THE AGE OF REASON1700-1789

Four Trends of the Age• A growing concentration of political power in

the “great” states: France, Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, Netherlands, & Russia

• Return of the aristocracy to prominence• Rise of the middle-class in politics and culture

who supported social equality & justice, and a revamping of society as a whole

• The intellectual & cultural movement to be labeled The Enlightenment

The Great Powers• Saw a growing urbanization• A fairly rigid class system prevailed:

aristocracy, upper middle class, broad middle class, lesser artisans, and metropolitan poor.

• In Great Britain and France, the monarchy would diminish, while in Prussia, Austria, and Russia it would gain eminence

The Enlightenment• The “thinkers” embraced humanism=believed

that a human being becomes a better person through the study and practice of literature, music, philosophy, and the arts. Thus, a human could be “perfected”. This would agree with John Locke and his tabula rasa.

• Had the greatest effects in London, Edinburgh, Paris. To a lesser extent in St. Petersburg & Moscow with Catherine II (the Great)

Philosophes of the Enlightnment• Had full confidence in reason• Believed nature was orderly and fundamentally

good, and could be studied empirically• Because humans were perfectable, so was

society• Political, religious, and economic institutions

should be reformed in a social utilitarianism for happiness

• Advocated freedom of religious choice• Advocated an educational system free of

religious control• Supported Deism

Prominent PhilosophesVoltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778• Author of Candide in which he attached religious

and political optimism• Wrote plays, novels, essays, letters• Source of quoted "If God did not exist, it would be

necessary to invent Him.“ While sounding pessimistic, it was really a comment on church bureaucracies• Ridiculed Muhammed, but of Islamism he wrote of

it “a wise, severe, chaste, and humane religion.”• Counted Benjamin Franklin as a good friend

Denis Diderot 1713-1784• Chief editor of the Encyclopédie, intended as

a compendium of all knowledge in the arts, sciences, and crafts

• Attacked conventional morality• Was summoned to Russia to meet with

Catherine the Great, who had become his patron

Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu

• 1689-1759• Believed government should be set up so that no

man need be afraid of another. This would influence James Madison and other Founding Fathers.

• Opposed slavery• Believed women could head governments, but

not families• Saw 3 forms of government: monarchies [honor],

republics [virtue], and despotisms [fear]

Physiocrats• Were concerned with economics in the Enlightenment;

forerunners of Classical Economists• Examined mercantilism closely, believing it to be harmful• Recognized laws of supply and demand• Believed laissez-faire economics to be the best: keep

government control out of a self-regulating economy• Believed both society and the individual benefits when

people are allowed to serve their own self-interest• Prominent physiocrats were Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

and François Quesnay

ARTS IN THE AGE OF REASONRococo and Neoclassicism

• Rococo style arose in France under Louis XIV– Concentrated on frivolous subjects such as fêtes

galantes (aristocratic entertainments) and themes– Embodied by the Flemish painter/decorator Jean-

Antoine Watteau– Had an undercurrent of eroticism and sex (so the

Brits didn’t adopt it)

Departure From Cythera by Watteau

Marie Antoinette and her Children

ByElisabeth-Louise

Vigée-Lebrun

Nude on a Sofa by François Bourcher

The Swingby

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

The Countess’

LevéeOr

Morning PartyFrom

Marriage à la Mode

byWilliam Hogarth

rocaille“Fanciful stucco ornaments in the shapes of ribbons, leaves, stems, flowers, interlaces, arabesques, and elongated, curving lines applied to walls and ceilingsThe effect of rocaille was to make solid surfaces look more like fleeting illusions.”

Hall of Mirrors Amalienburg, Munich

Salon de Princessa

byGermain Boffrand

Kenwood House (London) designed by Robert Adam

Library of Kenwood House

designed by Robert Adam

PantheonParis

designed by

Jacques Germain Soufflot

Political PhilosophyProminent political philosophers were Baron de Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Montesquieu– Wrote The Spirit of the Laws– Concluded climate, geography, religion,

education, etc. account for world’s different types of laws and governments

– Promoted idea that Separation of Powers provided an adequate defense against despots

• Rousseau– Wrote The Social Contract– Humans are free and equal in nature– Humans can follow whims, so they possess no

moral purpose

– The state is founded upon an agreement among people, gives its citizens basic rights (life, liberty & property)

– Each citizen has right to vote, and votes on laws in accord with the General Will (what is best for community).

– Citizens who obey laws become moral beings.

Neoclassical Literary Figures

• Alexander Pope (1688-1744)– Essay on Man– “The proper study of mankind is man.”

• Edward Gibbons (1737-1794)– History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman

Empire in 6 volumes

Literary Figures of Realism

• Advent of the novel• Focused on individual persons rather universal

types, and on particular circumstances rather than literary custom

• Focused on character development over time• Authors adopted a narrative voice

• Samuel Richardson focused on love between the sexes– Pamela– Virtue Rewarded– Clarissa Harlowe

• Henry Fielding depicted a robust world of comedy and adventure– The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling– The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrew,

a parody of Richardson’s Pamela

MUSIC• In France, the style galant would be the

rococo response to baroque music, with light, charming, graceful, and simple melodies.

• Harpsichord would be a favored rococo instrument

• The pianoforte appeared• Principal French composers were– François Couperin– Jean-Philippe Rameau

• Classical style replaced rococo music. It emphasized form and structure

• The sonata form with its exposition, development, and recapitulation would be prominent

• Sonata form would be come a basis for symphonic works, concertos, sonatas

• If written in four movements, the third movement was either a minuet (French)or scherzo (means joke in Italian)

• Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)– 30 years as music director for a Hungarian noble

family– Composed 104, 4-movement symphonies– Composed more than 70 string quartets for

violins, viola, and cello• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)– Composed, concertos, symphonies, trios,

quartets, quintets, serenades– Most famous opera is The Marriage of Figaro

COMPOSERS