Unit 8 Review
*****TEST WILL INCLUDE POST IMPRESSIONISM, NOT INCLUDED IN THIS REVIEW SHEET
Rococo: 1700 - 1750
• Rich people doing rich people things
• Fantasy and escapism
• Light-hearted, sensual, indulgent, playful
• Pastel colors
• Painterly style
• Nature is wild but nice, metaphor for the carefree lives of the nobles
• Curvy lines
• Frivolous
• What major historical event gave rise to this movement?
• What was the attitude of the Rococo patrons and how are their attitudes and interests communicated
through their choice of subject matter and painting stye?
• Major artworks: Be able to discuss how the choice of subject matter, the meaning/purpose behind the work,
and how it is visually portrayed/communicated reflect the attitudes, interests, concerns and values of the time/
patrons/artists
★ Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
★ Fragonard, The Swing
★ Boucher, Madame de Pompadour
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Naturalism: Reactions against the Rococo 1700 – 1750:
• Patrons were often the middle class, who sought art of a more serious nature, usually in the Academic Style
• Subject matter focused on the working class and delivered messages that promoted simple living, and virtuous
lives “what it means to live a good life”
• Artwork has a secular moral message
• Artists employed satire to criticize the upper classes
• Civic Virtue in England: Artworks of heroic figures focused living figures, or recently deceased figures, whose
virtues were honor courage love of country, and a willingness to sacrifice their lives for the greater good of their
country
• The Enlightenment concept of NOBILITY, according to Rousseau, referred to a kind of character, not to
aristocratic birth
• What type of world did men strive to achieve through Enlightenment thinking?
• How did the Enlightenment and the writing of Rousseau criticize the aristocratic class and influence the
rise of Naturalism in France and England?
• In what ways did Grand manner portraits portray the virtues of living and recently deceased heroes?
• Major artworks: Be able to discuss how the choice of subject matter, the meaning/purpose behind the work, and
how it is visually portrayed/communicated reflect the attitudes, interests, concerns and values of the time/patrons/
artists
★ Chardin, Saying Grace
★ Greuze, Village Bride
★ Hogarth, Marriage Contract, and Breakfast a la Mode
★ Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord Heathfield
★ Benjamin West, Death of General Wolfe
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Neo Classical (The age of reason and revolution): 1750 - 1820
• Neo-classicism was a child of the Age of Reason (the Enlightenment), when philosophers believed that we
would be able to control our destinies by learning from and following the Laws of Nature – Science over
religion
• The Enlightenment spurred on revolutionaries who sought new forms of government that would reflect their
philosophies of equality, freedom, and human rights
• During this age of scientific inquiry, Neo-classicism promoted a connection to the Classical tradition because
it signified moderation and rational thinking,
• Because the enlightenment brought on civic unrest aimed at the out-moded forms of government, the turn
to antiquity in art was charged by a new and more politically charged spirit
• Propaganda: Neo-Classical art became the official style of the French revolution and later Napoleon
• Napoleon Bonaparte looked to the classical era to shape his rule: His republic quickly becomes and Empire
(not a coincidence)
Unit 8 Review
*****TEST WILL INCLUDE POST IMPRESSIONISM, NOT INCLUDED IN THIS REVIEW SHEET
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Artworks feature: Polished, linear academic style. Idealized figures. Scenes from Athens and Rome,
Classical architectural settings
How did David’s appropriation the classical past rouse its audience in a patriotic zeal against the
monarchy
In what ways do depictions of heroes serve political purposes?
How is the classical past used to promote the virtues of living heroes such a Marat and George
Washington?
How did Napoleon use the Neoclassical style to assert his power and authority?
Major artworks: Be able to discuss how the choice of subject matter, the meaning/purpose behind the work,
and how it is visually portrayed/communicated reflect the attitudes, interests, concerns and values of the time/
patrons/artists
★ David, Oath of Horatii
★ David, Death of Marat
★ Jefferson, Monticello
★ Houdon, George Washington
★ Greenough, George Washington
★ David, Coronation of Napoleon
★ David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps
★ Canova, Pauline Borghese
★ Ingres, Apotheosis of Homer
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Romanticism 1790 – 1850: The 1st Industrial Revolution
• FOLLOWING THE NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD’S AGE OF REASON, THE ROMANTIC ERA 1800-50, WAS
THE AGE OF SENSIBILITY
• ARTISTS BELIEVED THEY SHOULD NOT ONLY PAINT WHAT THEY SEE BEFORE THEM BUT WHAT
THEY SEE WITHIN THEMSELVES
• Influenced by Rousseau who rejected progress and urged a return to a more natural existence in order to
save man – an existence where feeling and sentiment was above reason.
• Heavily influenced by revived interest in the Gothic = Images of fear, cruelty, insanity
• Images of heroism, suffering, the exotic.
• Traces of classical art remain in these turbulent dramatic historical and contemporary scenes - NeoBaroque techniques: intense color, intense drama, dramatic light, dynamic motion
• Nature as vast, terrifying, powerful, awe-inspiring - THE SUBLIME
• Landscapes in America serve a propaganda for manifest destiny
• Choice of subject matter and dramatic representations reflects a time of turbulent change, industrialization,
political revolution, and man examining the cruelties of mankind
• What historical and political events caused artists to put emotion before reason?
• Why was there a sudden interest in nature and how is nature regarded in these artworks?
• How does the depictions of nature differ in European and American artworks, and why?
• Be able to explain how the style of painting visually captures the idea of the sublime
• How do depictions of heroes differ in the Romanticist style, from those in Neoclassical artworks?
• Major artworks: Be able to discuss how the choice of subject matter, the meaning/purpose behind the work,
and how it is visually portrayed/communicated reflect the attitudes, interests, concerns and values of the time/
patrons/artists
★ Goya, The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters
★ Goya, 3rd of May
★ Gericault, Raft of the Medusa
★ Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
★ Constable, The Haywain
★ Cole, The Oxbow
★ Turner, the Slave Ship
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Unit 8 Review
*****TEST WILL INCLUDE POST IMPRESSIONISM, NOT INCLUDED IN THIS REVIEW SHEET
Realism 1830 – 1860: The 2nd Industrial Revolution
• Reaction against Romanticism: In 1863 the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire published an essay
entitled “The Painter of Modern Life,” which declared that the artist must be of his/her own time. This new
movement REALISM challenged the accepted art of the French Salon
• Artists leave behind heightened emotion of Romanticism and painted only the reality of what they could see
• Much of their art was a reaction against the stark realities of the industrial revolution and was used for calling
attention to the needs and problems of the working poor
• Everyday scenes, often of the lower class, who are usually depicted sympathetically and with dignity
• In an urban world of rapid development, Realists sought to arouse concern for the lower class, and awaken
a social conscious lulled by progress and leisure
• Subjects are not posed, nor are they individualistic - the compositions often reflect the informality of
photography
• In what ways in Realism the very beginning of Modernism?
• How do these artworks differ from the artworks of the past both in subject and style?
• How are these artworks political, and how do they differ from other political artworks?
• How do the Realists in America differ in intent and style compared with the French realists?
• Major artworks: Be able to discuss how the choice of subject matter, the meaning/purpose behind the work,
and how it is visually portrayed/communicated reflect the attitudes, interests, concerns and values of the time/
patrons/artists
★ Courbet, The Stone Breakers
★ Millet, The Gleaners
★ Daumier, Third Class Carriage
★ Homer, Veteran in a new Field
★ Eakins, The Gross Clinic
★ Tanner, The Thankful Poor
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Impressionism 1870 – 1890: The 2nd Industrial Revolution Continued
• The First fully modern group of artists who challenged the French Salon, and held their own exhibits - faced
harsh criticism but then grew in popularity
• Influenced by Realists and also Turner, also paint modern scenes and only what they can see
• Focus is now on genre scenes of the everyday urban life - focus is leisure activities of the middle class
(cafes, bars, homes, vacation)
• Focus also on landscapes - paint EN PLEIN AIRE
• Wanted to capture fleeting impressions of light and color, atmosphere, and arrested motion = Loose,
rapid brushstrokes (“the revolution of the color patch”)
• Avoided blacks and grays
• Compositions are often cut off by the picture frame - influence of photography
• Highly influenced by Japanese wood block prints - Japonisme
• Artists ceased to hide their painting medium and techniques but rather became self aware of the act of
painting as something to explore, and to let the audience in on this exploration.
• In what ways do the artworks capture the effects the industrial revolution have had on the middle class
and urban life?
• How are the artists interests in light and color translated into their artworks?
• What radical changes do Impressionists introduce to art?
• What did women bring to the table during this art movement?
• Major artworks: Be able to discuss how the choice of subject matter, the meaning/purpose behind the work,
and how it is visually portrayed/communicated reflect the attitudes, interests, concerns and values of the time/
patrons/artists
★ Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe
★ Manet, Olympia (be able to compare to Venus of Urbino)
★ Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Berger
★ Manet: Rouen Cathedral, The Portal (in sun)
★ Caillebotte, Paris: A Rainy Day
★ Renoir, La Moulin de la Galette
★ Casatt, The Bath
★ Degas, The Rehearsal
★ Degas, the Glass of Absinthe