The Eighteenth Century: From Rococo to Revolution

Chapter 16: Rococo to RevolutionOUTLINE

The Counter-Reformation Spirit The Visual Arts in the Baroque Period Painting in Rome: Caravaggio and the Carracci Roman Baroque Sculpture and Architecture:

Bernini and Borromini Baroque Art in France and Spain Baroque Art in Northern Europe Baroque Music The Birth of Opera Baroque Instrumental and Vocal Music:

Johann Sebastian Bach Philosophy and Science in the Baroque Period Galileo Descartes Hobbes and Locke Literature in the Seventeenth Century French Baroque Comedy and Tragedy The Novel in Spain: Cervantes The English Metaphysical Poets Milton's Heroic Vision

Outline Chapter 16

Timeline Chapter 16: Rococo to Revolution1534 Loyola establishes the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) 1601 Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew 1620 Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith and Holofernes 1629 Bernini appointed official architect of St. Peter's, Rome 1632 Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World

Systems 1639 Poussin, Et in Arcadia, Ego 1642 Rembrandt, Night Watch 1645 Bernini, Saint Teresa in Ecstasy 1656 Velázquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) 1665 Vermeer, The Girl With Pearl Earring 1682 Louis XIV moves court to Versailles 1690Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding;

Second Treatise on Government 1720 Vivaldi, The Four Seasons 1721 J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concertos

Timeline Chapter 16

The eighteenth century marked the passage in European life from the old aristocratic order to the beginnings of modern society. When the age began Louis XIV was still firmly entrenched; before the century ended Louis XVI and his wife had been executed by the National Convention of the French Revolution-itself inspired, in theory at least, by the American Revolution of a few years earlier.

Elsewhere in Europe enlightened despots like Frederick the Great of Prussia responded to the growing restlessness of their subjects by reorganizing government and improving living conditions. Frederick's court even became one of the leading cultural and intellectual centers of the time; C. P. E. Bach directed the music there and Voltaire spent two years as Frederick's guest.

The Eighteenth Century: From Rococo to Revolution

The contrast between revolutionaries and conservatives lasted right to the eve of the French Revolution. Jaques Louis David’s, Oath of the Horati, (1784-17850, a clarion calll to action and resolve, was painted in the same year as Thomas Gainsborough’s idealized picture of a Haymaker and Sleeping Girl. The former, in keeping with the spirit of the times, prefigures the mood of revolution. The latter turns its back on reality, evoking a nostalgic vision of love among the haystacks.

18th c. Aesthetics: The contrast between revolutionaries and conservatives

David, Jacques-LouisThe Oath of the Horatii1784

Thomas GainsborughHaymaker and Sleeping Girl1784

Rococo ArtRococo Art In the visual arts the principal style to emerge from the baroque splendors of the previous century was the rococo. Lighter and less grandiose, it was wonderfully suited to the civilized amenities of aristocratic life. The chief rococo painters were French and Italian-appropriately enough, since rulers both in France and in the kingdoms of Italy made few concessions to the growing demands for reform. In architecture the builders of Parisian private houses such as the Hotel de Soubise indulged their taste for fanciful decoration, while the rococo churches of southern Germany and Austria represent some of the happiest of all eighteenth-century Achievements.

Jean Antoine Watteau

Les Charmes de la Vie(The Music Party)c. 1718

The ToiletteND

Pilgrimage to Cythera1717Oil on canvas

Francois Boucher

François Boucher1703-1770Morning Coffee1739

The Toilet of Venus, 1751

Jean Honore Fragonard

Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid1753Oil on canvas

The Swing1767Oil on canvas

Thomas Gainsborough

Conversation in a Parkc. 1740Oil on canvas Mrs Grace Dalrymple Elliot

c. 1778Oil on canvas

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Education of the Virgin1732

Oil on canvas

The Institution of the Rosary1737-39Fresco

The other important artistic style of the period was the neoclassical. Inspired by the increasing quantities of ancient art being excavated at Pompeii and elsewhere, artists began to turn to the style and subjects of classical antiquity, which provided a refreshing contrast to the theatricality of baroque and the artificiality of rococo. Furthermore, in the history of the Roman Republic (at least as they perceived it) revolutionary artists of the later eighteenth century found a vehicle for expressing their battle for freedom. In many cases painters incorporated into their works discoveries from the various excavations in progress: the French Jacques Louis David in his paintings for the Revolution as well as the English Joshua Reynolds in his portraits of society women.

Ancient sculpture provided a stimulus to some of the leading artists of the day, most notably the Italian Antonio Canova and the French Jean Antoine Houdon. Both of them worked principally during and after the revolutions; Houdon even produced a neoclassical statue of George Washington. Washington and the other leaders of the American Revolution turned naturally to classical architecture for their public buildings. Among the finest examples is Thomas Jefferson's State Capitol at Richmond.

The Neoclassical Style

David, Jacques-Louis

Death of Marat1793

Napoleon in His Study1812, Oil on canvas

Joshua Reynolds

George Clive and his Family with an Indian Maid1765Oil on canvas

Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons1773Oil on canvas,

William Hogarth

Soliciting Votes1754Oil on canvas,

The Orgyc. 1735

Oil on canvas

Thomas Jefferson, architecture

Virginia State CapitolThomas Jefferson1785-92

“…a conscious rejection of the rococo and all it stood for in favor of the austere world…of ancient Rome”

Haydn and Mozart In music the emotional style of baroque composers began to give way to a new way of organizing musical forms. By the middle of the eighteenth century the classical style was beginning to evolve, and the two greatest composers of the age, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (both Austrian), used it to write their symphonies, concertos, and sonatas. Most of these works employed sonata form, a system of musical composition involving contrasts rather than the unity of baroque music. Haydn's hundred or so symphonies show an almost infinitely endless exploration of the possibilities offered by sonata form while also reflecting the evolution of the modern symphony orchestra. His own personal career furthermore illustrates the changing status of the artist: After years of serving in the household of an aristocratic family, he became transformed by his compositions into one of the most famous men in Europe.

Mozart's relations with his noble employers were far less happy. His music, however, transcends the difficulties of his life and achieves the supreme blend of eighteenth-century art's two chief concerns: beauty and learning. Like Haydn, he explored the possibilities of sonata form and also wrote a number of operas that remain among the best-loved of all musical works for the stage. The Marriage of Figaro illustrates Mozart's genius for expressing universal human emotions in music, while in its story it reflects the revolutionary mood of the times.

Music in the eighteenth century:

History and Satire Like music, the literature of the eighteenth century was generally serious. Many writers avoided the lightness of the rococo, preferring to produce works based on classical models or themes. They included the Italian dramatist Metastasio and the English historian Edward Gibbon. An exception is provided by the satirical writings of Alexander Pope, which poke fun at the pretensions of eighteenth-century society, although many of Pope's other works are neoclassical in style. Other writers used satire, in itself a characteristically rococo medium, as a more bitter weapon against human folly. Jonathan Swift's writings present an indictment of his fellow humans that offers little hope for their improvement.

Eighteenth-Century Literature

The French Encyclopedists offered a more optimistic point of view. Denis Diderot and most of his colleagues believed in the essential goodness of human nature and the possibility of progress, and their EncyclopÈdie was intended to exalt the power of reason. Not all the contributors agreed, however. Jean Jacques Rousseau claimed that society was an evil that corrupted essential human goodness and called for a new social order. Yet all the leading intellectuals of the day, including the greatest of them all, Voltaire, were united in urging the need for radical social change. In novels, pamphlets, plays, and countless other publications Voltaire attacked traditional religion and urged the importance of freedom of thought.

The Encyclopedists

By the end of the century the battle for freedom had plunged France into chaos and demonstrated to the whole of Europe that the old social order had come to an end. The following century was to see the struggle to forge a new society.

Battles for Freedom

French Revolution: 1789 - 1799

American Revolution: 1775 - 1783