Rococo Questions Flashcards
Describe Samuel Adams
John Singleton Compley. 1772. Oil on canvas.
- dressed conversatively
- glares at Governor Hutchinson (viewer)
- left hand points to charter (rule of law) and seal granted to MA by King William and Queen Mary
- right hand grasps petition prepared by citizens of Boston
- realism. head and hands dramatically lit.
- convey moral force of his demands
Describe Salon de La Princesse in the Hotel de Soubise
Germain Broffrand. 1732. Paris.
- arabesques and swirls
- silver or gold against white or pastel color
Describe Kaisersaal (Imperial Hall)
Neumann. 1750. Germany.
- illustrates great triumph in planning and decoration
- white gold color scheme and delicately curved forms
Describe The Marriage of the Emperor Frederick and Beatrice of Burgundy
Tiepolo. 1752. Germany.
- architectural painting
- presented as if theater with painted and gilded stucco curtains drawn back
- wedding presented in dazzling light
- characters suggest nobility of purpose
Describe Church of the Vierzehnheiligen
Neumann. 1772. Germany.
- “Fourteen Auxiliary Saints”
- exterior shows Rococo style with gently bulging central pavilion and delicately arche windows
- interior overlays of decoration creates visionary world where flat wall surfaces scarcely exist
- surrounded by clusters of pilasters and engaged columns and clerestory
- foliage of fanciful capitals is repeated in arabesques, wreaths, and ornamented frames of irregular panels that line vault
Describe Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera
Jean-Antoine Watteau. 1717. Oil on canvas.
- fete galante: elegant outdoor entertainment
- dream world where beautifully dressed couples, with putti, have romantic adventures on island of love sacred to Venus
Describe The Signboard of Gersaint
Watteau. 1721. Oil on canvas.
- actually a signboard for a shop
- elegant ladies and gentlemen seem knowledgeable with paintings
- creates atmosphere of aristocratic sophistication
- left, click positioned directly over king’s portrait, surmounted by allegorical figure of Fame and sheltering pair of lovers, is traditional momento mori (reminder for mortality)
- young women looking at their reflections symbolized fragility of human life
- vanitas theme
Describe The Salon of 1787
Martini. 1787. Engraving.
-freaking paintings and people everywhere
Describe Triumph of Venus
Francois Boucher. 1740. Oil on canvas.
- Venus appears near center, resting on silks and satins in giant shell, pulled through water by dolphins
- putti hover in sky, carrying shiny scarf that billows like huge banner
- robust world of sensual pleasure
Describe The Meeting
Jean-Honore Fragonard. 1773. OIl on canvas.
- From The Loves of the Shepherds.
- shows secret encounter between young man and sweetheart
- rapid brushstrokes
- bright colors
Describe The Invention of the Balloon
Clodion. 1784. Terra-cotta.
- decorated with bands of classical ornament
- rising and assisted by puffing wind god heralded by Victory
- putti stoke fire basket
Describe Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset
Carriera. 1730. Pastel on paper.
-British aristocrat
Describe Santi Giovanni E Paolo and the Monument to Bartolommeo Colleoni
Canaletto. 1738. Oil on canvas.
- Venetian square
- shown as if viewer were in gondola on nearby canal
- roofline of church creates powerful orthogonal
Describe The Lion Bas-Relief
Giovanni Battista Piranesi. 1761. Etching and engraving.
- depicts vast, gloomy spaces spanned by remnants of monumental vaults
- motifs: barred windows, dangling ropes and tackle, torture device set sinister mood
Describe Parnassus
Anton Raphael Mengs. 1761. Rome.
- first true Neoclassical painting
- takes place on Mount Parnassus in Greece, which ancients believed to be sacred to Apollo and nine Muses
- center is Apollo holding lyre and laurel branch, symbol of artistic accomplishment
- resting on Doric column is mother of Muses, Mnemosyne
Describe Cupid and Psyche
Antonio Canova. 1793. Marble.
- illustrates loves story between Cupid and Psyche
- eroticism and senses of sight and touch
Describe Chiswick House
Richard Boyle (Lord Burlington). 1729. England.
- bilateral symmetry
- octagonal core and two entrances
- Roman temple front
Describe Rococo features
pastel colors, delicately curving forms, dainty figures, lighthearted mood
Describe Neoclassical features
classical subject matter in a style derived from classical Greek and Roman sources
intended to teach moral lessons
conveyed Enlightenment ideals
Describe The Park at Stourhead
Henry Filtcroft and Henry Hoare. 1765. England.
- mixture of elements from around the world
- nostalgic
- mixture of Neoclassical and Romantic
Define capriccio view
artist mixed actual features, especially ruins, into imaginatively pleasing compositions
Define veduta view
naturalistic rendering of well-known tourist attraction.
ACCURATE.
Describe Romantic features
imagination and emotions
reaction against Enlightenment focus on ratoinality
celebrates individual rather than universal and object
Describe Strawberry Hill
Horace Walpole. 1776. England.
- Gothic revival
- crenellated battlements gave notched appearance
- library derived ideas from stories in books
Describe Anteroom, Syon House
Robert Adam. 1767. England.
- luxurious decorations restrained by strong geometric order imposed by plain wall and ceiling
- bright pastel colors and small-scale decorative elements stem from Rococo style
Describe Vase: The Apotheosis of Homer
Josiah Wedgwood. 1786. White jasper body with mid-blue dip and white relief
-based on scene on book illustration of Greek vase
Describe “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?”
William Hackwood for Josiah Wedgwood. 1787. Black and white jasperware.
- African man kneeling down in chains
- emblem for British Committee to Abolish the Slave Trade
- later adapted to women’s suffrage
Describe The Marriage Contract
William Hogarth. 1745. Oil on canvas.
- Lord Squanderfield, right, arrages marriage of his son to daughter of wealthy merchant
- merchant gains entry for his family into aristocracy, while lord gets money he needs for Palladian house, visible from window
- wanted to please and educate audience
Describe Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces
Joshua Reynolds. 1765. Oil on canvas.
- dressed in classicizing costume
- plays part of Roman priestess making sacrifices to Three Graces
- contrapposto
Describe the Grand Manner
form of Baroque classicism that attemped to elevate portraiture to level of history painting
Describe Portrait of Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Thomas Gainsborough. 1787. Oil on canvas.
- shows professional singer seated informally outdoors
- sloping view into distance and use of tree to frame sitter’s head
- lighter palette, feathery brushwork, integrated women into landscape
- windblown hair matches foliage
- manifests new values of Enlightenment: emphasis on nature and the natural as sources of goodness and beauty
Describe An Experiment on a Bird in the Air-Pump
Joseph Wright. 1768. Oil on canvas.
- lecturer prepares to reintroduce air into glass receiver
- boy stands ready to lower cage when bird revives
- visible moon references Lunar Society
- suspenseful
- father, voice of reason, attempts to dispel fears
- suggests science brings light into world of darkness and ignorance through lighting
Describe Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as her Treasures
Angelica Kauffmann. 1785. Oil on canvas.
- Woman visitor shows Cornelia her jewels and requests to see hers.
- Cornelia exemplifies “good mother”
Describe The Death of General Wolfe
Benjamin West. 1770. Oil on canvas.
- depicts figures in modern dress
- glorifies British general Wolfe, who died during Seven Years’ War
- depicted him in red dying under sky rather than under a tree, where he actually died
- naturalistic, but not an objective document
- poses suggest Lamentation
Describe The Nightmare
John Henry Fuseli. 1781. Oil on canvas.
- white-clad woman sprawled along divan, oppressed by erotic dream caused by incubus
- horse with phosphorescent eyes adds to erotic mood
Describe Elohim Creating Adam
William Blake. 1795. Color print.
- figures reveal influence of Michelangelo.
- presents Creation negatively
- giant worm, symbolizing matter, encircles lower body of Adam
- Elohim = Hebrew for God
- Creation is tragic because it submits spiritual human to fallen state of material existence.
Describe Pantheon (Church of Sainte-Genevieve)
Jacques-Germain Soufflot.
- most typical Neoclassical building
- attempted to integrate three traditions: Roman architecture, French and English Baroque classicism, Palladian style being revived in England
- facade modeled after temples
- radical geometry, with central-plan Greek cross
Describe The Governess
Jean-Simeon Chardin. 1739. Oil on canvas.
- finely dressed boy who listens to governess as she brushes tricorn
- scattered on floor are toys.
- shows childish pleasures that a boy leaves behind to go to his studies
Describe The Drunken Cobbler
Jean-Baptiste Greuze. 1785. Oil on canvas.
- taught lesson to public
- drunken father returns home to angry wife and hungry children
- children’s gestures make clear that he spent money for food on alcohol
Describe Portrait of Marie Antoinette with her Children
Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun. 1787. Oil on canvas.
- theme of “good mother”
- meant to counter her selfish, extravagant, and immoral public image
- affection = proof of queen’s natural goodness
- alludes to allegory of Abundance, suggesting peace and prosperity of society under reign of her husband
Describe Self-Portrait with Two Pupils
Adelaide Labille-Guiard. 1785. Oil on canvas.
- painted to dispel rumors that her paintings were painted by a male
- only male is father’s bust in the back
- form strong pyramidal shape
Describe Oath of the Horatii
Jacques-Louis David. 1785. Oil on canvas.
- reflects taste and values of Louis XVI.
- believed art should improve public morals.
- three sons of each side fight to the death
- contrast to upright, muscular men are group of limp and weeping women
Describe Death of Marat
Jacques-Louis David. 1793. Oil on canvas.
- radical journalist who wrote to urge the abolition of aristocratic privilege.
- aftermath of Marat’s death
- likens Marat to martyred saint
Describe Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley
Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson. 1797. Oil on canvas.
- combines graceful pose recalling classical sculpture with descriptive naturalism
- political dimension
- former slave sent as representative to French Convention.
Describe George Washington
Jean-Antoine Houdon. 1792. Marble.
- combined contemporary naturalism with new classicism
- serene expression and relaxed contrapposto pose derive from classical athletes
- left hand rests on fasces, bundle of rods tied together with axe face, symbol of authority in Roman times
Describe Atrial Cross
- Stone.
- suggests pre-Hispanic sculpture in its stark form and rich surface symbols in low relief
- entirely covered with images known as the Arms of Christ
- suggests Mesoamerican symbol of Tree of Life. blood sacrifice.
Describe Our Lady of Guadalupe
Sebastian Salcedo. 1779. Oil on panel.
-Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas
Describe Mission San Xavier Del Bac
1797.
- example of mission architecture
- domed crossing and flanking bell towers
- made with mortar, rather than adobe
Describe Monticello
Thomas Jefferson. 1809. -based on English Palladian styles -portico -classical bilateral symmetry
Describe Watson and the Shark
Jon Singleton Copley. 1778. Oil on canvas.
- dramatizes a shark attack
- pyramidal composition in foreground
- shark infested waters could mean colonies
- Watson’s severed leg could stand for dismemberment of the British Empire
