23 The Age of Reason: England and France, eighteenth century Flashcards
Christopher Wren dates?
1632-1723
What great task was Christopher Wren given?
Rebuilding London’s churches after the great fire of 1666.
Identify, date, describe
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.
Protestant countries were _________ by the all-pervading fashion of the Baroque, but did not entirely _______ it.
Protestant countries were impressed by the all-pervading fashion of the Baroque, but did not entirely adopt it.
Identify, date, describe
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.
The architectural ideal of English 18th century aristocracy was not the _________ but the ________ _______.
The architectural ideal of English 18th century aristocracy was not the palace but the country house.
What was the ultimate authority on architectural taste in England in 1700s?
Andrea Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture (1570). To build one’s villa in the Palladian manner was considered the last word in fashion.
Identify, date, describe
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.
In 18th century England, the idea of what idealised nature should look like was largely derived from the paintings of _______ _________.
The idea of what idealised nature should look like was largely derived from the paintings of Claude Lorrain.
Identify, date, describe
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.
William Hogarth dates
1697-1764
Early to mid 1700s
In 1700s, English men of taste would prefer to collect ___ ______ or works of foreign artists than commission ________ painters.
In 1700s, English men of taste would prefer to collect old masters or works of foreign artists than employ English painters.
What inspired Hogarth to create Rake’s Progress?
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.
Identify, date, describe
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.
Joshua Reynolds dates?
1723-92
1700s
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.
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.
Reynolds became first president of which newly founded organisation?
Royal Academy of Art
Reynolds espoused idea that rather than “amusing mankind with minute neatness of imitation, the genuine painter must…”
“Endeavour to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas”
In 1700s England, only art that was really in demand was…
In 1700s England, only art that was really in demand was portraiture.
Identify, date, describe
Joseph Baretti, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1773
Baretti was Italian scholar, friend of Dr Johnson and author of English-Italian dictionary.
Identify, date, describe
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
Thomas Gainsborough dates?
1727-1788
Identify, date, describe
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.
Reynolds criticised Gainsborough for what 3 things?
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
Reynolds’ work was more ________ and __________; Gainsborough’s relied on brilliant __________ and a sure _____.
Reynolds’ work was more polished and meticulous; Gainsborough’s relied on brilliant brushwork and a sure eye.
Gainsborough and Reynolds were inundated with portrait commissions, but both would have preferred to paint what?
Reynolds –ambitious mythological scenes or episodes from ancient history, in the “Grand Manner”
Gainsborough –landscapes
Identify, date, describe
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.
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 _________.
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.
In France in the early 1700s, the grandeur of Versailles was supplanted by the more delicate and intimate effects of _________ __________.
In France in the early 1700s, the grandeur of Versailles was supplanted by the more delicate and intimate effects of Watteau’s Rococo.
In the 1700s, painters such as _________ in France and _________ in England began to take an interest in episodes from the life of ordinary people.
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.
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin dates?
1699-1779
Two years younger than Hogarth
Identify, date, describe
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.
The works of Chardin were later favourably contrasted by 19th-century revolutionaries with those of…
Watteau
Chardin’s scenes of relaxed domesticity resemble those of …
Vermeer
Antoine Houdon dates?
1741-1828
Identify, date, describe
Jean-Antoine Houdon, Voltaire, 1781
Captures the intelligence and compassion of great mind
Jean-Honoré Fragonard dates?
1732-1806
Generation of Gainsborough
Fragonard was a student in the ateliers of which masters?
Chardin and then Boucher
Identify, date, describe
Park of Villa D’Este, Fragonard, 1760
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”.
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, in books “Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture” (1750) and “History of Ancient Art” (1764)
Who was the first art historian to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art?
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)
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.
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.
