Metropolitan Museum of Art Thematic Essays: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, The Salon and the Royal Academy

Note: The images that appear on your slide lists are bolded below; you are responsible for these works on exams. The additional images shown in class are also linked for reference.

The Enlightenment and Revolutions in Science and Technology

Although what's been called "the Scientific Revolution" began in the late Renaissance, modern scientific thinking gains steam (if you'll pardon the pun) during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The climate of the Enlightenment--the period that set the stage for political revolutions in places like the United States and France--encouraged empirical thinking, a scientific approach to understand the place of humanity in nature, and "tangible data and concrete experience" (Kleiner, 324) as the basis of intellectual inquiry. The increasing prominance of scientific method led to the Industrial Revolution, the most significant milestone of which was the invention of the steam engine in England in the eighteenth century.

In art, one of the most eloquent chroniclers of the "moment" was Joseph Wright of Derby, whose paintings of scientists at work on recent inventions combined Baroque techniques like chiaroscuro and precise brush work with emerging ideas from both Neoclassicism and Romanticism. His facination with scientific subjects and the natural world epitomizes the temper of the time.

Neoclassicism and the Revolutions in France and the United States

Precursors

Nicolas Poussin The Abduction of the Sabine Women, probably 1633-34. Met Timeline.

Jean A. T. Giroust Oedipus at Colonus, 1788. Dallas Museum of Art.

Henry Fuseli (aka John Henry Fuseli, Johann Heinrich Fussli)

The Artist Overwhelmed by the Grandeur of Antique Ruins (or The Artist Moved to Despair by the Grandeur of Antique Fragments) 1779 (compare this with the colossal statue of Constantine that inspired it)

The Nightmare 1781 (See also Thomas Burke's engraving of this painting, from 1783.)

Oedipus Cursing His Son, Polynices 1786

Jacques Louis David 1748-1825

The Oath of the Horatii, 1784

The Death of Socrates, 1787

The Death of Marat, 1793

Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799

The Coronation of Napoleon, 1806 (in French, but with details linked on the left of the page)

Neoclassical Architecture

Diagram: Classical architectural orders, from the Diderot's Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une Société de Gens de lettres, one of the seminal documents to emerge from the Enlightenment.

Jacques Soufflot Le Panthéon (church of Ste. Geneviève), 1757-1790, and a plan from Great Buildings Online's page.The image link is to the Wikipedia page, with more photos, an interesting list of the people interred in the church's crypt. There's also a good page at Structurae, with additional resources (alas, many in French).

Thomas Jefferson

Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia (1770- c. 1806). The link includes images of Jefferson's other works. The official Monticello website includes a Flash tour of the house.

Romanticism

Although elements of the Baroque anticipated it, as a movement Romanticism really begins in the late 18th century. Be sure that you can distinguish Romanticism from Neoclassicism, and both from their common Baroque ancestors.

The French Romantics

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1780-1867 (WebMuseum article; here's a Met page on Ingres and his portraits)

The Grand Odalisque 1814. Here's the version en grisaille.

Odalisque with a Slave 1839 (detail). Here's an interesting slide show from a French chiropractic organization (in English) about the ramifications of the Grand Odalisque's long spine. The best explanation is, of course, Mannerism--but medical folks will have their say . . .

Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne 1806

Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835)

Théodore Géricault 1791-1824 (National Gallery of Art page with biography). Works by Géricault at the National Gallery of Art.

The Raft of the Medusa 1819 (and a study).

Eugène Delacroix 1798-1863

Dante and Virgil in the Inferno, 1822 (AKA The Barque of Dante). Scroll down for the image, and take a look at other paintings while you're at it.

The Death of Sardanapolus, 1827-28 This is the main Artchive page on Delacroix, with image list (including sketches and details) at the bottom.

Liberty Leading the People, 1830 (Wikipedia article with a good scan of the painting). Here's a film about the painting, containing some interesting information. It's about 30 minutes long and chock full of historical background on the Revolutionary era in France.

Algerian Women in their Apartment, 1834

Romanticism in England

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851

The Fifth Plague of Egypt, 1800

The Wreck of the Minotaur 1810 (Also known as The Wreck of a Transport Ship). See also the print (lithograph) of the painting. The Wikipedia article on Turner is helpful, and includes information on how he used printing media in addition to painting. For the story behind the shipwreck, visit the HMS Minotaur home page.

Eruption of Vesuvius, 1817. Turner's interest in an event he didn't witness indicates the continuing facination Vesuvius held for artists. This may have stemmed in part from the rediscovery in 1738 of the town of Herculaneum, buried in the eruption of CE 79. Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum continued through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 1834. For a collection of Turner's sketches for these paintings, see this exhibit from the Tate Museum (scroll down to below the Monet paintings).

The Slave Ship ( (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On), 1840. A good scan is available at CGFA.

Glaucus and Scylla, 1841 (Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth); image is on lower left. (Here is a link to a story about the recent recovery of the painting after the Kimbell had to relinquish it to its original owners).

We'll revisit Turner when we discuss the Pre-raphaelites and John Ruskin, so keep these images in mind. Note: Take a look at the National Gallery of Art's pages for the exhibit that visited the DMA , especially the brochure. The exhibit has moved to the Met, which now features a page with information and images.

William Blake 1757-1827. For a brief overview, take a look at the British Museum's page on Blake, with a few examples, or see the Wikipedia article, with its comprehensive bibliography and list of resources.

. . . in Spain

Francisco (José) de Goya y Lucientes 1746-1828. Mark Harden's Artchive also features a page on Goya's work.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1797-98

The Third of May, 1808, 1814. A clearer scan can be found here.

Saturn Devouring One of His Sons, 1819-23

Great Courage Against Corpses (variously translated), c. 1820, published in 1863 (after his death). This is from the Wikipedia page on the Disasters of War series.

. . . and in Germany

Abbey in an Oak Forest, 1809-10

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog 1822

Two Men Contemplating the Moon, ca. 1825–30 (new, and not on the slide list; do read the linked Timeline of Art History essay on this painting, however, and add the information to this week's list). The Met's exhibit on "Moonwatchers" contains most of Friedrich's paintings of this subject.

Owl In A Gothic Window, c. 1832 (not on your slide list; just for fun)

Mountain Peak with Drifting Clouds, c. 1835 (Kimbell Art Museum; second image down on right)

Romantic painters in the United States

See the Met thematic essays on the Hudson River School and Industrialism and Conflict in America 1840-1875 for added perspective and deeper insights into American Romanticism.

Thomas Cole 1801-1848

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, 1836. The biography link, above, also includes information on the Hudson River School.

Frederic Edwin Church 1826-1900. The link is to the home page for the museum at Church's home, Olana (more links and information appear below, under "Romantic Architecture." A biography of Church (and other American Romantics) is available on the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum pages.

The Icebergs, 1861. Here's a review of Eleanor Jones Harvey's book, The Voyage of the Icebergs, by Russell A. Potter; it does a nice job of briefly describing the context of the painting. This painting, is, of course, one of the "Hundred Treasures" at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Heart of the Andes, 1858. (Met).

Passing Storm over the Sierra Nevada, 1870.

The Last of the Buffalo, 1888.

Thomas Moran 1837-1926.

See the side bar for exhibitions featuring Moran's work, and the photographs of William Henry Jackson (1843-1942)--both of whom are in part responsible for the creation of Yellowstone National Park.

Romanticism in Architecture

Take this opportunity to review the characteristics of Romanesque (Norman) architecture from History of Art & Design I. For other influences on Romanticism, see the following: Scalloped and Horseshoue arches on Great Mosque, Cordoba; Interior courtyard view from the Alhambra, Granada (Adolf Seel, 1892); Taj Mahal.

John Nash, The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England. 1815-18 (multiple views). The shot I showed is from the Royal Pavilion website, and the painting can be found on the Spartacus educational site.

Frederick Edwin Church's Olana, built by architect Calvert Vaux in the 1870s, is a prime example of Romantic domestic architecture in the United States. According to the curator (in Robert Hughes's American Visions video, "Wilderness and the West"), Church designed a "Middle Eastern" style house because Christ had lived there, not because of any innate affection for Orientalism--although the webpage describes Church's fascination with Moorish design. The Olana page's video tour of the house is available on YouTube in larger format.

Another good source of information on Olana is the well-illustrated "A Treasure House on the Hudson," written by Lewis Warner (photos by Kevin Bubriski) for Saudi Aramco World. The story of the house is nicely presented in a blog post from earlier this year by a member of the Monday Evening Club (Pittsfield, Mass., founded 1869), "The Center of the World: Frederic Church's Olana."

Henry Hobson Richardson, Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1884-86. Good views are also available at Great Buildings Online. For more works by Richardson, see this page from the Digital Archive of American Architecture.

Dallas County Courthouse, Orlopp & Kusener, 1892 (skip over the photos of the modern building). The photos I showed were taken by Meredith Hudson in 2006.