Enlightenment Ideas Spread
Chapter 18: Section 2
The Age of Reason
General Timeline
• Chapter 14: Section 5 – Scientific
Revolution (1550-1700)
• Chapter 18: Sections 1 & 2 –
Enlightenment/Age of Reason
(1700-1800)
• Chapter 17: Age of Absolutism
(1550-1800)
Setting the Scene
• Heart of the Enlightenment = Paris
• Intellectuals debated new ideas and
proposed reforms, examined traditional
beliefs and customs.
• “An opinion launched in Paris was like a
battering ram launched by 30 million men.”
The Challenge of New Ideas
• Educated people saw
the need for reform
• Wanted to achieve a
just society
• PRO --- social justice
and happiness
• Govt./Church Response:
Censorship --- restricting
access to information and
ideas
• Banned/burned books,
imprisioned writers, etc.
• Philosophes/Writers
Reaction: disguise ideas
in works of fiction
Salons
• Informal social gatherings,
where art, literature,
science, philosophy were
discussed
• 1600s: began in Paris by
noblewomen…as poetry
readings
• 1700s: spread to middle
class --- Madame
Geoffrin
• Discussion forums today?
Enlightened Monarchs
• Allowed discussion of Enlightenment ideas in
their courts of Europe
• Philosophes tried to persuade rulers to adapt new
ideas.
• Monarchs often used power to bring political or
social change
• Frederick the Great (II), Catherine the Great (II)
and Joseph II were all Enlightened Monarchs.
Frederick the Great (1740-1786)
• King of Prussia; son of
Frederick William I
• Compared himself to the
philosopher-king M.
Aurelius
• Enjoyed reading, music
(composed 100 sonatas & 4
symphonies), plays, etc.
• Wrote Anti-Machiavel before
becoming King
• Lured philosophers
(Voltaire) to Berlin
• Developed Academy of
Science
Frederick as King
• wanted a strong monarchy and power, but DID NOT
believe in divine right!
• Developed a strong military; invaded Silesia (Poland)
• GOAL: modernize his lands
• Tolerated religious differences (Huguenots, Jesuits, Jews
were all valuable to Prussia)
• Frederick spoke his native German, French, English,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; he also understood Latin,
Greek and Hebrew.
• Died in an armchair in his study at Sansoucci (age 74)
• Frederick the Great (Old Fritz)
Frederick the Great &
Sansoucci (carefree) Palace
Catherine the Great (1762-1796)
• Exchanged letters with Diderot
(protected his writings) and
Voltaire
• Patron of arts (opera), literature,
education; est. 1st imperial zoo!
• Birth name was Sophie Augusta
Fredericka; born to a Prussian
(German) general
• Married her cousin Peter III of
Russia; negotiated by Frederick
the Great, who wanted stronger
ties with Russia against Austria
• Her lover, Grigori Orlov,
headed a conspiracy that made
her ruler…Peter was murdered
6 months after taking the
throne!
Catherine as Russian Queen
• She often ruled as tyrant; proclaimed herself a lover of
liberty, but oppressed the serfs in her country
• Her armies defeated the Turks, the Swedes and Poles in 3
separate wars.
• 200,000 miles were added to Russia’s territories
• She suffered a stroke while taking a bath (age 67)
• Many urban legends surround her death; regarding her
many lovers and sexual “appetite.”
• She was succeeded by her son Paul I, who was strangled
and trampled to death at age 47.
Joseph II (Peasant Emperor)
1765-1790
• Hapsburg ruler, HRE and most radical Enlightenment
monarch
• Son of Maria Theresa and Francis I; brother of Marie
Antoinette
• Studied Voltaire & Encyclopedists;patron to Mozart &
Beethoven
• Traveled in disguise among his subjects to learn of their
problems
• Granted toleration to Protestants and Jews in a
predominantly Catholic empire
• Ended censorship, serfdom, death penalty
• Tried to bring Catholic Church under royal control…sold
monastery/convent property to build hospitals…similar
to???
Joseph II
Empress Maria Theresa
1745-1780
• Oldest daughter of Charles
VI; mother of Joseph II
• Foe = Frederick the Great
• Ruled through the
Pragmatic Sanction
• Bore 16 children (11
daughters!) 1 of the 11
was Marie Antoinette,
who married Louis XVI of
France.
Court art/architecture:
1600s/1700s
• Artists and composers had to please their
patrons, who commissioned works and gave
them jobs.
• Greek or Roman style OR in the baroque
style --- grand, complex
• Baroque paintings: huge, colorful, exciting
• Glorified battles or the lives of saints
Artistic Movements
• Classicism (Renaissance period) 1400s: world as
it was, little detail --Michelangelo, DaVinci,
Raphael
• Mannerism (1550-1600): distorted proportions
El Greco (View of Toledo), Tintoretto (Last
Supper), Michelangelo (Last Judgment)
• Baroque (1600s): detail, drama, grandeur,
emotional – examples on next slides!
• Rococo (1720s France): opulence, grace,
lightness, shell-like curves, delicate colors,
cherubs, pastoral settings, portraits of nobles
Baroque architecture
• From Portuguese word
barrocco meaning an
irregularly shaped pearl
• Artists involved audiences
emotionally; drama,
tension, grandeur,
elaborate, detailed, etc.
• “tool” of the Catholic
Church during CounterReformation
• Purpose: renewal of faith
and spiritual feeling
Baroque art examples
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Melk Abbey in Austria
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa & David
Rembrandt’s Night Watch
Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring
Velasquez’s Maids of Honor (Las Meninas)
Versailles Hall of Mirrors
Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa
& Statue of David
Velasquez: Maids of Honor (King Philip IV,
Maria-Anna of Austria & daughter Margarita
Versailles: Hall of Mirrors
Rococo style
• From French word rocaille, a decorative
work made from pebbles and shells
• Elegant and charming
• Decadent and frivolous, playful, graceful
• Bronze, marble, mirrors, etc.
• Delicate shells and flowers on furniture and
tapestries
Ottobeuren Basilica (Bavaria) & Jean
Antoine Watteau’s Pilgrimage to Cythera
Rococo art/architecture continued
• Portrait painters showed
noble subjects in rural
settings surrounded by
servants, pets, etc.
• Artists preferred small
rooms in comparison to
vast spaces of the baroque
style; also convex/concave
exteriors
• Façade of Cadiz Cathedral
in Spain (116 years to
complete)
New audience
• Middle class merchants wanted portraits
painted without frills
• Pictures of family life or realistic
town/country scenes were popular
• Dutch painters Rembrandt and Vermeer
painted ordinary, middle class subjects
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
• Dutch painter, engraver
and printer who was
referred to as the “lord of
light” for his use of light
in his famous painting The
Night Watch (The Company
of Frans Banning Cocq and
Willem van Ruytenburch: 11 x
14 feet)
• Painted 60 oil selfportraits of himself
Rembrandt’s Night Watch
Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)
• Dutch painter who
also used light in
many of his paintings
• He painted only for
local patrons
• Specialized in
domestic scenes
The Love Letter & The Milkmaid
Trends in music
• Ballets and operas were performed at royal
courts
• Eventually opera houses were built to
entertain the masses
• Bach, Handel & Mozart were 3 of many
famous Enlightenment musicians to make
an impact.
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
• Devout German
Lutheran
• Wrote religious works
for the organ and
choirs
• Brandenburg Concerto
is very well-known
George Frederick Handel
(1685-1759)
• German composer
who spent much of his
life in England
• Wrote Water Music for
King George I of
England
• Wrote operas
• The Messiah is his
most celebrated work.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
• Child prodigy (genius)
born in Salzburg, Austria
• Spent much of his life in
Vienna, Austria
• Began playing and
composing music around
the age of 5
• Wrote operas, symphonies
and religious music
• Died in poverty: age 35 of
rheumatic fever,
influenza???
Mozart’s family
• Father: Leopold
• Mother: Anna Maria
• Sister: Maria Anna –
“Nannerl”
• Only 2 of the 7 children
survived!
• Married Constanze Weber;
had 6 children – 2
survived: Carl Thomas &
Franz Xaver
Lives of the Majority
• Aristocratic or middle-class culture did not affect
the majority
• Western Europe was a bit more prosperous than
Eastern Europe & Russia, where serfdom
(peasants could still be bought & sold with the
land) was still the norm.
• 1700s: radical ideas about social equality/justice
made their way into peasant villages --- led to
unrest and war in many cases