CHAPTER 28
The Enlightenment and its Legacy:
Art of the Late 18th through the Mid-19th Century
1.  Read the chapter.  Visit the Hermitage...lavish, extraordinary and wonderful works of art!
2.  Art terms and vocabulary you should know:

Sublime, picturesque, connoisseurship, composition, history painting,  historicism, formal, idealization, genre, vedute, palette, formalist, stucco, literary illustration, odalisque, revivalism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Rococo
 
Pauline Borghese as Venus by Antonio Canova, 1808.  (See page 854, Gardner text).
3.  Ideas, issues, items for discussion:
  • See the inset on "Salon Culture," page 799, and read about the "French taste" on pages 798-800.  Would you characterize these styles as "feminine?"  Why or why not?
  • What is the Grand Tour and how does it continue to influence art?  See inset on page 814.
  • How does fascination with Greek and Roman culture manifest itself in the art of the enlightenment?  See pages 814-819.
  • What are some of the issues of Neo-Classical and revivalist architecture?  What are the sources of influence?  See pages 820-823, as well as pages 843-845.
  • Who are the artists and what are the issues of "the terrible and the sublime"(the dark side) of Romanticism?  See pages 830-834.
  • Comment on the explanation of mental illness and insanity in art as against "enlightenment rationality."  Why were such images popular then, as well as today?  See page 832.
  • What is behind the quarrel between the Poussinistes and the Rubenistes?  See page 833.
  • Discuss the development "and the allure" of landscape painting in the United States.  See pages 841-842.
  • Explore the development of the photograph and its role in art and documentation.  See pages 846-850.
4.  Remember this art from the text:
  • Describe the artistic elements of Francois Boucher's Cupid a Captive (page 802) and Jean Honore Fragonard's The Swing (page 803).
  • View Grace at Table by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (see page 809) and a detail of Basin of San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore by Antonio Canaletto (page 813).  Both depict the 18th century public "taste for naturalness."  How were these interests a reacton to the Rococo tastes of the elite?
  • Compare the two portraits, Self-Portrait by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun (page 809) and Portrait of Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheriden by Thomas Gainsborough ( page 810).  How do both paintings portray the 18th century ideals of independence and self-reliance among women?
  • Examine Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David (page 816).  What typical Neoclassical elements are present in this work and why was Neoclassicism so important at that time?
  • Compare the Pantheon (Saint-Genevieve) by architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot (see page 819) with Monticello by Thomas Jefferson (page 823). What is the source of inspiration for "Jeffersonian idealism" and how is it similar to the "Napoleonic temple of glory?"
  • What does Edmonia Lewis' sculpture Forever Free (see page 824) tell us about life in post-Civil War America?
  • Antonio Canova, although dedicated to the ideal, digressed in his sculpture Pauline Borghese as Venus (page 820). Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, committed to "ideal form and careful compositional structure," deviated from the ideal as well in his Grande Odalisque (see page 827).  How are both these works issues in the struggle for "color and passion" over ideal form?
  • Examine the Third of May by Francisco Goya (see page 831).  Why are Goya's "dark paintings" a testimony to the "allure of Romantic vision?"
  • Carefully examine Liberty Leading Her People by Eugene Delacroix (see page 835).  Describe some of the many allegorical references and how they are presented formally to create meaning.
  • Compare concepts of reality between Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California by Albert Bierstadt (see page 842) with A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, PA, by Timothy O'Sullivan (page 850).  
5.  Visit these sites on the Internet for a look at the era:

    a)  View this site on the artists of the Rococo style.
    b)  Examine the art of Joshua Reynolds.
    c)  Learn all about Josiah Wedgwood, the "Father of English Pottery."
    d)  View four fabulous landscape  works by American artist Thomas Cole.
    e)  ...and then, an on-line gallery of the works of Constable!
    f)  Visit this site "The Faberge Experience," on the beautiful objectscreated for the Russian Imperial family.  For additional history of the arts of Russia, see the PBS program "The Face of Russia."
6.  Write a one page report that responds to one idea/issue/work of art from #3 or #4 above.  Send your report through the LISTSERV.  See the Schedule for date due.

See if you can answer these questions:

--Where in San Antonio do you see original 19th century idyllic American landscape painting, but not in a museum?

--Where in San Antonio do you see "revivalist" architecture?
7.  Provide a thoughtful response to someone else's report through the LISTSERV .
See the Schedule for date due.  See if you can find an image and URL for Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Children," one of his darkest pieces, and tell me what you think of it.
Page updated 7/30/07
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Copyright, M. Hoover and San Antonio College, March, 2002.  All rights reserved.