Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Visual Literacy

Late 18th-century transition: Artists shifted from patron-commissioned work governed by formal contracts (common from the Renaissance through the early 18th century) to creating art rooted in personal feelings and self-expression.
Exam identification structure: Image slides contain the artist, title, and date. Black background text slides indicate the art historical period that applies to all subsequent artwork slides.

Visual literacy is the ability to read and interpret visual images, a skill highly emphasized in non-Western regions such as India, but less practiced in text-privileged Western societies.
Neoclassicism draws upon ancient Roman and Greek forms, updating classical stories to reflect contemporary events.
Jacques Louis de Bee, The Oath of the Herrati (1784):
- Depicts an ancient Roman narrative of conflict between the Horatii family and the Kirati family.
- Features Roman columns, arches, garments, and a shallow, stage-like composition resembling a modern theater production.
- Reflects early social tensions ahead of the French Revolution in 1789, using family warfare as a parallel for internal civil conflict.

Romanticism stands as the polar opposite to Neoclassicism, prioritizing imagination, fantasy, sensuality, and darker human impulses over logic and restraint.
Jean Auguste, Auguste Domini Ing, The Grand Odalesque (1814):
- Influenced by French colonial activity in North Africa under Napoleon.
- Represents a Western straight male fantasy of a harem concubine, surrounding her with hashish, pipes, peacock feathers, and decadent fabrics.
- Real harems (also known as zananas) functioned as private safe spaces exclusively for women, female relatives, concubines, and children to gather away from men in a patriarchal society.
- Delaproix was one of the few artists who actually visited a harem in person.
- Edward Said's late-1970s text Orientalism critiques Western misrepresentations and definitions of the East that deprive Eastern cultures of self-agency.

Anatomical stylization in The Grand Odalesque includes an elongated spine with extra vertebrae, long limbs, and a small head, drawing on 16th-century Mannerists who treated paintings as artificial constructs rather than realistic windows to the world.
The Sublime:
- Formulated by Edmund Burke in his 1757 book A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.
- Describes an intense, exhilarating emotional state beyond normal experience, primarily driven by the dual feelings of fear and awe.

Exam Content Requirements:
- Prompt: Clarification on whether slide details will be hidden or provided during exams.
- Response: Exam slides feature pictures displaying the artist, title, and date. Students must identify these alongside the period designated by the preceding black text slide.
Context of the French Revolution:
- Prompt: Confirmation of the date of the French Revolution.
- Response: The French Revolution occurred in 1789, resulting in the downfall of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, though political tensions were already mounting by 1784.