Gardner’s Art Through the
Ages, 12e
Chapter 28
The Enlightenment and its Legacy:
Art of the Late 18th through the
Mid-19th Century
Napoleonic Europe 1800-1815
THE ENLIGHTENMENT: PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY
The Enlightenment expanded the boundaries of European knowledge. It
offered a new way of thinking critically about the world and about
humankind. The Enlightenment employed reason and empirical evidence,
and promoted the scientific method.
The Doctrine of Empiricism :
The Doctrine of Empiricism, promoted by John Locke, argued that the
mind is a blank tablet upon which our experience of the material world,
acquired through the senses, is imprinted. Ideas are formed on the basis of
this experience. Locke also believed that the law of Nature grants people
the natural rights of life, liberty, and property, and that the purpose of
government is to protect these rights.
The Doctrine of Progress :
The philosophies in France identified individuals and societies-at-large as
part of physical nature and argued that through the application of reason
and common sense the problems of society could be remedied. They
believed that knowledge was the basis of freedom and that through
knowledge societies could be systematically improved.
Scientific Art of the Enlightenment
• The Enlightenment and the interest in science and the natural
world had a strong effect on artistic expression.
• Since the Renaissance, artists had been concerned with
learning about the body by dissecting it. As that description
became more exact and complete, the anatomical artists skill
became a specialty.
• Joseph Wright of Derby’s series of candlelit scenes departed
from previous painting conventions by depicting a scientific
subject in the reverential manner formerly reserved for
scenes of historical or religious significance, illustrating the
increasing status of science in society.
• The Industrial Revolution in England in the late 18th century
saw technological improvement in iron, allowing it to be
used in a variety of new ways --- including bridges, etc.
WILLIAM
HUNTER, Child
in Womb,
drawing from
dissection of a
woman who died
in the ninth
month of
pregnancy, from
Anatomy of the
Human Gravid
Uterus, 1774.
JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery (in
which a lamp is put in place of the sun), ca. 1763–1765. Oil on canvas, 4’ 10” x 6’ 8”.
Joseph Wright of Derby's realistic painting shows a demonstration of an orrery, the
mechanism of which is scrupulously and accurately rendered.
JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY, An Experiment on a Bird in
the Air Pump, ca. 1768.
ABRAHAM DARBY III and THOMAS F. PRITCHARD, iron bridge at
Coalbrookdale, England (first cast-iron bridge over the Severn River), 1776–1779. 100’
Enlightenment's
champion:
Houdon's marble bust shows
Voltaire, whose writings and
critical activism contributed
to the conviction that
fundamental changes were
necessary in government in
order for humankind to
progress.
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Portrait Bust of Voltaire
white marble, 1778
• VOLTAIRE VERSUS ROUSSEAU: SCIENCE
VERSUS THE TASTE FOR THE "NATURAL“
While Voltaire thought the salvation of humanity was in science's
advancement and in society's rational improvement, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau believed that the arts, sciences, society, and civilization in
general had corrupted "natural man" and that humanity's only salvation
was to return to its original condition.
The taste for the "natural" in France:
Rousseau placed feelings above reason as the most "natural" of human
expressions and called for the cultivation of sincere, sympathetic, and
tender emotions. Because of this belief, he exalted as a model for
imitation the unsullied emotions and the simple, honest, uncorrupt
"natural" life of the peasant.
The Sentimentality of Rural Romance: The expression of sentiment is
apparent in Jean-Baptiste Greuze's much-admired painting of The
Village Bride, which shows a peasant family in a rustic interior.
JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE, The Village Bride, 1761. Oil on canvas, 3’ x 3’ 10
1/2”. Louvre, Paris.
JEAN-BAPTISTESIMÉON CHARDIN,
Grace at Table, 1740. Oil
on canvas, 1’ 7” x 1’ 3”.
Louvre, Paris.
ÉLISABETH LOUISE
VIGÉE-LEBRUN, SelfPortrait, 1790. Oil on
canvas, 8’ 4” x 6’ 9”.
Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
William Hogarth
English painter and engraver, was one of the leading
British artists of the first half of the 18th century. He was
trained as an engraver and in 1731, he executed his first
series of modern morality paintings, a totally new
concept intended for wider dissemination through
engraving. A Rake's Progress (c1735, eight scenes) and
Marriage a la Mode (c1743, six scenes). These series of
narrative paintings & prints followed a character or group
of characters in their encounters with some social evil.
Hogarth compared his sequential paintings to theatrical
performances, and thus in each series, minor vices and
social affectations are incidentally satirized as the main
theme - the punishment of a major vice - takes centre
stage.
Gin Lane. 1751.
Engraving. The
British Museum,
London, UK.
This is Scene 1 of the series of six, entitled The Marriage Settlement. The theme, an
unhappy marriage between the daughter of a rich, miserly alderman merchant and the
son of an impoverished earl. The series thus begins with the proud Earl pointing to his
family tree rooted in William the Conqueror; he rests his gouty foot - a sign of degeneracy
- on a footstool decorated with his coronet. Behind him is a lavish building in the new
classical style, unfinished for lack of money; a creditor is thrusting bills at him. But on the
table in front of him is a pile of gold - the bride's dowry just handed him by the
bespectacled alderman, who holds the marriage contract. Silvertongue, an ingratiating
lawyer, whispers in the ear of the alderman's daughter listlessly twirling her wedding ring
on a handkerchief. Turning away from her to take snuff and admire himself in the glass and, in the engraving, to lead our eye into the next tableau - is the foppish bridegroom.
At his feet, symbolic of the couple's plight, are a dog and a bitch chained to each other.
From the walls horrid Italian Old Master martyrdoms presage tragedy, and a Gorgon's
head screams from an oval frame above the pair.
In Marriage a’ la Mode, the husband and wife are tired after a long night
spent in separate pursuits. While the wife was at home for an evening of
cards andmusic-making, here young husband had been away for a night
of suspicious business. His hands are thrust deep into his empty
breeches, while his wife’s dog sniffs inquiringly at a lacy woman’s cap
protruding from his coat pocket. A steward, his hands full of unpaid
bills, raises his eyes to heaven in despair at the actions of his noble
master and mistress.
WILLIAM HOGARTH, Breakfast Scene, from Marriage à la Mode, ca. 1745. Oil on
canvas, approx. 2’ 4” x 3’. National Gallery,