Flash cards for Final Exam
Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons 1789.
This work was shown right after the storming of bastille kicking off the French revolution. It was commissioned by the government. The subject is inspired by Roman history. Lucius Brutus was the founder of the Roman republic and first console of the republic. (republic set up in 509 BCE) Brutuses sons has conspired with the former monarch of the roman kingdom to overthrow the republic and restore the monarchy. The plot was found out and Brutus himself orders the execution of his sons. Brutus in the corner becomes the defender of the republic at the cost of his own family . The sons were connected throught he monarch through the mom - monachry is then feminized. He sits by a sclupure that is the personified power and nature of Rome. ALso below is the capitoline wolf - a symbol of ancient Rome. The women more react to the tragedy of the sons deaths. The women seem to be in a more makeshif interior space, while brutus is in an in between space fo public and not public. The center of the canvas has a void and is unfilled by figures and this is done on purpose for emotional effect. Still life in the cetner of a basket and sw=ewing items - abondened by the women. Makes the viewer wonder did Brutus make the right choice? Draws in the viewer of waht they think? Brutus even looks conflicted. Brutus was seen as a hero in the French revolution. (busts of him pla ed around city). The horitai brothers fight til death - one survives but not one where one of the sisters is the finance of one and Brutus kills the fiance as well. Brutus almost seems to look out and speak to the leaders of France that this may be the amount of sacrifice that will be made . The artists Jacques David was in the thick of the revolution once it was spurred, with this came his distaste for the academy and for its way of having hierchy and state run power. He felt slighted differnt times when he didnt get director roles and didnt win certain things. David opened up the salon in 1790 for more artists to show – even women. In 1993 he was a leading voice in calling the academy to disband all togther becuase they squelshed creativity and students had to fit into a mold. David through tiem headed up the propeganda machien fo the revolution.
Jacques-Louis David, Marat at his Last Breath/Death of Marat, 1793.
Before the revolution broke out Marat was a scientist and journalist, and an anti-royal. He was very to the left. The most striking event of his political life was his assasination. He had called for the executation of a number of royalists - Charlotte dardet - related to some of the royalists executted traveled to Pris to exact her revenge on Marat. She gainedaccess to his house and he had a skin condtion that made in soak in baths which we can see his in, in the painting. he would sit in the tub and do a lot of revolutionary work in it. She wanted to come in to meet with him to gather money for widows of the revolution. After she gained access to see him she stabs him. He we can see the cut and knife. After his dath and jacobites were amiguius on what to do with Marat, he wasnt as easy to hold up as others. David orchestrates his body to be displayed. It was taken to a church and displayed on a pillar. He was assasinated in the summer so it was hot and not good to have the body out for long. In the painting blood is on the paper and has charlottes name on it. Theres another letter that shows his support for the widows and orphans and a banknote, in his last mooment was doing work to support these people. Thus painted Charlotte in a worse light and him in a more heroic light. The painted balances bewteen the real and ideal showing him as muscular and there is a focus ont he male nude under duress. The background is emlimnated creating a note of transendance. Hinting at this was the death of a politican butperhaps something grater. David wants him to be beautiufl an serene. Light shines down and reflects a supernatural sort of look. Its done to create a supernatural look thats not christian that is almost like a golden divine. David is though making a connection with traditional religious images like Carvaggios entombment adn we him in the same position as christ after the crucidfication. Marat his the seculaar revolutionary hero rather than a christian religious savior. David gave these paintings to the revloutionary government. Before the paintings were hung they were parades through the street ina. festival. this festival was held on the same dya that marie annioinette was Guiottened. And set up in lourve for public admiration before hung int he national chambers.
Anne-Louis Girodet, Sleep of Endymion, 1791; 1793 Salon
One of Davids puils and the biggest star to come out of davids studio. Went to rome right as the revolution was breaking out. Shown at the heigh at the reign of terrror. Thi counted as a body of work of a male nude from his practice and time in Rome but he added this and anotehr figure to make it a history painting. Tells the story of a moon godess falling in love with a mortal. She has him imprisioned in an eternal sleep so every night she can ravage the sleeping mortal. She is assisted by the winged god in the top corner. It is almost Roccoco in its subject matter, dealing with love making and the goddess. But also out of step with classical painting as well. If compared to the Oath of the Horatia - its very differnt the space is thrown off. Instead of lineear the scene is in a mystical lush sceneery. The space isn’t readable and is closed off. He is in the forgorund and fills the scene with his nude body. There is one light source in the Oath and he sculpts the bodies in a logical way - where in the other sleepig painting the light is ulimates th figure in a scattered way. Steam pours off his body. In the oath and other paintings the male bodies are hyper masquilne where in this one the body has minimal muscle and its more soft and sexualized. In th western tradition a body like these was more seen as depcited for women. There is no visible reveger or godess i the work and rather the erotic person whimming it into place is the zepher whom seems to gaze on Endymion. in the salon the reaxtions to the work were positve but no one really talked about the sexualization of the male nude in the critical feedback in the salon. A german scholar championed the nudity of Greek youthes who were strong from athletics and healthy lifestyles. He belived that the success of greek art was due to Greek democracy and lifestyle and climate. He liked the graceful approach to the male body. These men may have had same sex attraction.
Jaques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1800-1801
David became a court painter under Napoleon, tsked with creating propoganda sort of art. The commsiion came from a spansih diplomet - as there as much support for him. It was so successful that he created 3 more replicas of it. this was painted of a campaign Napoleon had led in 1799. The horse has wild unhinged eyes and rears up. Napoleon sits calmly dispite the craziness of the stead leading the troops forward. Looks out toward viewer - metaphors of not only leading soldiers but also France forward. It is a mix of Neoclassicsm and a proto romantic image. We can see the neoclassism start to fade out. and we begin to see in the early 1800s into the 1820s and 1830s romantiscm begin to grow. the painting is very linear, all forms are solid and the paint is dematerialised there arent indivual brushstrokes. But there is aslo this romantic emotionally charged scene. The wind and horse rearing make his cape billlow in a dramatic way and contasts with his composure. The irony in it is that when napoleon crossed into the path of Itlay he didnt do it ont he vangard of troops on a stalion but rather was on the back of a pass on a mule at the rear of the army. on the rocks below in the pianitng David flatters Napoleon showing names of other great rulers who led troops across the alps like Hannibal and more.
Antonio Canova, Theseus slaying the centaur, 1804-1819
Premier Neoclassical sclupter of the age. When Napoleon meeets him he compells him to move his studio from Italy to France. His fame had spread all over europe he was reknown for prints that were made after his works. Some his clients inlcuded the pope and different monarchy. Neopolaton understood the power of art and its way to sway r move people. When he was in Itlay he started to loot a lot of Italian art. In the early 19th century under his reign it was one of the most popular times for art looting in the 19th century only to be rivaled in the 20th century by Hitler. Neo stole them and hung thm in the lourve whch he renamed the Muse Neoploean. When Neo was defeated the allied forces were anxious to get their hands back on the art and bring it back to home countries. Antonio was bitter and not really on board in becoming a sclpture for Napoleon bcs he had seen the looting. Canova learned to disguise metaphores of Napoleon in his work instead of paitning him outright as politics changed rapidly in order to be markable outside of French imperial system.
Jean-Antoine Gros, Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, 1804
On March 21, 1799, in a make-shift hospital in Jaffa, Napoleon visited his troops who were stricken with the Bubonic Plague. Gros depicts Napoleon attempting to calm the growing panic about contagion by fearlessly touching the sores of one of the plague victims. Like earlier neoclassical paintings such as David’s Death of Marat, Gros combines Christian iconography, in this case Christ healing the sick, with a contemporary subject. He also draws on the art of classical antiquity, by depicting Napoleon in the same position as the ancient Greek sculpture, the Apollo Belvedere. In this way, he imbues Napoleon with divine qualities while simultaneously showing him as a military hero. But in contrast to David, Gros uses warm, sensual colors and focuses on the dead and dying who occupy the foreground of the painting. We see the same approach later in Delacroix’s painting of Liberty Leading the People (1830).
Napoleon was a master at using art to manipulate his public image. In reality he had ordered the death of the prisoners whom he could not afford to house or feed, and poisoned his troops who were dying from the plague as he retreated from Jaffa.
Anne-Louis Girodet, Revolt in Cairo on 21 October 1798, 1810
More than ten years after the revolt in Cairo, Girodet was commissioned by Vivant Denon to paint this bloody episode from the Egyptian Campaign – it was exhibited at the Salon of 1810. The work is by no means a historical account, but rather a free impression based on the contemporary fashion for all things Oriental. French troops are shown driving back Arab soldiers, but there is no partisanship as regards the violence. The agression of the Muslim rebellion is more than matched by the savagery of French repression.
Whilst the scene has the restrained profundity typical of Neo-Classicism, it nevertheless completely breaks the rules with respect the rules of composition as taught to Girodet by his master David. As a great admirer of Gros, Girodet here attempts to ‘out-Orient’ him, by making his subject a battle scene. From the tumultuous superimposition of combattants emerge three principal figures: a hussard sabre bared, bearing down upon a terrifying, naked, Mamluk warrior, who holds in his arms his dying master. The two groups, drawn in a strong underlying upward movement from left to right, seem to be locked in a dance of death. There is a wealth of detail, some of which almost too horrific to bear, painted with enormous skill: for example the neck of the beheaded man, whose head is brandished in the foreground is hidden by the helmet. Arms, uniforms, luxurious fabrics, naked skin – all is painted with the same finesse.
In addition to this sense of movement, Girodet uses colour and strong light contrasts to express the violence of the conflict. According to contemporary reports, the work was painted at night by lamplight. Perhaps the chiaroscuro used to reinforce the dramatic intensity comes from this. Nevertheless, the painting is deeply romantic and very much the precursor of Delacroix, a painter who expressed in strong terms his admiration for the brutal energy found here.
Theodore Gericault, The Charging Chasseur, 1812
it shows a cavalry member of Napoleon’s forces on horseback preparing for attack. Yet, the horse seems to be rearing away from an unseen attacker.
This work was very different from other Napoleonic battle scenes due to its unique composition.
This painting is symbolic of French Romanticism and has a motif similar to Jacques Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps (see Related Paintings below). However, in this piece, there are various non-classical characteristics such as its dramatic diagonal arrangement and vigorous paint handling.
The Charging Chasseur was the first work that Theodore Géricault exhibited. Afterwards, the artist continued moving away from classicism and this was evident in works such as his masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa of 1819.
Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781 RA exhibition.
He is swiss but had major contributions to english patrons or galleries.
Fuselis works are much more pyschological in natural rather than the brhgt or flirty rococco works. Becaue of this they have attracted more attention to modern scholars. Bottles near her bed suggfest a mediince perhaps for sleep but instead her sleep is inteupted by these creatures. Which go back to mesapatamia. We think the scenemay be about ealry science into sleep and how it may feel when one is sleeping but can’t control your limbs to move. and its symbolizes her potentillly being raped but unable to move. Certain elements like ther curtain adn horse head could be seen as sexual.
The plot thickens when he now that Fuseli fell in love with the daughter of a scienctist of sleep who was Swiss. but he would not allow Fuseli to marry his daughter. and of course was emotional and distraught and wrote a letter. also on the back of this painting is also a portrait of her whihc is interesting.
Henry Fuseli, Titania and Bottom, 1789
The premise comes from the play Shakespeare play mid-summer nights dream. Which was his favorite pobably bcs some of the darker aspects of it. Shakespear was the source of inspiration for artists outside of Italian and greco art inspiration in the Romantic period. Shakespear thouhg was not as favorted by contenental artist as he was seen as wild unruly and uncuth indivual and playwrite copared to other writers. But for British Romantic artists he was a major source of inspiration.
This scene sshows Titania who is the Queen of the fairies of the forest in the center is given a love potion and falls in love with the figure Bottom seen on the left who has been transformated to have ahead of a Donkey. It shows an add type of fulled filled with creates and people as she falls in love with the half-donkey.
Scholars sometimes have trouble relating him to history and either writing him off a genius for his art or a crazy person. We ofte this of the romantic introspection as arising form after the French revolution and napoleonic wars, but this romantic idea got rolling earlier than the french revolution. It seems that some inspireation for the british in Romanticm as by the loss of the American colonies. The English defeat in the war was a blow to the English national conciousness. Fusilis art seems to fit into the idea of escapism and turning inwards espcially ones own pysche and/or an allegory of politial circumstances. They could have been a way to escape mentally from the wars, first the American war and than the French Napoloeonic wars. -
William Blake, Elohim Creating Adam, ca. 1795-1805
Elohim is a Hebrew name for God. This picture illustrates the Book of Genesis:
‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground’. Adam is shown growing out of the earth, a piece of which Elohim holds in his left hand.
For Blake the God of the Old Testament was a false god. He believed the Fall of Man took place not in the Garden of Eden, but at the time of creation shown here, when man was dragged from the spiritual realm and made material.
Colour print, ink and watercolour on paper
William Blake, Newton, c. 1795-1805
Here, Blake satirises the 17th-century mathematician Isaac Newton. Portrayed as a muscular youth, Newton seems to be underwater, sitting on a rock covered with colourful coral and lichen. He crouches over a diagram, measuring it with a compass. Blake believed that Newton’s scientific approach to the world was too reductive. Here he implies Newton is so fixated on his calculations that he is blind to the world around him. This is one of only 12 large colour prints Blake made. He seems to have used an experimental hybrid of printing, drawing, and painting.
John Constable, The Haywain, 1821
John didnt seem himself as a romantic artist. But today we do see him as one as many of his works are of where he grew up and the countryside thus showing his home and are full of emoiton and feeling and almost nostalgia.
This view is of the millpond at Flatford and th flatford mill was used for grinding corn. and was operated by the Constable family for more than 500 years. The house is one the Constables owned and rented out to tenant farmers. THese sort of scenes are labeled as being the picterisque. It ist necessarily idelaized bcs it is true to the details one would see here. But all the same it has a sense of nostalgia. And it shos peace and calm that was beginning to disappear because of industrlization. THis paitning was not a plein air paiting but completed in Studio in London and he produced it from a series of drawings of the farm house and mill. S many of his works he recycled certian aspects like the woman in the midground and an empty boat on the right. But dispite resue of aspects everything goes togther and nothing feels out of place. He had an impressive way of captuing atmosphere in his paintings. The painting was seen favorably by the public but it did not sell at that time. He sold this and two other paintings to an anglo French Dealer named Aerosmith and had them shwon in the 1824 Paris Salon where they were popular bcs of their quality. Constable was awarded a medal byt he French King king Charles the 10th for their quality. He was unswaed the the accolades given. His work shows the one-ness with nature in Romanticism. They are charged with emotion and nostalgia that is different from classical academic landscapes.
JMW Turner, Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, exhibited 1812
Turner was loved by the academy and had much success in and with it. This is probably because he had a deep appreciation and understanding of art history and his work was different. He loved the old masters but he didnt let it infringe upon his art.
This painting is a landscape historical painting of sorts. We can connect it to the paitning of Napoloeon crossing the Alps. This is a total inversion of what David did, in the Napoloeon piece is a large prominent heroic figure shown in glory where as with Turners work man is completely overwhelmed by nature. He shows mans vulnerability in the face of the overhwelming force of the poweer of nature. Being the figures int eh foreground the other figures are hard to see and they crawl almost of like ants over the landscape. Showing warfare that Hannibels forces are pillaging. When looking in the background somewhat int he center there is a small representation of an elephant and Hannibel is on top of the elephant.
What is interesting in Turners work is not as much the nartive or battle int he work but more so the meterioogial phenomenon a play. The storm is ferocious and black clouds are swirling and a bizarre orange sun that shows through the clouds of the storm.
JMW Turner, Rain, Steam, and Speed: The Great Western Railway, 1844
During this time there was was growth in the railways and a want to connect each of them more to each other. This work is wonderful because of the atmospheric conditions that he captured. the rian is falling in sheets with white streaks, it is hard to tell whether thsi is a celebration or denigration of train travel, but train travel is the quintensental modern development within this period. Turner himself didnt enjoy travelong by train, but whne he did he would put his head out the window as they were traveling along taking in the landscape and feel and experience the rushing wind.
The train in the painting is fairly abstract and the front in some portions is oddly transparent. You can alsmot see inside to its firey bowls and along it you can almsot see the passenger cars. in the forehround which is easier to see in person there is a rabbit that is racing for its life trying to get across. Some have interpreted the painting as mans overcomign of nature or some see it as mans equalization or even greater power than nature. Also int he left portion fo the canvas there is a rowboat that is small in comparision with the greatness of the train.
Aslo in the work the train seems to lead right into our space and it seems to ahve this industral man-made sublime. It has power tht is unmatched. The tie to the romantic period is to the power and velocity that is shown in thr train and current happenings in growth of industrialization. it is full of movement and energy.
Francisco de Goya, Family of Carlos IV, 1800-01
He was appointed painter to the King. Which would be a prominent position a painter could strive for. It was the position Valeasquez had occupied in the 17th century. This is a lifesie portrait of the royal family. Carlos the 4th is on the right side, theres Queen Maria Louisa, left is the crown Prince fernando, and int he corner you see Goya himself tunred towards a large Easel and looks directly out at the viewer - if he is painting this family why is he also in the painting, or if it were an active painting maybe it is set up int he foreground.
The message of the painting is a robust happy royal family in Spain. But the reality is tht it is ridded with intrigue and drama and attempted coups to throw each other from power. The portrait is shown in a merciless realism, showing them with a level of awkwardness and ugliness. Some sholars have wondered if he was satrizing the royal family. But they royals did pay for it and like it, thus it had their approval. the portrait recalls Diego de Valazquez, Las Menians in 1656. In this Valesquez was also celebrating himself and the status he had attained as the roal court painter. Goya paroding the style and strucatural devices in Valazquezes. Some of the details of Goyas are the details in his brushwork, unlike France Spain is about colro rather than line and drawing. the details of the monachers clothing and finery is incredible.
Francisco de Goya, Yard with Lunatics, c. 1794
Goya suffered from an undiagnosed illness that left him deaf for the rest of his life. This work was draawn after he went completely deaf. It conveyes distaina and disillusionment or resentment Goya experince and became a part of his persona. Our modern conception of him is that he was this mad genuis alone on the fringes of society, but the sterotype applied to goya is undercut by the court honors he had attained. He was the most decorated Spanish artist of his day and was attached to the court for most of his career. Goyas career shares more simialrities to David rather than say David. This was a part of several tempates.
Theres serverla specualtions on what caused his illness and deafness but it is clear that Goya lived in fear of insanity after this and he projected these fears into his work. These series of images were done without comission independently. This work is the only confirmed existing work from the series.
It shows a prision where the mentally ill are thrown in with criminals without any attempt to classify or treat the nature of theri mental illnesses. Int he middle there are tow prisioners naked and clashing with genitlaia darkened out. Theres a men in balck who is a prison guard who is ready to strike them. People in the front pear out in an unsettlign way. He said that it inspired by scenes he had seen as a youth but we are not sure if this is true but seems fair. There is much light but it cant penetrate down into the prison. Perhaps symbolizing that the light of reason has departed from the inmates in the asylum.
In this we see common threads of Goyas work. The first deals with the insuccficancancy of fullflling enlightenment ideals. One enlightenment ideal was t reform prisons and asylums to make them more humane to the people there. And this subject became common. The other theme here and in other works by him is there is a wrestling with a dark side of human nature and inner psychology and there is a ceratin amount of maddness that is autobiographical with Goya.
Francisco de Goya Capricho 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
This is the best known image from Goya’s series of 80 aquatint etchings published in 1799 known as ‘Los Caprichos’ that are generally understood as the artist’s criticism of the society in which he lived. Goya worked on the series from around 1796-98 and many drawings for the prints survive. The inscription on the preparatory drawing for this print, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid, indicates that it was originally intended as the title page to the series. In the published edition, this print became plate 43, the number we can see in the top right corner. Nevertheless, it has come to symbolise the overall meaning of the series, what happens when reason is absent. Various animals including bats and owls fly above the sleeping artist, and at the lower right a lynx watches vigilantly alerting us to the rise of monstrous forces that we are able to control when sleep descends. Bats represent folly, the cats represent superstition, an owl pokes him with a crayon s he can wake up and record the visions. The idea is that if reason goes to sleep monsters will be produced in these forms. But he also wrote a caption saying that art is a combination of reason and imagination. Also in this time enlightenment had promised many things like reason and equality but in reality not hall of that had been fullfilled. The reaction in Romanticism is the reaction against enlightenment. This sort of art is a reaction of him seeig the atrocities of the remnants of enlgihtenment which was the French army invading into Spain.
Done is aqua print - an etching in wax and the plate in the wax is given a chemical bath and the cheicals eat into the paintwhere the wax has been scraped away and then its cleaned off and ready to be inked and printed.
Francisco de Goya, Third of May, 1808, 1814
On May 2, 1808, hundreds of Spaniards rebelled. On May 3, these Spanish freedom fighters were rounded up and massacred by the French. Their blood literally ran through the streets of Madrid. Even though Goya had shown French sympathies in the past, the slaughter of his countrymen and the horrors of war made a profound impression on the artist. He commemorated both days of this gruesome uprising in paintings. Although Goya’s Second of May is a tour de force of twisting bodies and charging horses reminiscent of Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari, his The Third of May, 1808 in Madrid is acclaimed as one of the great paintings of all time, and has even been called the world’s first modern painting.
We see row of French soldiers aiming their guns at a Spanish man, who stretches out his arms in submission both to the men and to his fate. A country hill behind him takes the place of an executioner’s wall. A pile of dead bodies lies at his feet, streaming blood. To his other side, a line of Spanish rebels stretches endlessly into the landscape. They cover their eyes to avoid watching the death that they know awaits them. The city and civilization are far behind them. Even a monk, bowed in prayer, will soon be among the dead.
Goya’s painting has been lauded for its brilliant transformation of Christian iconography and its poignant portrayal of man’s inhumanity to man. The central figure of the painting, who is clearly a poor laborer, takes the place of the crucified Christ; he is sacrificing himself for the good of his nation. The lantern that sits between him and the firing squad is the only source of light in the painting and dazzlingly illuminates his body, bathing him in what can be perceived as spiritual light. His expressive face, which shows an emotion of anguish that is more sad than terrified, echoes Christ’s prayer on the cross. The man’s pose not only equates him with Christ, but also acts as an assertion of his humanity. And therre is stigma or holes in his hands. he is showing Spain as still a god-fearing nation and what the revolution has produced.
Goya’s The Third of May 1808 in Madrid remains one of the most chilling images ever created of the atrocities of war, and it is difficult to imagine how much more powerful it must have been in the pre-photographic era, before people were bombarded with images of warfare in the media. A powerful anti-war statement, Goya is not only criticizing the nations that wage war on one another, but is also admonishing us, the viewers, for being complicit in acts of violence, which occur not between abstract entities like “countries,” but between human beings standing a few feet away from one another.
It can be compared to Davids oath of the Horatiach in the gunmnes stance and this painting tauts self-sacrifice fo the good of the nation adn to honor nation over onesself, but the violence of war disapears in it. In Goyas there is violence in its more true fashion. They are even shown in their techniques David being clear and clean and Goyas is a subjective view of the world and you can see the lines of the paint. The flip of neoclassism works and the people who are oppressed in these works.
Francisco de Goya, Witch’s Sabbath, c. 1820-1823
The mural paintings that decorated the house known as “la Quinta del Sordo,” where Goya lived have come to be known as the Black Paintings, because he used so many dark pigments and blacks in them, and also because of their somber subject matter. The private and intimate character of that house allowed the artist to express himself with great liberty. He painted directly on the walls in what must have been mixed technique, as chemical analysis reveals the use of oils in these works. The Baron Émile d´Erlanger acquired “la Quinta” in 1873 and had the paintings transferred to canvas. The works suffered enormously in the process, losing a large amount of paint. Finally, the Baron donated these paintings to the State, and they were sent to the Prado Museum, where they have been on view since 1889. Brugada called this work The Big Billy Goat, alluding to the devil as a Ram served by the witches in their Sabbaths. The goat appears on the left. Seated in front of him is a crowd of men and women with animal-like features, witches and warlocks that have met to practice their Sabbath. On the right, a young woman sits. Perhaps she is waiting to be initiated into their rites. Goya used the world of witches to denounce the degradation of humankind. When it was removed from the wall, more than 1.4 meters of this composition were cut off, so that the young woman mentioned above was no longer in the center of the composition, as she is in Yriarte´s description. Despite the multiple explanations offered by art historians, these works continue to be mysterious and enigmatic, yet they present many of the esthetic problems and moral considerations appearing in Goya´s works. The mural paintings from “la Quinta del Sordo” (the Black Paintings), have been determinant in the modern-day consideration of this painter from Aragon. The German Expressionists and the Surrealist movement, as well as representative of other contemporary artistic movements, including literature and even cinema, have seen the origins of modern art in this series of compositions by an aged Goya, isolated in his own world and creating with absolute liberty.
It could be seen as royalists regaining power in Spain after Napoloeon and instead of going into better ideals it goes back to strict Catholiscm. The paint is built up very thickly.
Francisco de Goya, Saturn Devouring One of His Children, c. 1820-1823
A jarring image - one of the msot jarring in art history.
The canvas features the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus or Saturn (the father a Zues) in Roman mythology, depicted by Goya in a state of complete frenzy. The horrifying scene of a pre-Olympian god eating his children, fearing that he would be overthrown by one of them, but from the trickery fromt he wife of Saturn she replaces them with a stone so Saturn its it instead of hte chidlren adn Zues coems and rescuces his greek God siblings from saturn adn overthrows Titans. It has a Greek classical theme but the style is as far from classism or neoclassism as you can get. This is not a history paitning but more of a nightmare. The structure and contour of his body dont make sense and face looks crazy. Theres no heroism or glorification, but more nightmare and painterly and perhaps Goya escaping into his own mentally ill world towards the end of his life. It shows his view of power adn that whomever is in power does whatever they can to maintain that power even if it evokes violence and destruction. It was painted on the walls of the artist’s house alongside other Black paintings, then transferred to canvas after the artist died and now is part of the Museo del Prado collection.
Franz Pforr, The Entry of King Rudolf of Habsburg into Basel in 1273, 1808-1810
Intentionally clad in a plain grey garment and a black beret, Rudolf von Habsburg rides into the city of Basel with his opulent entourage. He had been elected emperor in Frankfurt a short while previously. In a rigorous, flat composition and with brilliant local colours, this is the Nazarene Pforr’s idealised version of the Middle Ages, “where the dignity of man can still be seen in all its strength”. Inspired by Old German and Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance art, Pforr dreamed of a patriotic form of painting which would help to revive the spirit of the German nation.
The perspective is purposefully dysfunctional. This is harkening back purposefully to the style before the high renaissance before perspective is completely mastered. And there are hard edge contours for the people. It creates an idealized version of a scene from the middle ages. It is similar to gothic era medieval manuscript painting. They wanted to celebrate Germany heritage that was not french and not classical. The Nazarres were making radical moves away from academic art.
Fredrich Overbeck, Italy and Germany, 1811-28
In 1828, Friedrich Overbeck painted a friendship allegory—a project he had set aside after his friend and fellow artist Franz Pforr’s death at the age of twenty-four in 1812. Overbeck’s print symbolizes the artistic ideals of the two friends, specifically the espousal of early-Renaissance Italian and German art in the form of a pair of dark- and fair-haired maidens holding hands, with a view of the Roman countryside to represent Raphael behind Italia and the skyline of Dürer’s Nuremberg behind Germania.
Philip Otto Runge, Morning, ca. 1808 (small version)
To the seventeenth-century German mystic Jacob Boehme, Runge owed the concept that flowers can symbolize different human states. With their cycle from first bud to death, their response to light, and as manifestations of God’s purpose on earth, flowers were for Runge the most revealing of all natural forms. Together with small children and musical instruments they formed the allegorical base of his most ambitious work, a series on the theme of Times of Day. This was intended to take the form of four huge oil paintings, and to be experienced in a Gothic chapel to the music of choirs and poetry by his friend the writer Ludwig Tieck. This grand plan never materialized; the designs were published in some rather unsatisfactory engravings in 1806 and 1807, while only one of the four subjects, Morning, was developed in oil, in two versions (the larger was later cut into fragments, having failed to satisfy the painter himself).
The painting represents a supreme statement of the nature mysticism associated with the Romantic movement, and is undoubtedly the masterpiece of Runge’s short life. He began work on it in Dresden, where he had been greatly moved by Raphael’s Sistine Madonna in the picture gallery, and his tightly structured, vertical compositions have some of the qualities of altarpieces. As in the earlier Nightingale’s Lesson, they are surrounded by hieroglyphic borders, combining Christian and mythological symbolism. Individual plants, minutely scrutinized like botanical specimens, are integrated into visionary patterns. In Morning, Runge was able to incorporate his researches into colour theory, based on association and the revelatory power of light. The small version contains a passage of sublimely lovely pure landscape painting — the summer meadow on whose carpet of flowers a baby wakes at dawn.
