style, but some sculptors turned to Romantic subject matter

Romanticism

Francisco Goya

• important for spanish revolution?

• started off making tapestry designs for royal

• worked during romanictism era

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Francisco Goya, self-portrait, 1775

• early self-portrait

• restricted color palette, loose brushstroke makes it have a fleeting quality

• shows that he had internal emotions?

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Anton Mengs, Portrait of Carlos III, 1761, Prado.

• mengs moved to spain

• Goya also worked for carlos the III after mengs. i think his first king?

• monumental architecture and fabrics

• shows that he is a ruler

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Count of Floridablanca, 1783.

• a scholar/academic

• blue sash of charles V

• Goya inserts himself into the painting, inspired by Velázquez’s Las Meninas.

• Shows self-promotion and knowledge of Spanish art history.

• Count Floridablanca is central: tall, in red, symbolizing power and Enlightenment ideals.

• Goya appears shorter, to the side, illuminated, holding a sketch for the Zaragoza cathedral.

• Objects like books, maps, and a Treatise on Painting highlight intellect and political art.

• Medallion of Charles III ties Goya and the Count to royal service.

• Portrait shows Goya’s early stiff style, but also his strategic positioning within art and politics.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Duke and Duchess of Osuna and their Children, 1787-88. Prado.

• people in Spain really thinking about how their aristocratic positioning is holding Spain behind in sort of the olden days, and they wanted to move into the modern world. So they Charles the third was doing that

• The family was progressive aristocracy, interested in modernizing Spain.

• Charles IV (son of Charles III) was seen as ineffective, pulling Spain backward.

• Comparison to Jacques-Louis David’s Lavoisier portrait — which subverted gender roles and hierarchy.

• Visual hierarchy: The Duke at the top, Duchess below, then children — reflects traditional values.

• The Duchess’s attire reflects contemporary French fashion, signaling admiration for French culture.

• Children depicted with toys and playfulness, influenced by Rousseau’s ideas of modern childhood.

• Goya blends formality with Enlightenment values, showing a shift toward a more modern worldview.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Highwaymen Attacking a Coach, 1787

• The Duke and Duchess of Osuna commissioned Goya to paint a series for their villa.

• ooks Rococo with soft colors and a pastoral setting—but the subject is dark and violent.

• It shows bandits robbing and killing a wealthy family during a stagecoach journey—reflecting rising tensions between social classes.

• Goya likely invented the subject, as it wasn’t common in art before.

• The bandits were seen by some as Robin Hood-like figures, symbolizing class conflict during the Enlightenment.

• Goya’s portrayal is realistic and disturbing, showing no heroes, just brutal truth.

• These works possibly criticized societal issues and expressed the Osunas’ belief that reform was needed, even from within the aristocracy.

• After Charles III's death in 1789, Goya was appointed court painter to Charles IV, though the political climate was becoming unstable.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Self Portrait in Studio, 1790-5.

• After Charles III's death in 1789, Goya was appointed court painter to Charles IV.

• Around 1790–95, Goya painted Self-Portrait in the Studio, showing himself in elegant Spanish attire.

• By this time, Goya was in his 40s, financially stable, and part of the rising middle class.

• At age 46, he became severely ill and was left completely deaf.

• His deafness deeply affected him emotionally and artistically, leading to a more introspective and visionary style.

• In the self-portrait, he appears confident and professional, painting a large canvas in a well-lit studio.

• The work marks a turning point in his style and personal expression.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Francisco Goya, Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat), 1820s

• Goya saw himself as an Enlightenment thinker, valuing reason and science over superstition and religion.

• Under King Ferdinand VII, Spain regressed—he declared himself an absolute monarch, reinstated the Inquisition, and revoked the liberal constitution.

• Goya became disillusioned, fearing society was moving backward rather than forward.

• He began exploring darker themes like witchcraft and fear, reflecting growing superstition during times of social and political unrest.

• In Witches' Sabbath, Goya shows disturbing imagery like witches sacrificing children, symbolizing the return to irrational fear and the breakdown of progress.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799.

• “Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with her, she is the mother of the arts and source of their wonders.”

  • Goya believed that imagination should never be completely renounced in favor of the strictly rational.

  • For Goya, art is the child of reason in combination with imagination.

• This is from a set of 80 prints in aquatint that look like watercolor and show the hypocrisy of politicians and social ills.

• Superstitious peasants, the ignorant wealthy class, tand he hypocrisy of the clergy.

• After the Caprichos was published, the Church called Goya in to submit to the Inquisition so he withdrew this set from publication.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Self-Portrait; Plate 1 from "Los Caprichos", 1790s

• snooty looking

• satire

• hogarth vibe

• these plates had to be recalled for blacklash

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Plate 2 from "Los Caprichos": They say yes and give their hand to the first, 1799

• commentary on getting married quick?

• ignorance

• these plates had to be recalled for blacklash

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, The Caprices, Plate 25 'If he broke the pot' 1790s

• commentary to not beat kids

• idea of generational trauma

• these plates had to be recalled for blacklash

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Plate 30 from "Los Caprichos": Why hide them? , 1790s

• rich ppl mocking poor on street

• these plates had to be recalled for blacklash

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, Third of May 1808. painted 1814.

• This was was complicated.

• Many people thought the French would bring enlightenment, and indeed Napoleon abolished the Inquisition.

• Spanish rebels started a campaign of guerrilla warfare that was brutally shut down by the French.

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, bury them and keep quiet, The Disasters of War series, 1810-1820s

• Unlike Los Caprichos, these are so much more grim

• No clear sense of who is good and bad

• worked on them in secret because fernendan

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c

Goya, the beds of death, The Disasters of War series, 1810-1820s

Francisco Goya and Spain at the end of 18c