23 The Age of Reason: England and France, eighteenth century

Question 1

Christopher Wren dates?

Answer 1

1632-1723

Question 2

What great task was Christopher Wren given?

Answer 2

Rebuilding London’s churches after the great fire of 1666.

Question 3

Identify, date, describe

Answer 3

St Paul’s Cathedral, Christopher Wren, 1710

On site of previous gothic cathedral with central spire

Central cupola, flanking towers and a temple facade to frame main entrance.

English Baroque –nothing freakish or fantastic in decoration, restrained and sober.

Question 4

Protestant countries were _________ by the all-pervading fashion of the Baroque, but did not entirely _______ it.

Answer 4

Protestant countries were impressed by the all-pervading fashion of the Baroque, but did not entirely adopt it.

Question 5

Identify, date, describe

Answer 5

St Stephen Walbrook interior, Christopher Wren, 1672

Unlike Catholic architecture, designed as a hall where the faithful meet for worship – not to conjure up image of another world. Simplicity also allows for communion with God.

Question 6

The architectural ideal of English 18th century aristocracy was not the _________ but the ________ _______.

Answer 6

The architectural ideal of English 18th century aristocracy was not the palace but the country house.

Question 7

What was the ultimate authority on architectural taste in England in 1700s?

Answer 7

Andrea Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture (1570). To build one’s villa in the Palladian manner was considered the last word in fashion.

Question 8

Identify, date, describe

Answer 8

Chiswick House, London, 1725

Designed for Lord Burlington, decorated by William Kent (1685-1748)

Imitation of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda.

Strict classical style –no curves, volutes or statues.

Question 9

In 18th century England, the idea of what idealised nature should look like was largely derived from the paintings of _______ _________.

Answer 9

The idea of what idealised nature should look like was largely derived from the paintings of Claude Lorrain.

Question 10

Identify, date, describe

Answer 10

Grounds of Stourhead, Wiltshire, 1741

Temple recalls Palladio’s Villa Rotonda (modelled on Pantheon).

Banker Henry Hoare had travelled to Italy on the Grand Tour and returned with a painting by Claude Lorrain, on which he modelled garden.

Hoare dammed a stream on his estate, created a lake, surrounded with constructions representing steps of the journey of Aeneas in the Aeneid.

Question 11

William Hogarth dates

Answer 11

1697-1764
Early to mid 1700s

Question 12

In 1700s, English men of taste would prefer to collect ___ ______ or works of foreign artists than commission ________ painters.

Answer 12

In 1700s, English men of taste would prefer to collect old masters or works of foreign artists than employ English painters.

Question 13

What inspired Hogarth to create Rake’s Progress?

Answer 13

Idea that in order to impress people raised in the puritan tradition, art must have purpose.

Rake’s Progress teaches rewards of virtue and wages of sin.

A sermon in pictures.

Question 14

Identify, date, describe

Answer 14

Rake’s Progress: Rake in Bedlam, Hogarth, 1735

Influences:

Dutch masters such as Jan Steen, in depicting humorous episodes from everyday life.

Italian Masters in composing group.

Reputation earned not due to paintings but to engravings made of them. Not taking seriously as painter in England in lifetime.

Question 15

Joshua Reynolds dates?

Answer 15

1723-92
1700s

Question 16

Reynolds travelled to _________ and agreed with the Carracci that the way of the artists was to study and imitate the great _______ –Michelangelo, Correggio, Titian, etc.

Answer 16

Reynolds travelled to Italy and agreed with the Carracci that the way of the artists was to study and imitate the great masters –Michelangelo, Correggio, Titian, etc.

Question 17

Reynolds became first president of which newly founded organisation?

Answer 17

Royal Academy of Art

Question 18

Reynolds espoused idea that rather than “amusing mankind with minute neatness of imitation, the genuine painter must…”

Answer 18

“Endeavour to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas”

Question 19

In 1700s England, only art that was really in demand was…

Answer 19

In 1700s England, only art that was really in demand was portraiture.

Question 20

Identify, date, describe

Answer 20

Joseph Baretti, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1773

Baretti was Italian scholar, friend of Dr Johnson and author of English-Italian dictionary.

Question 21

Identify, date, describe

Answer 21

Miss Bowles with her dog, Joseph Reynolds, 1775
Sentimentality –bringing out sweetness and charm of child and dog
Captures tender moment, rather than staged. Photographic approach –novel for its time

Question 22

Thomas Gainsborough dates?

Answer 22

1727-1788

Question 23

Identify, date, describe

Answer 23

Miss Haverfield, Thomas Gainsborough, 1780

Capturing of a single, characteristic moment –novel approach at the time, pre-photography

Brilliant brushwork on display, reminiscent of Watteau.

Question 24

Reynolds criticised Gainsborough for what 3 things?

Answer 24

1) a lack of meticulous finishing
2) unconventional techniques like using a hog’s hair brush (rather than a finer sable brush)
3) landscape painting, which Reynolds considered less noble than historical or portrait painting

Question 25

Reynolds’ work was more ________ and __________; Gainsborough’s relied on brilliant __________ and a sure _____.

Answer 25

Reynolds’ work was more polished and meticulous; Gainsborough’s relied on brilliant brushwork and a sure eye.

Question 26

Gainsborough and Reynolds were inundated with portrait commissions, but both would have preferred to paint what?

Answer 26

Reynolds –ambitious mythological scenes or episodes from ancient history, in the “Grand Manner”

Gainsborough –landscapes

Question 27

Identify, date, describe

Answer 27

Rural scene, Thomas Gainsborough, 1780

Could not find buyers for landscapes, so these were mainly sketches for own enjoyment.

Not drawn from nature –landscape compositions designed to evoke and reflect a mood.

Question 28

In the eighteenth century, England, where art was not used to enhance power of god-like rulers, became an admired model for people in Europe who longed for the rule of _________.

Answer 28

In the eighteenth century, England, where art was not used to enhance power of god-like rulers, became an admired model for people in Europe who longed for the rule of reason.

Question 29

In France in the early 1700s, the grandeur of Versailles was supplanted by the more delicate and intimate effects of _________ __________.

Answer 29

In France in the early 1700s, the grandeur of Versailles was supplanted by the more delicate and intimate effects of Watteau’s Rococo.

Question 30

In the 1700s, painters such as _________ in France and _________ in England began to take an interest in episodes from the life of ordinary people.

Answer 30

In the 1700s, painters such as Chardin in France and Hogarth in England began to take an interest in episodes from the life of ordinary people.

Question 31

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin dates?

Answer 31

1699-1779
Two years younger than Hogarth

Question 32

Identify, date, describe

Answer 32

Saying grace (Le Bénédicité), Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1740.

Chardin made career painting still life –brings same approach to human figures.

Resembles Vermeer in which finds the poetry in domestic scenes, without looking for striking effects or allusions.

Colours calm and restrained.

Exhibited at Salon and purchased by Louis XV.

Question 33

The works of Chardin were later favourably contrasted by 19th-century revolutionaries with those of…

Answer 33

Watteau

Question 34

Chardin’s scenes of relaxed domesticity resemble those of …

Answer 34

Vermeer

Question 35

Antoine Houdon dates?

Answer 35

1741-1828

Question 36

Identify, date, describe

Answer 36

Jean-Antoine Houdon, Voltaire, 1781

Captures the intelligence and compassion of great mind

Question 37

Jean-Honoré Fragonard dates?

Answer 37

1732-1806
Generation of Gainsborough

Question 38

Fragonard was a student in the ateliers of which masters?

Answer 38

Chardin and then Boucher

Question 39

Identify, date, describe

Answer 39

Park of Villa D’Este, Fragonard, 1760

Question 40

Who wrote the following? And when?

Art should aim at “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” and praised the idealism of Greek art, in which he said we find “not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone […] The only way for us to become great or if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients”.

Answer 40

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, in books “Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture” (1750) and “History of Ancient Art” (1764)

Question 41

Who was the first art historian to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art?

Answer 41

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)

Question 42

In late 18th and early 19th centuries, _________ permeated various aspects of art and architecture, providing a counterpoint to the preceding ________ and _______ styles, and responded to a broader cultural and intellectual context that prized reason, ethics, classical harmony and order.

Answer 42

In late 18th and early 19th centuries, Neoclassicism permeated various aspects of art and architecture, providing a counterpoint to the preceding Baroque and Rococo styles, and responded to a broader cultural and intellectual context that prized reason, ethics, classical harmony and order.