Probably the most famous and certainly the most severe of a series of works
which extolled the antique virtues of stoicism, masculinity and patriotism.
David, Jacques-Louis
The Oath of the Horatii
1784
The Enlightenment
The Age of Reason
18th century
Neo-Classical Painting
• Art was now supposed to move a person's
deepest feelings and teach virtue - not cater to
wasteful living. Artists and critics believed that it
should once again serve the nation and be good
for the people, just as it had for the ancient
Greeks and Romans. Classical art had depicted
serious subjects in a serious way, and so late
eighteenth century artists and architects
deliberately began imitating Roman and Greek
art. Their work became known as
Neoclassicism, a new imitation of classicism that
was nevertheless conscious for the first time that
Roman art was one style among many different
styles in history.
Rococo
An l8th century style, principally associated with the decorative arts,
deriving its name from the French, rocaille, meaning 'rock work'. The
name was first used in the early 19th century as a pejorative term,
denoting the frivolous over-elaboration which contemporary critics
considered the salient feature of the style. Rococo evolved in France
from, and as a reaction against, the formal and somewhat ponderous
style centred on the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Following Louis
XIV's death in 1715 the court moved to Paris and Rococo reflected the
new taste for lighter, more delicate decoration suitable for the smaller,
more comfortable and intimate interiors of town houses. Interiors and
furnishings alike were decorated with abstract 's' curves and 'c' scrolls
combined with naturalistic motifs derived from shells and plants, often in
a playfully asymmetrical arrangement. The paintings of Watteau, Boucher
and Fragonard, with their playful eroticism, soft colours and elegant
forms, provided a perfectly attuned accompaniment to the interiors for
which they were intended.
John Locke 1632-1704

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Essay Concerning
Human Understanding
1690
Second Treatise on
Government 1690
Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Tabula Rasa


At birth every human beings mind is a
blank page, and that all knowledge comes
from experience
Locke repudiated the view that human
beings were born with a tendency to
submit to authority
Second Treatise on
Government

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Social-Contract theory
Government was created to protect mans
natural rights of life liberty and property
When the government fails to protect these
rights the people have a right to rebel
The thinkers of the enlightenment accepted
Locke’s doctrine of the natural rights of
human beings.
What’s going on?
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Bach composes St. Matthew Passion
1729
Handel’s Messiah has its first
performance 1742
Mozart’s Opera the Marriage of Figaro is
first performed
Philosophes

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Many of the leaders of the enlightenment were
French
Philosophes were critics of the old regime who
developed new ideas about government, economics,
religion and advanced proposals for the improvement
of the human condition and the reform of society.
Philosophes shared the enlightenments faith in the
supremacy of human reason.
Reason could be used to reveal the natural laws that
regulated human affairs.
Philosophes believed in the progress of human beings
and society toward a more perfect condition.
Voltaire 1694-1778


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
Critic of the Old Regime
Reformer not a
revolutionary
Age of Louis XIV written
in 1743
Candide 1759

Satirical tale, attacked
superstition, religious
persecution, and war.
Letters on the English 1733

While in England Voltaire was attracted to the
philosophy of John Locke and ideas of Sir Isaac
Newton. He studied England's constitutional
monarchy, its religious tolerance, its philosophical
rationalism and most importantly the natural
sciences. Voltaire also greatly admired English
religious tolerance and freedom of speech, and saw
these as necessary prerequisites for social and
political progress. He saw England as a useful model
for what he considered to be a backward France,
Voltaire



“I may not agree with what you say, but I will
fight to the death for your right to say it”
Ecrasez L’infame “crush the infamous thing”
The best one could hope for in government
was a good monarch because “human beings
are rarely capable of ruling themselves”
Deism




Voltaire believed in a distant God
A great clock maker who built an orderly
universe and then stepped aside to let it run
Seen by the philosophes as a more natural
and rational approach to religion
God was the first cause, he was not involved
in the daily lives of humans and did not
respond to prayer
Jean Jacques Rousseau
1712-1778


Emile 1762
Social Contract 1762
Rousseau



Believed that people living in a state of
nature had once been virtuous, free,
equal and happy.
People had been corrupted by
civilization.
What they needed therefore was a
natural education, free of the corruption
and artificiality of society
Emile 1762



Rousseau set forth his ideas on
education in Emile.
The story has two heroes; Rousseau
the teacher and Emile the pupil.
Emile learned by direct experience
rather than from books, he was not
forced to read at a young age nor was
he subjected to severe discipline.
Social Contract



“All men are born free, but everywhere
they are in chains”.
Although government restricted
individual freedom, it was a necessary
evil
The General Will- reflects the common
interests of all the people and is
sovereign
Baron de Montesquieu
1689-1755


The Persian Letters
1721
The Spirit of the
Laws 1748
The Persian Letters


Social satire, criticized existing practices
and beliefs in France.
Done through the view of travelers from
Persia.
The Spirit of the Laws




As a member of the French nobility Montesquieu was
dismayed that royal absolutism had triumphed in
France
He argued that Despotism could be avoided if
political power was divided and shared by a variety of
classes and legal orders
He admired greatly the English model of balance of
power with its King, Parliament and independent
courts
He believed that the high courts in France, the
Parlements, would aid against the development of
absolutism
Denis Diderot 1713-1784



Encyclopedia
Edited by Diderot
and Jean d’Alembert
Wanted the
Encyclopedia to
change the genral
way of thinking
Francois Quesnay 1694-1774


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Physiocrat
Laissez-Faire
Rejected
Mercantilism
Land is value, not
gold
Trade should not be
limited
Adam Smith 1723-1790
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Scottish Economist
Wrote “Wealth of
Nations” 1776
Attacked Mercantilism
People should pursue
own economic selfinterest without
government
interference
Baron d’Holbach

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System of Nature 1770
Human beings are machines completely
determined by outside forces
Free will, God and immortality of the
Soul were foolish myths
Aggressive atheism turned off Deists
such as Voltaire
David Hume

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
The human mind is really nothing but a
bundle of impressions
Since our ideas reflect our sense
experiences, our reason cannot tell us
anything about questions that cannot
be verified by sense experience
Existence of God, origin of the Universe
Marquis de Condorcet

Progress of the Human Mind 1793