Lectures 14&15

Question 1

Answer 1

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans, 1775-79

salt- valuable commodity- near salty water- perfectly symmetrical, centralized

workers could live near where they worked

no capitol on columns- no sculpture or reliefs

-temple or church stripped to bare minum

modest area needs modest architecture

evoking flow of materials through the site

unfinished columns made out of square blocks- all is stripped away- bare bones of vertical support

utopian or idealized vision of work

movement away from neoclassical

Question 2

Answer 2

Henri Labrouste, Library of Saint Genevieve, 1843-50

1st library with gas lighting

reading room- open to all- length of whole building

iron arches- new building material

gothic-height evokes soaring ceiling of gothic, but round

externalized catalog of library collection- names of authors, intellectual surface of signs

thinner, taller, and lighter on top floor

library- new modern form of church- books are part of architecture

Question 3

Answer 3

Charles Garnier, Paris Opera, 1861-74

-ornate and decorated faced- as you get closer, top disappears

intersection of diagonals- excitement

speculative funding of public siste

staircase-seeing and being seen- mirrors&lights

celebration of sensual pleasures-

• built at an intersection of haussmann’s grand avenues
• accessible from all directions, designed with transportation and vehicular traffic in mind
• modern cast-iron internal frame- also masterpiece of historicism based on baroque style- revived to recall an earlier period of greatness in France
• massive façade featured row of paired columns over an arcade intended to recall the seventeeth-centuyr wing of the Louvre- an association meant to suggest continuity of the French nation and to flatter Napoleon III by comparing him favorably with King Louis XIV
• primary function: place of entertainment for Napoleon, his entourage, and French social elite, accounts for its luxurious detail
• interior: temple of pleasure- more opulent , with neo-Baroque sculptural groupings, heavy gilded decoration, and lavish mix of expensive, polychromed materials

Question 4

Answer 4

William Henry Fox Talbot, Pencil of Nature, 1844- The Open Door

• capacity of photography to capture details
• likened to dutch painting- new art form - humble

more democratizing art- doesnt require monumental scare or atesanal knowledge- time of day can be determined by shadow

• presented as works of art rather than documents of precisely observed reality, chose to view photography in visual and artistic terms
• shadows create repeating pattern of diagonal lines that contrast with vertical lines of architecture
• expresses nostalgia for a rural way of life that was fast disappearing in industrial England

Question 5

Answer 5

Manet, Olympia, 1863

• title alludes to a socially ambitious prostitute of the same name in a play by Alexandre Dumas
• based on Venus of Urbino by Titian- which he copied in Florence
• appears to pay homage to titian in its subject matter and composition, but his modern counterpart was the antithesis of titian
• titians female is curvaceous and softly rounded, manets is angular and flattened, titians colors are warm and rich- manets are cold and harsh like a photograph, titans venus looks coyly at male spectator, manets looks coldly indifferent
• our relationship with Olympia is underscored by the reaction of her cat, which arches its back at us (unlike sleeping dog in titian)
• instead of looking up at us Olympia gazes down at us, indicating that she is in the position of power and that we are subordinate akin to black servant at foot of bed who brings her bouquet of flowers
• in reversing titians work, manet overturns the entire tradition of accommodating female nude
• darkest body is outline- dilusion of background into dark blocks of color- flattens background- makes figures come into our space

linear perspective is anulled

-theatrical curtain

presenting body as object for sale

-manet rejects modeling/shadowing

Question 6

Answer 6

Manet, Execution of Maximillian, 1867

-firing squad, brutally close- see faces of maximilian & guard not soldiers

flattened background, unmodeled background

Question 7

Answer 7

Monet, Railway Bridge Argenteuil, 1874

-veiled buildings in steam- conflation of nature and technology

steam takes role of clouds

part of a series- same thing, different times of day

Question 8

Answer 8

Paul Cézanne, Garden at Les Lauves, 1906

-when is a painting finished?

ambiguity in spatial relationships

used impressionism as springboard—> cubism

reduced color & form