18th Cent. Europe and America
- Rococo to Neoclassicism
ROCOCO
Watteau and Fragonard
aristocratic taste
NEOCLASSICISM
Wedgwood: Greek revival and
industrial revolution in Britain
Kauffmann and David: history
painting
Tomas Jefferson: Federal Style in
the US
France - Rococo
Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Signboard of Gersaint,
c. 1721, oil on canvas, h. 5’ 4”
Rococo taste: rich, super-decorated, gold, shiny
Art connoisseurship
Vanitas
Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Signboard of Gersaint,
c. 1721, oil on canvas, h. 5’ 4”
Theatrical light - opposite meaning
France - Rococo
Color/texture
composition:
center = pink, lacy
white, silk; swing: red
velvet, gold
Jean-Honore Fragonard, The
Swing, 1766. Oil on canvas, 2’ 8
1/2”
INDULGENCE OF
FRENCH
ARISTOCRACY
(BEFORE
REVOLUTION)
Against this:
philosophers (Diderot)
protested and asked
for serious, engaged,
educational art
Jean-Honore Fragonard, The
Swing, 1766. Oil on canvas, 2’ 8
1/2”
Britain - Enlightenment / Industrial revolution
Wright of Derby, An Experiment on a Bird
in the Air-Pump, 1768, Oil on canvas, h. 6’
Britain - Enlightenment / Industrial revolution
Wright of Derby, An Experiment on a Bird
in the Air-Pump, 1768, Oil on canvas, h. 6’
Inspired: Baroque religious paintings
Science = new religion
Britain - Neoclassicism
Vases: combine technology and mass
production with love for Greece (and
China)
Wedgwood invented jasperware
Decoration by Flaxman: emulation of
Greek vases
Josiah Wedgwood, The Apotheosis of
Homer, 1790-95. White jasperware body
with a mid-blued dip and white relief, h.
18”. Relief readapted from John Flaxman,
1778
Britain - Neoclassicism
Josiah Wedgwood, The Apotheosis of
Homer, 1790-95. White jasperware body
with a mid-blued dip and white relief, h.
18”. Relief readapted from John Flaxman,
1778
Britain - Neoclassicism
Josiah Wedgwood, The Apotheosis of
Homer, 1790-95. White jasperware body
with a mid-blued dip and white relief, h.
18”. Relief readapted from John Flaxman,
1778
British Neoclassicism
interest in ancient
Greece and Rome:
Not just
artistic/stylistic
model (ancient
“manner” = style)
models for
behavior
moralizing
subjects drawn
from antiquity
Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Mother
of the Gracchi, oil on canvas, 1785
Subject matter: Cornelia is asked
by friend to display her jewels
Rome = model of laic virtuosity and simplicity
History painting:
highest form of
painting in the 18th
cent
Painting in which the
subject-matter is taken
from classical,
mythological, or biblical
history.
The artist had to show all
his/her talents —not only
the skill of eye and hand,
but also his/her mastery of
the erudite subjectmatter
Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Mother
of the Gracchi, oil on canvas, 1785
1784
1789
1787
1793
1801
French Neoclassicism
Anti-Rococo
Classical history
= morality
Subject: 3 sons
will fight to save
Rome,
Oath: to their
father: they will
win or die
Despair of the
women
STYLE?
David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil
on canvas
Antiquity Roman sculpture + Italian
Renaissance:
1)
Rationalization of space (scientific
perspective, central focal point)
2)
Muscular bodies
3)
archeological depiction of history
(architecture, fashion, sculpture)
4)
linear (line = rationality)
5)
Horizontal/vertical composition
(stability)
American Neoclassicism =
Federal Style
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, near
Charlottesville, Virginia, 1793-1809
Thomas
Jefferson,
Virginia
State
Capitol,
Richmond,
1785
More than painting,
Neoclassical architectural
style particularly meaningful in
US
after Revolution (1775-1783)
= civic values, historical
heritage, democracy
Federal style: government
buildings
Jefferson: public and private
architecture
Monticello’s source?
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, near
Charlottesville, Virginia, 1793-1809
pedimented
entrance +
dome
Pantheon
readapted to
domestic
building