Module 5

Art and the Enlightenment in Britain

- "Lord Heathfield": Although a net importer of art from the continent (especially Italian paintings), Britain was a "backwater" for homegrown artists until the second half of the 18th century. Britain's specialties became portraits and landscapes. In 1768, 120 years after France, the British Academy of Painting was founded, and Sir Joshua Reynolds became its first president. He was mostly a portrait painter, and his subject here, Lord Heathfield, was the British governor of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a rock that sits off the coast of Spain, in between Africa and Europe. It has great strategical significance because whoever controls Gibraltar controls access to the entire Mediterranean. Spain attempted for centuries to wrest Gibraltar from England, but without ever succeeding. Heathfield heroically defended the British fortress-island during the Spanish siege of 1779-1783. The background shows the smoke of the battlefield and a cannon. Nevertheless, the painting was only completed after Heathfield's return to Britain in 1787. Reynold's never traveled to Gibraltar and what we see are studio props imitating the battle. - "Mr. and Mrs. Andrews": Thomas Gainsborough was another important portrait painter from 18th-century England. We are looking at a double portrait of a rich landowning couple. The hunting rifle and dog featured in the work refer to hunting activities, a privilege of the aristocracy. Gainsborough's task was to create the false impression that the Andrews were a long-established landowning couple (a position of great social prestige, especially in aristocratic circles); in reality, Mr. Andrews and his wife were not "old money" but "nouveaux riches," or "new money." Indeed, the picture is all about ownership: Mr. Andrews owns the land in the background; he has laborers, who ploughed the fields and stacked up the hay, but are otherwise invisible. The theme of ownership seems to make the viewer question if Mrs. Andrews is included in his possessions. - "A Philosopher is Giving a Lecture at the Orrery (in which a lamp is put in place of the sun)": Wright of Derby's specialty was paintings of scientific experiments and natural wonders, enhanced with dramatic light effects in the manner of Caravaggio. His paintings often exhibited themes of emotional intensity, human drama, intellectual curiosity, and how the scientific pursuit of knowledge was a quest shared by all ages, by men and women alike. In the center of the work is an Orrery (a model of the solar system). A candle is placed in lieu of the sun, planets circle around it on metal orbits. The model represents an intuitive way of rationalizing the phenomenon of day and lights and incidentally confirms Copernicus' notion of the earth circling around the sun. The candle is the only light source and casts dramatic shadows. The planets move along artificial orbits and also cast shadows. "Scientific machines" were all the rage for entertainment and education in the late 18th century. They helped explain the world rationally and in secular terms. Such models gave physical form to the philosophical notion of empiricism, which held that only things which can be proven through experiments are to be believed. Joseph Wright of Derby's art is consistent with the ideals of the Enlightenment. - "The Contract, from Marriage à la mode series": English artist William Hogarth's work is associated with satirical humor filled with serious and moralizing afterthought. He worked in series of painting, to be reproduced and distributed as prints, especially engravings. It was the prints that earned Hogarth money, and he even had his picture stories copyrighted. The Marriage à la mode series was an indictment of both (French) fashion fads and the false pretense of the aristocracy. It shows the fictional Lord Squanderfield marrying a rich girl; it is a marriage "of convenience," as he is an aristocrat without means. Squanderfield wasted his money on French Rococo art and on the Palladian villa under construction in the background. Here, the marriage contract is drawn up and the bride is already bored, threading the engagement ring through a handkerchief. Squanderfield points to his family tree as an argument for the union. A swollen foot denotes his past sexual dissipation and the possibility that he has contracted syphilis. - "Breakfast Scene, from Marriage à la mode series": In a follow-up picture we see the same couple after the marriage. At 1:00 p.m., they are still taking breakfast. Squanderfield spent the night out in a brothel (alluded to by a prostitute's cap in his pocket, at which the dog sniffs). Mrs. Squanderfield wasted time with making music and playing cards (idleness was ill-thought of at the time). The household steward exits the scene with a stack of unpaid bills, and the erotic art in the background underlines the combination of waste and moral dissipation. The story tragically ends with Lord Squanderfield being tragically killed in a duel with his wife's lover. His wife later dies in abject poverty. Although intended to be funny, the tragedy of the moral lesson makes the viewer choke.

18th Century Venetian Painting: Tiepolos and Canaletto

- Absolutism under Louis XIV and court life at Versailles profoundly influenced cultural fashion trends of the eighteenth century. This is apparent, for instance, in Venetian ceiling paintings. Venice in the eighteenth century was no longer the economically and militarily powerful republic that it once was, but it was a center for tourism. Tourism began in the eighteenth century. A destination of choice of especially British tourists going on the "Grand Tour" was Venice. The "Grand Tour" had also an educational function, as it allowed visitors to experience classical antiquity first hand; however, Venice itself does not have such a classical past. The lure of the art treasures and architectural marvels accumulated from the Middle Ages onward was sufficient enough to attract tourists to the lagoon city. - Venice in the 18th century was therefore in political decline, but as far as art and architecture were concerned, the city experienced a new golden age. There was a great demand for decorative, luxurious, yet airy ceiling paintings by the wealthy patricians (members of the most influential families) of Venice. Giambattista Tiepolo and his two sons cornered the market for illusionistic ceiling decorations for palaces in Venice and beyond. Frescoes that celebrated the virtues and accomplishments of the families owning the palazzo or residence were especially in demand. The Pisano family was one such influential Venetian family. They commissioned the fresco for their palace on the Venetian mainland town of Stra, which was their summer residence. Soon the Tiepolos' fame spread across Europe, especially to German-speaking countries. - In 1750, Giambattista and his two sons set out to Germany to complete their biggest commission ever. Their patron was a local ruler, the Prince-Bishop Karl Philipp von Greiffenklau. He wanted a magnificent ceiling for his recently completed Residenz (palace) in Würzburg, in northern Bavaria. At the center of the composition was the sun god Apollo rising to the skies, surrounded by a halo of sun rays. In this case, Apollo stands for von Greiffenklau himself. Clearly, this was overly pretentious, since von Greiffenklau was politically unimportant. The idea for his ceiling was ultimately inspired by the "Sun King," Louis XIV, and Versailles. Von Greiffenklau imitated the French king by aspiring to a similar quasi-divine status. The four corners of the ceiling contain allegorical representations of the four continents. America was represented by native Americans; Africa by camels and rich costumes; Asia by elephants and turbaned men; Europe was defined as a center of learning and home to the culture of classical antiquity. - "Basin of San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore": Canaletto was a Venetian painter with a different specialty: vedute or panoramic city views of Venice. Interest in this type of subject matter was tied to the rise of tourism. By the middle of the eighteenth century, well-to-do members of the northern European nobility (especially British) would go on a "Grand Tour" across Italian cities to see and experience cultural landmarks. Often they would take back vedute paintings or less expensive prints as souvenirs to Britain or the U.S. Canaletto catered exclusively to this market. The sale of his art was arranged through the British Council (diplomat) Smith and, together, the partners were commercially very successful; Only one Canaletto painting remains in Venetian museums today, as Venetians would not buy views of the city where they lived. In his composition, we see the Basin of San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore, a view that extends across the lagoon from a monastery island (San Giorgio Maggiore) to the Piazza San Marco, which we studied in the medieval section of this class. Boats and figures enhance the picturesque aspect of the scene. The horizontal format is typical of all vedute pictures. - "Piazza San Marco with the Basilica": This scene below depicts the heart of the city of Venice with St. Marc's Cathedral, the campanile, and Doge's Palace. St. Marc's square is the central meeting place in the city. Shops and coffee houses were located below galleries off to the left and right of the cathedral. The architectural setting remains unchanged to the present day. Only the fashion of the dresses worn has changed. - "Grand Canal, the Rialto Bridge from the North": The Canaletto painting below features another place of central importance in Venice. The Rialto Bridge was the center of commercial activity in the Venice during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Traditionally, there were shops on bridges across rivers in major cities, because of the foot traffic on these intersections. The Rialto Bridge is one of very few surviving examples. The emphasis in this vedute picture is on the picturesque aspects of gondolas (boats) and canals. Again, the scenery has not changed over the last three centuries. - "Westminster Bridge from the North on Lord Mayor's Day": In the 1740s, business turned bad in Venice for Canaletto. There were wars on the continent, which interrupted the flow of tourists from Great Britain. Canaletto made a decision to follow his English clients to England and painted London in the same manner as he had painted Venice: as a vedute view.

Neoclassicism and the French Revolution: Jacques Louis-David David: Beginnings of the Revolution

- After the outbreak of the French Revolution, David left ancient Roman themes behind for a while and became a chronicler of contemporary political events. This drawing shows the moment of the oath swearing of the Third Estate, whose deputies were joined by renegade members of the First and Second Estates. Here, the Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly and vows not to disband until a new constitution was drafted. The setting is a tennis court near the palace at Versailles, which was turned into a makeshift refuge for the dissenters. The general population watches the spectacle from above, as a gust of wind dramatically sweeps through the room. In the center, we see the astronomer Bailly, speaking the formula of the oath that everybody else repeats. There is also a group of three men embracing each other in the foreground. The man in the center of this group is a deputy from the Third Estate, flanked by a clergy member (renegade First Estate), to his left, and an aristocrat (renegade Second Estate), to this right. This figure group symbolized that the mission of the Third Estate, representing the commoners, was supported by some of the more enlightened members of the other two Estates as well. - "The Oath of the Tennis Court": work is a preparatory drawing for a large painting, which was to be executed at the expense of the "Society of the Friends of the Constitution," that is the "Jacobin Club" of radical Revolutionaries. The sale of prints after the drawing was supposed to finance the monumental painting, which recorded a key historical moment of the French Revolution. The painting, however, was never executed, but the drawing was shown in the Parisian Salon in the Louvre. This composition highlights the principle that "politics is fast, but painting is slow," which haunted political art from the Revolutionary period. Some of the deputies - all of whom are individualized and identifiable - were sent to the guillotine a few months later or fled France to join the emigrant aristocrats, who were trying to reverse the Revolution from abroad. They had therefore betrayed the cause. Completing the large painting became a politically and practically inconvenient undertaking for David, which he abandoned in an unfinished state. - "The Death of Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau": events unfolded, royalist sympathizers killed several members of the Revolutionary party to which David and Robespierre belonged. David supported the ideals of the Revolution. He sided with the radical movement of Robespierre's Terror and had voted for the death of Louis XVI. The first victim of the Royalist reaction was the nobleman Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, one of those aristocrats who had sided with the Third Estate and who had voted for the king's death. Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau was stabbed to death in a restaurant by one of the king's former bodyguards on the very day of the execution of Louis XVI. We see a symbolic representation of the ballot he had cast for the death of the king in the upper half of the composition. The ballot is pierced by a sword suspended melodramatically by a thin hair from the ceiling. The arrangement alludes to the sword of Damocles. Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau was an accidental victim of the assassin, who had sought to kill the Duke of Orléans, a high-ranking aristocrat and an estranged relative of Louis XVI, who was rumored to have supported the Revolution financially. David and other Revolutionaries were shaken by the assassination, as it could have been them. David organized the funerary ceremonies and the laying-in-state of Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau's body. Thereafter, he painted a picture of the dead deputy, which would grace the back wall of the French Revolutionary parliament. The canvas was later destroyed by Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau's daughter, who had monarchist sympathy and who disagreed with her father's political decisions. The composition only survived as a copy in the form of drawing. In 1980, the Italo-American painter Carlo Maria Mariani recreated the painting. His picture gives us a fairly accurate idea of the lost masterwork. Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau was the first of David's portraits of "martyrs" of the Revolution. - "The Death of Marat": David's second portrait from the Revolutionary "martyrs" series survives in its original state. The Death of Marat depicts an even more prominent assassinated Revolutionary, the radical journalist Marat. Marat was the champion of the Parisian artisans and poorer classes, the sans culottes. He was also a regicide, like David and Robespierre, and an ardent supporter of the most radical political wing of the Revolution. In this context, the term sans culottes refers to the dress code of the urban poor, whose members wore long workmen pants instead of the shorter pants of the aristocrats. The painting depicts the aftermath of Marat's assassination by Charlotte Corday, a woman who supported the more moderate Girondin faction of Revolutionaries. There was a lot of infighting and purges among the Revolutionaries themselves. The Girondins were the enemies of the Jacobins. They represented the interest of the bourgeoisie and advocated reforms instead of violent change. - Marat was nicknamed "the friend of the (common) people," because of the namesake title of his newspaper "L'ami du peuple." The Death of Marat is pro-Revolutionary propaganda art. Marat was a dictator for everyone but his followers. He was much feared and hated. In David's portrait of the expiring deputy, however, Marat is portrayed as charitable and compassionate. David also rendered his friend much more beautiful and youthful than he really was. The painting is supposed to highlight the injustice and the outrage over the assassination. David was a friend of Marat and visited him the day before the assassination. He was later put in charge of the funerary ceremonies and the laying-in-state of Marat's body. The painting was created to match that of Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau and also found its place on the back wall of the French Revolutionary parliament. - "A Corday Mariani": Marat suffered from a skin disease which required him to take herbal baths whenever possible. He was even working while sitting in his bathtub. In the right foreground, we see the makeshift wooden box he used to answer letters written to him. There are two letters written by women on the box. One letter was sent by a starving war widow and mother of many children, who had just lost her husband in the civil war against royalist insurgents in the south-west of France. The enemies of the Revolution were not only lurking outside of France, but also inside the country, especially in rural areas where the local population sided with their recalcitrant country priests, who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the Republican government in Paris. Being sensitive to the plight of the war widow, Marat not only answered her letter, but also sent her money in the form of an inflationary assignat paper bill (paper money), of about the equivalent value of $20 to $30 today. The inclusion of the money was symbolic. The second letter was written by the assassin, Charlotte Corday, who demanded to see him because she had important information to share. Corday is absent from the original picture, except for the knife on the floor, the stabbing wound, and the letter. Carlo Maria Mariani, in 1977, imagined what it would have looked like had David included the fleeing assassin. - "Jacques-Louis David, Self-Portrait": In July 1794, the Terror regime was removed and Robespierre was guillotined. The ongoing purges and attempts to "purify" the Revolution from within led some deputies of the Jacobins to plot against Robespierre. Imprudently, David publicly professed allegiance to Robespierre the day before the arrest of the leader of the Revolution. While Robespierre received a death sentence, tried to kill himself, and was sent to the guillotine, David was thrown into jail for his complicity with Robespierre at the end of the Terror. David painted this self-portrait while being incarcerated. The portrait expresses self-doubts and a harsh psychological intensity. David wanted to be seen again as an artist and not as a politician; To this end, he shows himself holding palettes and brushes to define his rediscovered pre-Revolutionary identity. Eventually, David was released, and, in the early 1800s, he had a comeback under Napoleon Bonaparte

Rococo and Interior Design

- At the beginning of the 18th century, new ideas and a new art style are on the rise. The ideas fall under the category of the Enlightenment; the art style is called Rococo, derived from the Portuguese term for "little shell." Indeed, shell-shaped decorations proliferate on the furniture, frames, ceilings, and paintings of the early 18th century. Rococo is also a much more comprehensive phenomenon than the period styles discussed before, as it included interior design, fashion, theater, and painting. Theater, in particular, became a source of mass entertainment and Rococo art contained many references to it. By the time of the French Revolution of 1789, the Rococo style was rejected as an expression of the lifestyle of the aristocracy. But even before the end of the century, some artists revived genre-style painting that can be classified as anti-Rococo. - The death of Louis XIV in 1715 is often considered to be the start of the Regency period in France. In his old age, Louis XIV had become, ill, morose, pious and made a number of bad political decisions. He started wars that he lost and ran a huge budget deficit. Shortly before his own death, most of the Sun King's offspring (son, grandson, and first-born great-grandson) died in rapid succession. The future king Louis XV was too young to rule. Until his maturity, a member of the competing royal line of the Orléans was appointed to rule France as an interim king. This ruler was Duke of Orléans, or the Regent - hence the term Regency period. The Duke of Orléans was interested in new ideas, new technologies, and the enjoyment of life. The Regency thus bid farewell to the ideals of the previous age of Louis XIV, which emphasized self-discipline, self-sacrifice, and denial of one's interest for the higher good of the state, that is the king. This severity of the age of Louis XIV is also summarized by the French term the âge classique (classical age), which stands in opposition to the pleasure-seeking Rococo culture of the Regency. The Regency became a turning point for new ideas and mentalities. One could argue that it invented modern notions of individualism, embodied in the notion of the pursuit of happiness. After the death of Louis XIV, the nobility also moved from Versailles to Paris, following the relocation of the Regent to the capital. Its members longed for pleasure and amusement. Once they arrived in Paris, many of the nobles built so-called Hôtels (town houses) in Paris. Hôtels could offer furnished apartments for rent or serve as residences of extended families. Pleasure, sensuality, and indulgence in luxury became quite fashionable; music-making, theater, and fine arts played an important role in their day-to-day lives. Much of the luxury consumption was financed by the first massive stock market speculation in Western history, initiated by the adventurer and financier John Law. Traded in Paris, Law's Mississippi Company stock promised incredible riches for stockholders investing in the development of the Louisiana territory, then a French possession, and especially the city of New Orleans. Many of the fast gains in the stock market were invested in luxury items and real estate, such houses, interior design, carriages, art, dress, etc. - The Hôtel de Soubise - and especially the Salon de la Princesse which it houses - is an excellent example for the growth in luxury consumption during the Regency period. The salon room is integral to one of the hôtels built in Paris after 1715. Centrally located in the Marais district of Paris, it features a classically inspired Baroque façade not unlike that facing the gardens in Versailles. The innovative aspects of the building are not found outside, but inside. - This octagonal room was commissioned by the Hôtel's owner, Prince Hercule Mériadec de Soubise, for his marriage. It was a gift to his wife and reflects how, during the Rococo period, decorative programs were customized specifically for one building. Boffrand extensively used wooden paneling, into which paintings and sculptural elements were integrated. The architect Boffrand installed gilded plaster moldings, creating stark contrasts between white and gold. Mirrors also became a more accessible luxury good, which was no longer reserved for the king, as in the days of Louis XIV. Within the eight spandrels of the room, there is a series of oil paintings by French academic painter Charles Natoire: History of Psyche. - Many artworks of the Rococo period were originally conceived as part of decorative programs and became later demolished, as rooms were remodeled. This is fortunately not the case in the Hôtel de Soubise, where paintings and stucco moldings are fully integrated in their original wooden paneling. (Note: an actual fragment of French Rococo wooden paneling can be found on the LSU campus, in the Salon of the French House, where the Honors College is located -check it out sometime.)

Neoclassicism: Drouais and Girodet-Trioson

- David was very popular as a teacher and had many art students at the French Academy, some of whom became trailblazers of Neoclassicism in their own right. David collaborated closely with his most gifted students, such as Jean-Germain Drouais. In 1784, Drouais won the Rome Prize (Prix de Rome) of the French Academy. The prize would allow him to study art in Italy for an extended period of time. In an unprecedented move, the master, David, accompanied his student, Drouais, to Rome. Once they arrived in Rome, Drouais helped David complete the painting of the Oath of the Horatii. The idea of completing the Horatii in Rome was a public relations coup, aimed at a Parisian audience, to enhance the authenticity of the painting. While in Rome, Drouais also completed several major works of his own, including Marius at Minturnae. The canvas is a typical "Davidian" subject, which stylistically and iconographically was strongly indebted to Drouais' master - "Marius at Minturnae": painting illustrates a story from ancient Rome, as related by the classical author Plutarch. It recounts the life of the Roman general and Consul (politician), Caius Marius, who was ostracized (expelled by popular will) by the Roman Senate. Marius fled before his eviction from Rome but was arrested in the town of Minturnae. The local townspeople at Minturnae then hired a foreigner (a Gaul, according to Plutarch) to kill Marius. The general was locked up in a dark room and the assassin was sent in to kill him; however, the Gaul shrunk from the task as he heard Marius' booming voice from the dark, saying: "Man, doust thou dare to slay Caius Marius?" Thereafter, Marius managed to escape his prison and returned to Rome, where he installed a terror regime to exert revenge on his enemies. As in other works by David, the story seems like a premonition of the Terror rule of Robespierre and his henchmen. Drouais also copied David's rhetorical gesture of the outstretched arm, which ultimately goes back to Greuze's art. Although Drouais was very young and healthy, he died shortly after completing his Marius picture from an outbreak of smallpox in Rome in 1788. His premature death caused a crisis for David and the other students in his studio - "The Sleep of Endymion": a new and exceptionally talented painter appeared in David's studio, one who had the ability and the drive to follow in the footsteps of Drouais. This artist's name was Anne-Louis Girodet, who came into his own in the 1790s. Girodet also won the Rome Prize, but arrived in Italy at a time when the political turmoil of the Revolution was already in full swing and affected affairs abroad. Girodet celebrated his greatest triumph in the Parisian Salon of 1793 with Endymion. All newly admitted art students to the French Academy in Rome had to complete a so-called académie, or study of a male nude, which was considered evidence for the art students' mastery of anatomy, a cornerstone of academic art training. Girodet infused this standard exercise with a previously unseen degree or refinement and polish. In fact, he constructed a whole psudo-classical narrative around his académie by naming it The Sleep of Endymion; artwork conveys the essence of the story of moon goddess Selene, who fell in love with a beautiful young man named Endymion. She conspired to put Endymion in a perpetual state of sleep in order to hold him captive in a remote nature reserve, paying him nightly visits. Selene is present in the painting in the form of the immaterial moonlight, which a putti figure allows to enter the scene. Girodet constructed maleness very differently from David. He envisioned his hero not as a stern, unyielding warrior, but as a flawless, yet unconscious and soft body that admits to vulnerability - "Jean-Baptiste Belley": Girodet got surprised by the backlash of the Vatican against Revolutionary France, which led to the sack of the French Academy in Rome and much delayed his return to France. When he finally got back to this Parisian studio, Girodet set out to paint this three-quarter-length portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley, a deputy in the French National Convention (Revolutionary parliament), representing the district of Saint-Domingue, which is today's Haiti. Saint-Domingue (Haiti) was a French colony at the time. Like Louisiana in the 18th century, Haiti's economy depended largely on sugar cane, which was grown and harvested with slave labor. Belley himself hailed original from Senegal in Africa, arrived on Haiti as a slave, managed to buy his freedom by serving in the military, and became a plantation owner himself. However, Belley was an exceptional deputy because he delivered the speech before the French parliament when it passed a law to abolish slavery in the colonies and to extend French citizenship rights to all former slaves. The measures included, of course, Saint-Domingue (Haiti). The sitter was therefore a figurehead of the abolitionist movement in France. These events had happened several years earlier, when the deputies of the National Convention would wear the flamboyant uniform which is depicted here. The background is supposed to show a Caribbean landscape. Belley is leaning against a marble bust of Abbé Raynal, one of the philosophes of the Enlightenment, who was among the first to condemn slavery in what was then called the "West Indies" (the Caribbean and the Gulf region). The full-length or three-quarter portrait was an invention of Anthony van Dyck, as seen in the previous discussion of 17th-century Flemish art. It was originally reserved for kings and aristocrats to demonstrate their power. Girodet certainly understood this visual code when he depicted Belley in a manner reminiscent of kings and nobility, thereby paying homage to the deputy's pride and perseverance in the pursuit of racial equality

Art and the Enlightenment in France

- Enlightenment is a key 18th-century idea. It is not directly related to art, but defined the intellectual currents and discussions unfolding during the century and arguably prepared the arrival of the modern age. This Enlightenment is also called the Age of Reason, as intellectuals argued that reason, and not beliefs in higher spiritual powers (e.g. religious teachings), should inform human decisions. Several prominent philosophes (Enlightenment thinkers) formulated these positions, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, d'Alembert and d'Holbach. These intellectuals advocated for ideas that continue to define Western democracies to the present day, such as tolerance, freedom of opinion, and the rule of law (and not arbitrary decisions of the powerful) to govern society. Enlightenment ideals also strongly opposed discrimination (religious, racial, etc.) and denounced slavery in the colonies, abuse of power by church or state, and actively used public opinion to form a collective moral consciousness in order to bring about change. The concept of equality became very important. Enlightenment thinkers were the first to maintain that what defines our identity is that we are all human and hence should be treated equally. The Enlightenment sought to end class distinctions, birth rights, privileges, etc. These ideas were formalized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights during the French Revolution, which was drafted with the contributions of some of the American Founding Fathers, like Thomas Jefferson. - But the Enlightenment was not just about philosophical ideas. A great many scientific discoveries were made in the 18th century. Intellectuals began to emancipate themselves from views of the world imposed by the Catholic Church and came to view science as an ordered, secular, and self-contained system, which brought order to the universe. Since reason defines us as human beings, we should use reason to make sense of the world by ourselves. Scientists thus created advanced classification systems for plants, animals, rocks, non-European cultures and even the tattoos of criminals. Knowledge was viewed as finite, meaning that it could be described and acquired in its entirety. Guided by this idea, Diderot, d'Alembert, d'Holbach and others started the Encyclopédie project, which sought to summarize all human knowledge in one multiple-volume book. Of course, the finitude of knowledge is an idea that is difficult to maintain and especially so in today's digital age, where knowledge continues to expand and is subject to perpetual editing. - A sample Encyclopédie entry reads: "Man: a being that has feelings, reflecting on his actions, thinking, who moves freely on the surface of the earth, and who seems to come out ahead of all the other animals, which he dominates. He lives in a society that has invented arts and sciences, has an inherent goodness or meanness which is proper to him, and who has given himself masters who established laws." --In this short quote we find all of the key ideas of the Enlightenment encapsulated: the belief in reason, law, freedom of human choice, and a human-centered universe foremost amongst them. Not surprisingly, many Enlightenment authors were the first to talk about the importance of the pursuit of happiness and thus laid the foundation for modern-day notions of individuality. - "The Rayfish": no Enlightenment art and there is no Enlightenment style in art. Nevertheless, those who advanced Enlightenment thought, like Diderot, tended to be critical of Rococo art. By the mid-18th century, a strong anti-Rococo current in French art had emerged. These artists wanted to return to serious subjects in their work and sought to create art that was morally uplifting. The Academy suggested that artists use history painting in order to achieve these goals. However, the well-to-do middle class was gaining in importance and wanted art that reflected their social and life experience. They found a model in 17th-century Netherlandish genre paintings, portraits, and still lifes. For lack of better term, the resulting art took on an anti-Rococo flavor. Chardin epitomized the taste of the bourgeoisie (the middle class, not the aristocracy). The Rayfish was his "reception piece" at the Academy. The painting imitates Flemish and Dutch art of the 17th century in terms of colors and subject matter. Chardin became famous due to his still life paintings and portraits of children at play, which were greatly appreciated by the middle class. He was a very modest individual and insisted on being "received" as a genre painter (ranked low on the "hierarchy of genres"). Allegedly, he set up The Rayfish in the hallway of the French Academy, and when the president walked by and saw it, he proclaimed, "You've got some very nice pictures here; surely they are by some good Flemish painter." Chardin then introduced himself as the author of the pictures. While almost certainly a legend, the story shows how closely Chardin followed the Netherlandish model. - "Grace at Table": Chardin's second specialty was paintings of children. Education became an important new topic in Enlightenment literature, as childhood was recognized as a distinct stage in an individual's development. Parents became more emotionally involved, and no longer sent their infants to nursemaids in the countryside. Chardin's vision of childhood, seen in Grace at Table, is nonetheless idealized, as all of his children are well mannered and eager to learn. - "Boy Blowing Bubbles": is another example of Chardin paintings featuring children at play. Almost inevitably, the children Chardin depicted pursue their play with great seriousness. They are introspective, quiet, responsible, and withdrawn. There is a second boy, presumably a playmate, in the background, but his presence does not affect the protagonist's intense concentration on blowing the bubble. Boy Blowing Bubbles was a very popular picture at the time. Photography had not been invented, so prints were made after pictures popular with the audience of the Parisian Salon. This was also the case with this painting. - The 1760s and 1770s saw the rise of a new art star, whose work was also loosely based on Dutch genre art. In 1761, Jean-Baptiste Greuze was commissioned The Village Bride for an (at-the-time) unheard sum of 7,000 Livres (Livres=Pounds, a French currency unit) from a private collector. Iconographically, the painting is a strange hybrid and set the stage for a recipe Greuze would repeat several times: moralizing intent is fused with sentimental and tearful stories, situated in middle-class settings. - "The Village Bride": Greuze's specialty was bourgeois family dramas, which he often divided spatially into male and female halves. The Village Bride portrays an arranged marriage in the French countryside. The left side shows an emotional good-bye from the bride's mother (females are depicted as emotional), while the right side shows a notary setting up the marriage contract (males are more business-like). Civic marriage, like the one shown here, had connotations with Protestantism at the time. In the Catholic tradition, marriage is a sacrament from which Protestants were excluded, which made civic marriages more practical for them. The persecutions of Protestants of the age of Louis XIV had all but ceased at the time, but Protestants still often did not enjoy the same rights as Catholics. We do not know whether Greuze himself was Protestant or not. Diderot relates that "should Greuze encounter a head which strikes him, he would willingly throw himself at the feet of the bearer of that head to attract it to his studio [to pose]." Greuze thus used strangers to pose for his pictures based on the expressiveness of their facial features. If one looks closely, one can indeed gather that these people are not members of the same family, given their differences and contrived attitudes. The variety of poses, gestures, emotional responses and physiognomy of "character heads" fascinated contemporary audiences. There were a great many copies of Greuze's "character heads" in circulation in the art market of the time, which were eagerly sought after. - "The Father's Curse" & "The Punished Son": This work is a modern adaptation of the Prodigal Son story. It shows the son of a bourgeois family who leaves against everyone's will (but especially the father's) to join the military. The lifestyle of soldiers was associated with dissipation and sin for the 18th-century bourgeoisie. The father curses the son as he leaves to seek adventure. The story unfolds in two pictures, forming an 18th-century soap-opera. Greuze followed up The Father's Curse with the pendant painting, The Punished Son. In the sequel, the son returns home regretful of his actions. But the father has just died and therefore he is unable to forgive him for his fool-heartedness. This outcome, which is quite different from that of the Old Testament, serves as the pretext for more sorrow and tears. Such emotional responses to art were deeply appreciated by 18th-century audiences, whereas in modern and contemporary art they are treated with suspicion.

Absolutism in France and King Louis XIV

- French king Louis XIV (also known as the "Sun King") embodied the idea of Absolutism. His saying, "L'État, c'est moi" ("I am the State"), embodied the absolutist political essence. Louis believed in a divine right monarchy: he was appointed as king directly by God and ruled as a worldly leader by God's will. He ruled personally and was not accountable to anybody but to higher powers. The Louisiana territory and the state of Louisiana are named after Louis XIV. The centralization of power he initiated culminated in moving the court to Versailles, just outside Paris. The building was an unprecedented effort and led to the construction of the largest palace known at that time. In order to eliminate any internal opposition, the king's administration attracted the nobility, previously scattered across the countryside, to the court at Versailles, where they were well paid and entertained, but reduced to a status of servants to the king - By the middle of the seventeenth century, France was the leading political and cultural power in Europe. For instance, the French language and French art forms were adopted by other European courts, especially in Germany, Poland, and Russia. The French Academy of Painting and Sculpture was founded in 1648 to recruit an elite corps of artists, architects, and interior designers, who would work directly for the king. King Louis XIV ruled from 1661-1715. At the end of his rule, the king become ill, morose, and very pious; the mood at Versailles was dark, especially as the king started wars which he kept losing and state finances were depleted. In the final analysis, the system of Absolutism created the political and social conditions that made the French Revolution of 1789 possible. - "Louis XIV": portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud is an icon of Absolutism. It is the official state portrait of Louis XIV. Rigaud remained for 40 years the official painter to the king. In this portrait, which had the personal approval of Louis XIV, the king is dressed in royal ermine embroidered with fleur-de-lis (the stylized lily flower was a symbol of Bourbon dynasty; only the king was allowed to wear such a coat). Rigaud bestowed an air of aloofness to Louis XIV: this distance is also a consequence of the claims of a divine right monarchy. Rigaud and his workshop assistants made many copies of this portrait over the years; the copies were given as gifts to foreign dignitaries or embellished government offices. The French historian Louis Marin interpreted this portrait to imply the theory of the two bodies of the king. One, the "figure of the King," symbolizes "a real individual with knees swollen by gout, an organic body," who will eventually cease to exist. The "figure of the Body-of-Power" referred to the political principle of the divine right monarchy; it is the State in the expression "L'État, c'est moi." When Louis XIV dies, there will be another Bourbon kind to succeed him. This political body, the principle of State, is immortal, perpetual. Both aspects are alluded to in this portrait. - "Aerial View of the Palace at Versailles": Palace at Versailles was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Charles Le Brun. Building activity began in 1669. The town of Versailles is located just a few miles to the west of Paris. Soon, the Palace was the biggest construction site in the world. The general manager of the interior design and exterior construction was Charles Le Brun. He ran the workshops at Versailles in a despotic manner. Le Brun believed art had to follow a fixed set of rules. After Le Brun's death in 1690, Jules Hardouin-Mansart became the principal architect of the Palace. He helped translate the idea of Absolutism in stone and buildings; the splendor of Versailles was meant to impress foreign dignitaries and royalty, while serving as a symbol of France's political and cultural preeminence; We can also see how the structure and its layout was designed around a single axis, defined by three converging roads near the entry. This design was very influential for city planning in France and abroad. The Courtyard of Versailles is a mixture of classical stylistic references with native French architectural models from the Renaissance, especially castles in the Loire valley. Visitors are being dwarfed by the architecture, which was a deliberate psychological effect. The design, manners, and court life at Versailles were models to be emulated throughout Europe: Germany, Poland, Russia, etc. come to mind. Louis Le Vau was responsible in particular for the garden façade. The strong recesses catch light and crate chiaroscuro effects. As opposed to the courtyard of Versailles, the garden façade was built in a style indebted to the Italian Baroque. - "Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors)": Hall of Mirrors is one of the most important component parts of the Palace at Versailles. It is defined by mirrors, chandeliers, gilding, and a barrel vaulted ceiling painted by Le Brun. Mirrors were an extremely expensive luxury good in the late 17th century. In fact, this was the first time that large-scale, flat mirrors were produced (before, mirrors were small and round and looked like the "bulging eye" in Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding, studied previously). Louis XIV's minister of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, was intent on making the building of Versailles something like a stimulus package for the French economy. Some of this money was used to build a new factory to produce the mirrors for the Galerie des Glaces. The company still exists today. It is called St. Gobain and produces, for instance, glass furniture and large shop windows, such as seen at the 1937 world fair in Paris. The Hall of Mirrors had a practical function. It was here that courtiers and petitioners could address the king during his daily walk. The king prided himself to have an ear for and to listen to his subjects, even if this practice promoted favoritism, nepotism, and corruption. Despite the luxury, hygienic conditions were bad; for instance, restrooms in the modern sense were not part of the original design - "Palace of Versailles" Again: Palace was a city by itself, which was centered on the person of the king. At its peak, more than 10,000 individuals lived and worked in and around the palace. Many of them were nobles (= aristocrats). This aristocracy came into existence during the Middle Ages. Nobles were required to muster an army and to fight for the king in times of crisis; in return, they received large stretches of land to administer. Nobles were thus originally associated with the military. However, now the nobility no longer fought battles for the king, but (at Versailles) dressed him, entertained him, took care of his correspondence, etc. During the last years of Louis XIV's rule, the King became ill, morose, and pious; he ordered a chapel to be attached to his royal palace, which disrupted the symmetry of the original design; In the early 2000s, the administration of the Palace at Versailles decided to invite contemporary artists to do temporary installations at Versailles. The American sculptor Jeff Koons was one of them; so was the Japanese artists Takashi Murakami. The Pop art-inspired installation outraged the "purists" of French culture who believe that Versailles should not be altered in any way because it is a national monument. - "Gardens of Versailles": Versailles was also famous for its gardens designed by André le Nôtre. They consisted of a symmetric pattern of trees and shrubs, precisely trimmed. This approach to garden design represents the classical model of French gardens: nature is deliberately manipulated. An English Garden is the opposite: it is an unkempt or "nature Garden." - "Apollo Attended by the Nymphs": Numerous sculptural groups were part of the garden design. These sculptures are inserted into grottoes and were part of fountains, which were all the rage at the turn of the 18th century. Adaptations of classical sculptural prototypes according to Poussin's aesthetics were common. Sculptures typically contained references to water: fountains, pools, etc.

The French Revolution (1789-1799)

- The French Revolution of 1789 was one of the great historical turning points of Western society. It was also a turning point for art. The intellectual background of the Revolution was Enlightenment thought and its key idea that all humans are born with equal rights (and without privileges of one class over another). Its artistic style was Neoclassicism, expressed in the art of Jacques-Louis David and his students. The reasons for the Revolution are manifold, but the disarray of French public finances played an important role. The financial crisis of the French government under Louis XVI reached dramatic dimensions by the late 1780s. One of the deeper reasons for the high debt burden was France's financial, material, and military support for the American War of Independence, which was designed to hurt England, France's enemy. In its desperation, the administration of Louis XVI, in May 1789, called in the Estates General, an advisory board to the crown, in order to find ways out of the financial crisis. The distribution of votes within the Estates General was archaic even by the standards of the 18th century because it reflected ideas of society more typical for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. - The Estates General was made up of three so-called Estates, listed below with the share of their votes, respectively: The First Estate, representing the clergy; c. 0.5% of population => 1/3 votes The Second Estate, representing the nobility; c. 1% of population => 1/3 votes The Third Estate, representing everyone else => 1/3 votes - Clearly, the problem here is the imbalance of the distribution of votes, an issue that had also fueled the American Revolution earlier ("no taxation without representation"). Moreover, the last assembly of the Estates General had taken place more than one hundred years earlier; the body had to be elected first. Soon, the Third Estate rose in protest over the inequality of votes and declared itself the National Assembly. Since members of the Third Estate would no longer meet with the Estates General, they found another meeting venue in a tennis court at Versailles, where they delivered an oath that can be regarded as the initial trigger for all subsequent events of the French Revolution. The tennis court oath not to disband until a new constitution was drafted and France would be free was delivered on June 20, 1789. The Third Estate would eventually become the National Convention, and further on, the National Assembly. Meanwhile, on the streets of Paris, a mob had gathered and stormed the prison-fortress of the Bastille and massacred the guards. The Revolution had begun. - For the sake of convenience, one can divide the French Revolution into the following three phases: Moderate Phase: 1789 to January 1793 - from the storming of the Bastille to the execution of King Louis XVI. In August 1792, the monarchy was abolished and a Republic was declared. Radical Phase: "Terror" regime under Revolutionary leader Robespierre from January 1793 to July 1794 - from the guillotining, or beheading, of Louis XVI to the guillotining, or beheading, of Robespierre. Another moderate phase after July 1794, under the Directory government, until in 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte came to power. -Enduring Values of the French Revolution (1789) Freedom of opinion (abolition of censorship laws for newspapers, books, theater plays) Declaration of Human Rights (such as: right to life, freedom of religion, property, etc. drafted with the collaboration of American Thomas Jefferson) Protection from arbitrary arrest (another Human Right) Equality before the Law (another Human Right) Merit and skills define one's station in life, not privileges. Abolition of monarchy; Republican political order (basis for Western democracies) Separation of religion from the state/government - Despite the generally positive associations we may bring to these ideas, the Revolution also had a very dark side. Based on a system denunciation, thousands of innocent people were guillotined (aristocrats and those accused of royalist sympathies, more moderate Revolutionaries, "traitors," black market vendors, "hoarders," etc.). As France was surrounded by monarchies incensed by the beheading of the royal family, the country was besieged by enemies intent on an invasion to re-establish the old order. This situation fueled a series of wars and oppressions that would continue to define world politics into the 20th century. Instead of bringing liberty, the French Revolution caused, in the first instance, massive bloodshed and destruction.

Rococo Painting and the Fête Galante

- The St. Germain fairground, or Foire Saint-Germain, in early 18th-century Paris, was an annually recurring attraction with wooden booths housing sideshows, tightrope dancers, trained animals, former actors of the Italian Comedy, pantomime performances, as well as illegal gambling and prostitution. The neighborhood was also home to a hostel for Flemings (people from Flanders). In the decades after Rubens' death, many of his former assistants settled in Paris, where the conditions for artists to make a livelihood were better than in Antwerp. They found their first home around the St. Germain fairground and inspiration for their art in the popular theater performances offered in the neighborhood. Ultimately, the environment helped to inspire the fascination of Rococo painter Antoine Watteau with Italian Comedy (Commedia dell'arte) scenes. - The painting, L'Indifférent, features an actor on stage in a costume cut from satin cloth; such dress would not be worn in everyday life, but only one stage. His pose and the picture's title suggest a carefree life and celebrates the pursuit of happiness. Watteau drew inspiration from various theatrical performances, particularly street theater of the type found at the Saint Germain fair. Rococo art was particularly appreciated by the French nobility. Typically for Watteau, there is an English garden with lush and moist vegetation in the background: nature can grow freely. Aesthetically and philosophically, this garden type is the opposite of French garden model we studied previously at Versailles. - Another actor portrait by Watteau, Gilles (Pierrot), represents a stock character from the repertoire of the Italian comedy (Italian: Commedia dell'arte; French: Comédie Italienne). Italian comedy did not follow a script. It was impromptu theater and each role/character was defined foremost by the costume, in this case a white satin dress with a ruff. The Italian comedians, originally invited to France, fell into disfavor because they once parodied Louis XIV's mistress, who instructed the king's minister of cabinet, the Count of Pontchartrin (Lake Pontchartrin in New Orleans is named after him), to send the Italian comedians packing. Instead, they went underground and performed pantomimes in the fairgrounds. Gilles/Pierrot represents a melancholic character. As all Rococo art, Watteau's painting fell into disfavor during the French Revolution. According to legend, an art dealer who owned the picture then wrote on it in chalk: "If only Pierrot knew the art of pleasing you." It did please Vivant Denon, the first director of the Louvre under Napoleon Bonaparte, who purchased it for his own collection and then bequeathed it to the Louvre. - "Return from Cythera": Return from Cythera is Watteau's most famous picture and exists in two versions. Watteau painted the first version as his "reception piece" for the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture. During the 18th century, the French Academy became increasingly important for the careers of artists. In order to obtain the Academy's official stamp of approval, and hence to make a living as a professional artist, one needed to submit a "reception piece" during a formal ceremony. Each artist needed to be received in a distinct category of subject matter. The most prestigious category was history painting. Watteau wanted to be "received" (approved as an academic painter) in a category he created for himself, called fête galante ("gallant feasts"). A fête galante describes a carefree party of well-dressed guests, suggestive of aristocrats, enjoying themselves in a park-like setting. The fête galante, such as seen here in the Return from Cythera, is testimonial to the sensual (pertaining to the enjoyment of the senses: sight, smell, taste, etc.) and hedonistic (enjoyment for enjoyment's sake) quality of Rococo art. However, the issue of exactly what subject is depicted here remains unclear: the carefree party of sumptuously dressed pleasure seekers could be on a pilgrimage to the Island of Love (Cythera) or a departure from that island. Cythera is as much a fictional as it is an ideal place. It was known as the island of love, and, on the right side of the painting, we see the various stages of courtship. There is also a statue of Venus hidden in the bushes and a swarm of cherubs (her helpers) in the air above the boat. The theme was based on a contemporary theater play by Florent Carton Dancourt, The Three Cousins, first performed in 1700. Again, we see the strong theatrical influence on Watteau's art. The painting was so successful that the king of Prussia commissioned Watteau a second copy of the picture, which shows some slight variations in the composition. - Watteau died young and Rococo art lost its most important painter. A generation later, François Boucher continued the Rococo style in painting. Boucher was a painter to Madame Pompadour, a mistress to King Louis XV, whom he taught drawing. His work, Cupid a Captive, is an example of the rose-colored erotica paintings that were popular amongst the aristocracy. Cupid is the messenger of love; his "captivity" needs to be taken ironically, as he is quite obviously enjoying himself greatly. - Boucher also made the female nude a central subject of Rococo art, as seen in his Odalisque from 1745. Both the members of the French Academy and Enlightenment thinkers understood that money could be made with such subjects (and hence, they understood their utility for keeping artists in business), but that did not mean that they approved of the content. The Enlightenment thinker, editor of the Encyclopédie, and art critic in the service of the Russian ruler Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot, loved to hate Boucher: "This man does not pick up his brush but to show breasts and buttocks. I have no problem looking at these things, but [...] these seductive objects are contrary to the emotions of the soul due to their troubling effect on the senses." The reasoning is interesting. Boucher does not come from the perspective of a religious writer or a moralist. Instead, he shares the Academy's opinion that art should be uplifting; that it should inspire noble ideas and selfless behavior. Boucher, he argues, failed his viewers on this account by catering to lower instincts. Neoclassical art (see Jacques-Louis David and his students, below), at the end of the century, will comply with these demands, but will produce other moral dilemmas instead. - But there is also a more serious side to Boucher's art evident in his Breakfast from 1739. The picture is generally interpreted to show the painter's own family. We see a mother and her daughters, along with two domestic helpers. The picture is all about novelties and the empowerment of the middle class, or bourgeoisie. The novelties affect both the interior stressing personal comfort and new social conventions. We are inside a boudoir, or skulking room, a semi-formal room between bedroom and salon, offering a greater sense if intimacy. The beverage being served is hot chocolate, the ingredients of which had to be imported from Africa or the Americas. World trade was expending at the time and Europe sought to establish the first colonies. The chinoiserie (Chinese things) in the form of a porcelain buddha and the rocaille, or shell decorations, and large mirrors show that the taste of the upper-class aristocracy now trickled down to somebody like Boucher, a successful artist, but still middle-class. Part of the novelty of this painting is related to image of childhood, which 18th-century Enlightenment thinkers like Diderot began to recognize as a distinct stage in human development (children can play, have toys, parents should be emotionally involved with them, etc.). Education in the modern sense was invented and books were written on the subject of child rearing. Such literature did not exist before. Mothers were encouraged to be emotionally involved with children. If this idea may seem self-evident today, it is true that well-to-do parents often gave newborns to nursemaids in the countryside during the first years of their lives. They did not want to get too attached to their children because of high infant mortality rates. In art, too, children, prior to the 18th century, were mostly depicted as diminutive adults. Our ideas about childhood, child rearing, and education are principally a product of the Enlightenment. - The third great Rococo painter we will discuss is Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Fragonard wanted to be "received" as a history painter by the French Academy. He painted the Great Priest Corésus solely for the purpose to serve as his "reception piece." There was no money in history painting at the time, so the rest of his career was spent on Rococo paintings. The Great Priest Corésus depicts a youthful priest who immolates himself in place of the young woman (at his feet) at a time when there were allegedly still human sacrifices in Greece. The young woman was originally intended for the sacrifice. The picture pretends to treat a classical theme but was actually based on a contemporary opera written by the now-forgotten authors Roy and Destouches. It is a testimonial to the impossibility to adopt classical themes to Rococo art. Rococo was an entirely new style and it was not indebted to the classical tradition. - The Swing is a quintessential Rococo painting and reveals the source of Fragonard's commercial success. It was commissioned by one Baron de Saint-Julien, who provided Fragonard with detailed specifications. There are biographical elements embedded in the subject. Saint-Julien was one of the so-called tax farmers of 18th-century France. Because of the government deficit, the government had decided to "farm out" the collection of taxes to private tax collectors like Saint-Julien, who would advance the anticipated tax revenues to the government against a cut and became wealthy in the process. In essence, the collection of taxes was privatized. Saint-Julien wanted to have himself included in the picture in a "position to observe the legs of this charming girl." A sense of irony pervades the painting, as Saint-Julien was the receiver general of (tax) contributions from the clergy, but now "receives" the girl if she were to fall off the swing. The setting is a lush, moist, unkempt garden with numerous sculptures, which are typical for Rococo art.

Roots of Neoclassicism

- central figure of the European art world of the Revolutionary era was the French neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David. He was an artist and politician, who was close to Robespierre's inner circle (the Jacobin Club, a political party of Revolutionaries). A member of the French Revolutionary parliament, David was among those who voted for the death of Louis XVI. Since the king's death sentence was approved by a very narrow margin, everyone who had cast a positive vote could have cast the decisive vote. David therefore was one of these "regicides," or king killers. He occupied a place of singular importance in the artistic and political scene of France, since he had become famous during the second half of the 1780s with a series of paintings situated in ancient Rome, which celebrated virtues of self-sacrifice, idealism, Republican virtues. Highly moralizing, David's idealist world view anticipated the values, virtues, and pitfalls of the Revolution in the 1790s. Although they were painted before the beginning of Revolution by a few years, his neoclassical pictures were soon read as premonitions of the political upheavals to come. - David's painting from the 1780s are therefore icons of the new neoclassical style. But why was there a renewed interest in classicism specifically at the end of the 18th century and how did it come to be associated with the French Revolution? This period after 1750 brought new insights into daily life in ancient Rome because of the first archeological excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy. There was also an ongoing support by the French Academy for the promotion of morally uplifting "history painting," which was primarily based on narratives from ancient Greece and Rome. Another period piece of the neoclassicism period was the writings of Johann Heinrich Winckelmann. Winckelmann is considered one of the "fathers" of art history. He was a German librarian who lived for extended periods in Rome, where he wrote a best-selling book about classical art and architecture. Writing in a flowery language, he was the first, for instance, to match statues from Greece and Rome with the writings by classical authors in order to learn more about the historical context of their creation. He also introduced the idea that art developed in cycles from archaicism, to perfection, to decline. His writings were quickly translated into English and French, inspiring a sometimes irrational infatuation with the classical past. For David and his students, ancient Rome and Greece possessed yet another appeal: themes derived from classical antiquity could be used to criticize contemporary political conditions in France. David loved to situate his scenes in republican, but not in imperial Rome. By praising Roman republican virtue, he implicitly hinted at the possibility of a new republican political order for France at a time when the country was still a monarchy. - "The Oath of the Horatii": The Oath of the Horatii is the most iconic work of David and of the neoclassical style. This large canvas was painted five years before the outbreak of the French Revolution. Its style and moral message were much to the liking of the French Academy at the time of its creation, because it seemed to stand out as perfect example of the revival of history painting. David was seen as the new Nicolas Poussin, by then a role model of the Academy; story behind this painting takes the viewer back to the very beginnings of ancient Rome, when Rome was still a small town and not a global imperium. However, the story is not based on genuine classical sources, but is modeled after a play by the 17th-century French playwright Pierre Corneille. It is therefore not an authentic history lesson by any stretch, but a mostly fictional anecdote of the type of heroic behavior that made Rome great. The tale is supposed to be morally uplifting and tells of the Horatii triplet-brothers, the champions of Rome, who pledge to go and fight the triplet-brothers of Alba, the Curiatii (not pictured). At the time, the Romans and the people from the neighboring town of Alba had a lot of friction, but rather than all-out war, they decided to let their triplets fight out the differences. Things are not that simple, however, since the Curiatii were cousins of the Horatii; David's painting shows the Horatii triplets pledging allegiance to their father to triumph or die for (Republican) Rome. However, implied in the composition is a conflict of interest and a moral dilemma of epic proportions: Camille, the sister of the Horatiit (pictured far right), is married to one of the Curiatii triplets. Moreover, the youngest Horatii is married to a sister of the Curiatii. The grieving women to the right imply silent dissent with the men's war-like attitude; David loved to confront his viewers with moral dilemmas, which, in this case, can be summarized as follows: What has priority? Is allegiance to state more important than allegiance to one's family? Apparently, in David's art, the answer is a foregone conclusion: allegiance to the government, the law, the principle comes first; terms of the composition of the artwork, we see a division of a male versus a female space, which was undoubtedly inspired by Greuze. The women are illuminated in a golden light, which suggests a sense of purity. Although the men dominate the scene with their armor, swords, and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, doubts about their behavior creep in as they are literally depicted in the twilight - a twilight that may be both physical and moral - "The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons": Completed and exhibited in the biennial Salon of the year of the French Revolution, 1789, this painting depicts another story from early (Republican) Rome. The subject conveys an even more brutally uncompromising message than the Oath of the Horatii. Junius Brutus - the founder of the Roman Republic - receives the corpses of his two sons, beheaded by his own order. Brutus had declared a law that anybody who conspired to overthrow Rome's Republican order was to be beheaded. Before Brutus turned Rome into a Republic, it was a monarchy. Brutus' sons had been conspiring to re-establish the monarchy, but their plot was discovered. They had monarchist family ties on the mother's side, which motivated their actions; Depicted in the painting is the aftermath of the sons' execution. In the background, the lictors are carrying the corpses on stretchers into the courtyard of Junius Brutus' house. A preparatory drawing even showed their cut-off heads being carried on pikes. In the foreground we see Brutus, brooding and in shadow. Once again, we see David painting a moral dilemma: what comes first, family ties or the law (principles, the state, etc)? Brutus, for sure, opted for the latter. There are clear compositional divides in the artwork, such male versus female space, or light versus shadow. On the female side, emotionalism prevails. The mother is calling out in pain over the deaths of her sons, as suggested by the outstretched arm. The woman covering her head, on the far right, is the nursemaid who raised the sons from their earliest age. Her pose represents a more introspective mourning compared to that of the mother's extroversion.