Benjamin West, Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, 1768
(Yale University Art Gallery)
Benjamin West was an American artist who went to study in Rome in 1760 and returned to England in 1763, to remain there for the rest of his life. Upon his return, the Archbishop of York commissioned West to paint a story from Roman history, Agrippina returning from Syria with the ashes of her assassinated husband Germanicus. She was considered to be very noble and brave since it was believed that Emperor Tiberius who was Germanicus' uncle and adopted father was responsible for the brilliant General's demise. In West's painting we see her as she lands in Brundisium carrying an urn with her two children Caligula and Agrippina junior, all dressed in white (the color of mourning) and is greeted by a large crowd of sympathizers who loved her husband and admired her courage and virtue. She stands composed, not showing her pain on the face of this tragedy which points to the stability of her character.
Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, conforms perfectly with the demands of the art scholars of the time who were appealing for a morally edifying art. Agrippina's actions represented exemplum virtutis (example of virtue) meant to inspire paralel virtues in it's viewers. West has highlighted Agrippina and her retinue in the middle of the painting in a freeze-like setting which is reminiscent of the friezes he must have seen in Rome. The ancient Roman city in the back forming a stage-like setting, Agrippina's stoic stance and the dramatic lighting effects are all typical elements of neoclassical painting but some elements of the rococo style are also present. The crying women in the left forefront and the agitated boatmen on the right are worked out with sinuous lines and more vivid colors.
Benjamin West was one of the founders and the second president of the Royal academy in London, which was quite a way to go for a man from Pennsylvania, in such a class conscious society. Thanks to him, a lot of other American artists got established in England as students and professionals. According to the Yale University Art Gallery label, this painting would help him become a favorite of the King, George III, who was his life-long patron.
Joseph Wright of Derby, Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight, 1765
(Private Collection)
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery, 1766
(Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, England)
Joseph Wright of Derby, Experiment with an Air Pump, 1768
(National Gallery, London)
Joseph Wright of Derby is an 18th century artist that really stands out due to his unusual depictions of dark interiors with a hidden light source a little reminiscent of Carvaggio and De La Tour, two artist I find incredibly fascinating.
An avid believer in the enlightenment, he was part of an intellectual group, the Lunar society, who believed in the unity of science, philosophy and art. They got their name from their monthly meetings being held on the first Monday before a full moon.
Georges de La Tour, The Newborn, 1645
(Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rennes)
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The conversion of St. Paul, 1601
(Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome)
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Septimius Severus and Caracalla, 1769
(Musee du Louvre, Paris)
Jean-Baptiste Greuze came from Tournus, the son of a roof master who tried to thwart his son's artistic tendencies at an early age. He received his early training in Lyons, then traveled onto Paris and enrolled at the Academie to continue his studies. He is noted as having made a great fuss when he was given an unsatisfactory seat in life class. Greuze then traveled onto Italy in the company of abbe Gaugenot which according to art historian Anita Brookner was wasted on him since he was too much under the influence of Flemish and Dutch models.1
When Greuze first entered the Academie, he wanted to be a Genre painter, showing domestic scenes with popular connotations which was in the middle of the hierarchy of acceptable styles. The hierarchy of Genres were as follows: History painting; Portrait painting; Genre painting; Landscape; Still Life. Although he wasn't an fully accepted academician yet, Greuze was sending his paintings to the Salon, the official exhibition of the Academie that informed the public of the quality of works produced by the academicians. The artists who were permitted into the Academie were supposed to submit a reception piece that was judged and accepted into the different levels of the academy. Greuze who had been protected by influential people had not submitted his reception piece till 1769.
The artist usually would have a sponsor to help, critique and guide him on his reception piece but Greuze arrogantly decided to do it by himself without any assistance artistically or financially. Since he was financing the painting himself, it ended up being smaller than the usual size of the pieces admitted to the jury. In his attempt to impress the jury Greuze picked an obscure story from antiquity that was based on speech and had no decipherable meaning without the words. The story Greuze was trying to depict was the Roman emperor Septimius Severus reproaching his son Caracalla who had tried to kill him and telling him that all he would have to do if wanted to accomplish this would be to tell his guards. As odd as the story was Greuze's unacceptable depiction of the protagonists provided the academicians with further ammunition to completely destroy it. The limp arm of the Emperor pointing at his son was so out of character for a man in his position as well as Caracalla's strange expression of a boy who is being scolded that even though Greuze had done his studies of the anatomy in the nude as was the correct way for the academy, it still ended up being a failure. He was still admitted into the academy but at the lower level of genre painter which he took as the biggest insult. When he showed this painting at the Salon it was not appreciated by anyone there either. Taking offense, Greuze decided not to exhibit at the Salon anymore and eventually died unnoticed and in poverty.
1 Brookner, Anita. "Jean-Baptiste Greuze-I" The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Vol 98, No 638, May 1956
Joseph-Marie Vien, The Seller of Cupids, 1763
(Musee National de Chateau de Fontainebleau)
Joseph-Marie Vien, had won the Prix de Rome and studied in Rome between 1744 to 1750. This was a time of great excitement in Italy since ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii had been unearthed in 1738 and 1748 bringing into light some very well preserved wall paintings which was an immense source of knowledge and inspiration for scholars and artists.
Carlo Nolli, The Seller of Cupids,1762
illustration from Le Antichita di Ercolano.
Vien's The Seller of Cupids draws its subject directly from an image from Le Antichita di Ercolano (The antiques of Herculaneum) which was a collection of images of archaeological finds from the ancient Roman city. Carlo Nolli's engraving of The Seller of Cupids is the mirror image of Vien's painting.
Some of the elements of the original engraving has been changed by Vien; by placing his stoic figures in a shallow setting at the very edge of the picture plane and closing off the back completely using vertical components, he has created a stage-like presence. Vien has also added some period interior furnishings that are not present in the original engraving plus he has changed the Classical cage to an 18th century basket.
Most critics recognized the innovation in this painting and applauded Vien's sobre style but some criticized its immoral subject matter. The obsecene gesture of the cupid in the air alluding to the promised pleasure did not sit well with Diderot who was trying to elevate the French and rich Roman ladies buying love was considered more erotic and indecent than even Boucher's sensual paintings. Finally, even though Vien had achieved Neoclassicism stylistically, he still remained in the Rococo style with his content. It would be up to his student Jacques Louis David to bring about the complete revolution.
Anton Raphael Mengs, Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus, 1760-61
(Villa Albani, Rome)
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, a German literary scholar, who was working in Rome during mid 18th century, was one of the biggest advocates of an art in the noble simplicity and quiet grandeur of the ancient Greeks. According to Winckelmann, Greeks lived an exemplary life of a healthy diet and regular exercise which led to a healthy mind and high moral standards. He saw an intense study of Classical art as the only way to improve the decadence of 18th century society and the arts. A trip to Rome and the study of the Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo and Raphael was an essential part of for many young artist's training. By 1760's those artist working in Rome were also exposed to Winceklmann's teachings and were beginning to incorporate these elements in to their work. Since the 1880's, the art of this period is referred to as Neoclassical.
Apollo Belvedere, Roman 120- 130
(Copy of Bronze Original Greek 325-350BC)
(Vatican Museum, Rome)
The German painter Anton Raphael Mengs was one of the artists who was working in Rome in the 1760's and he was commissioned by Winckelmann's patron, Cardinal Albani, to paint his new villa's reception room ceiling. The ceiling fresco Mengs painted, Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus, is considered to be the first example of Neoclassical painting, a revolutionary declaration of a new art. Mengs' stoic figures are standing, in a shallow picture plane in front of trees that are forming a backdrop with the mythological source of artistic inspiration, the Castillian spring in the front.
Instead of concealing the ceiling with illusionism as was the custom since the Renaissance, Mengs emphasized it as a flat surface. Apollo is standing in the middle wearing laurels and holding a lyre, surrounded by muses in a symmetrical composition. Mengs' idealized figures recall sculptures from antiquity, his composition, paintings from the Renaissance. As a matter of fact, his Apollo is a rendition of the Apollo Belvedere in reverse which was believed at the time to be the most magnificent sculpture from ancient Greece (it has been proved to be a Roman copy since.) In this ceiling fresco he seems to have captured the essence of what his friend Winckelman was calling for at the time to cleanse the arts from French Rococo and bring a subdued gravity in its stead.
Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509 -1510
(Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, Rome)
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Bride, 1761
(Musee du Louvre)
Jean-Baptiste Greuze's (1725-1805) moralizing and sentimental paintings, appealed to the bourgeois of mid 18th century Paris who resented the aristocracy's moral decadence and impervious attitude towards the rest of the country and Greuze himself was deduced to be the artist to end the debasement of French Art. Greuze especially received high praise from the critic Diderot because he saw a connection between Greuze's paintings and his own plays on the drame bourgeois (bourgeois drama based on the life and problems of the middle-classes.) The entwined hands of the engaged couple in The Village Bride, especially appealed to the Salon-goers since it represented the sentiments of the middle classes of a marriage based on love instead of convenience, money or titles like that of the upper classes.
This narrative painting reminiscent of Dutch genre paintings, depicts the moment of the exchange of the dowry from the father into the bridegroom's hand that is being recorded by the public notary and being witnessed by the whole family. The most important focal point is in the middle with the hands exchanging the money. The father is the only one speaking while the rest of the family are rendered displaying different emotions with gestures as part of little vignettes throughout the painting. The contemporary viewer would be able to make a direct connection with the unfolding drama.
Greuze had taken classes at the Academy before going to Italy with his patron for two years. He submitted The Village Bride, to the Salon of 1771 on his return from Rome. Although the style and subject matter are quite the opposite of what was mostly being shown at the Salon, Greuze applied the concepts he had learned at the Academy to this painting.
All the elements of the Village Bride,demonstrate the genuine, loving environment of a family with humble means. A stark but clean and orderly household is set before us in a shallow, stage-like setting. The bread stocked up on the shelf at the top of the painting, alludes to the father's success at providing for his family. Using the pyramidal shape that was taught at the Academy, the painting is divided into two distinct spaces - the male side on the right and the female side on the left of the canvas. There is a little boy placed along with the females who may be too young to belong on the male sphere and an ambigous female standing behind the father who could be an older sister not sharing the same sentiment as the rest of the females in the family or a servant who has come in from the outside. The female sphere is emphasized with the curving line moving through connecting the figures all the way up to the middle of the painting while the male sphere is accentuated with straight lines and geometric elements that can be picked up on the documents, the tricorne hat of the notary as well as the chairs they are sitting on . The separation is also accomplished with the placement of the females as nurturers from the mother holding her daughter's hand to the chicken with its hens in the foreground and even the little girl feeding those chickens alluding to learning her future role. While the feelings and roles of the females are put on display on left of the painting, cultural tendencies of the males are displayed through the exchange of money, recording of the exchange and the curious look of the little boy who almost looks like he is examining the public notary's notes.
Although the Village Bride which appears to be a social commentary, feels far removed from the pastel, fluffy, sensuous painting style of the rococo period, it still retains rococo elements that can be noted in the treatment of the clothing of the females while at the same time introducing geometric elements on the male side attesting to Greuze's role as a link between rococo and Neoclassicism.
Maurice-Quentin Delatour, Portrait ofMadame de Pompadour, 1755
(Musee de Louvre, Paris)
I have always found museums to be magical places that can take the viewer to the eras represented in their collections. In todays world of unlimited access, thanks to the internet, we are lucky enough to visit those eras through our computers. Although nothing can compare with an actual experience of coming face to face with one of these masterpieces, this alternative can still manage to enlighten and enchant the interested viewer.
While doing research for my realism class I came across a delightful commentary on the life and times of Marquise de Pompadour at the Louvre website that engaged me instantly. I relished the brief inside look at Maurice-Quentin de La Tour's work with detailed discussions of all its elements.
The links on the left of the painting for - Portrait of a royal mistress; Composition of the portrait; A fabulous French gown; A daring political statement; Drawing with pastels; Delatour and his pastel portraits - are all priceless bits of information about this fabulous portrait as well as the time period.
Francois Boucher, The Toilette of Venus, 1751
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The respect and power Louis XIV established over all of Europe during the grand siecle had completely vanished during Louis XV's(1715-1774) long reign due to his excesses, extravagance and incompetence in war. The feckless life in Versailles, became even more frivolous, scandalous and detached from the real world. Madame de Pompadour's protege, Francois Boucher painted pastoral scenes of aristocrats imitating shepherds and farmers frolicking in nature dressed in satins and silks, accompanied by pristine clean dogs and sheep, causing critics to complain "His lovers are shepherds, but incapable of watching a flock." Life in Paris imitated life at court. 1The aristocracy lived only for its pleasure without any idea of the realities of the lower classes.
Francois Bocher, Dark-Haired Odalisque, 1745
(Musee du Louvre)
Rococo was the style for the decorative and fine arts during Louis XV's reign. The oval frame, pastel pinks, yellows and blues, undulating forms, wooded landscapes, plump bodies and themes of love and seduction were all typical features to be found in rococo paintings. Even with indoor scenes where there were straight walls in the background, continuous arabesques were more prominent. While most of the French population suffered, the aristocracy played in a world of make believe behind closed doors.
Art criticism, came into its own as we understand it today with La Font de Saint-Yenne's pamphlet published in 1747, about the current state of painting in France. In his lengthy pamphlet, La Font severely criticized the decadence of contemporary art, calling out to artists to let go of the frivolous and sensuous subject matter for a return to the grand manner of history painting.2
Jean-Baptist Greuze, Father Reading the Bible to His Children, 1755
When the philosopher, writer, art critic Diderot reviewed the Salon some twenty years later, he found fault with painting on moral, social and aesthetic grounds, especially calling Boucher depraved.3 He found Boucher blatantly artificial and mercenary, criticizing his formulaic pastorals, parsley trees and powdered female bottoms. 4 Diderot called for a new art that would promote virtue and not vice.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze's genre paintings about drame bourgeois, depicting the lives of the middle classes in an austere way, with elevated virtue could be identified as the perfect models for this new art. In the etching of Father Reading the Bible to His Children, we see a middle class family who is engrossed in what their father is reading with their backs to the door. This is a family who is not interested in what is going on outside with the nobility. The sons are engrossed in what their father is reading, one stands with a solemn expression on his face. Just the fact that the father is reading shows that they are educated. The maid in the background informs us of the financial stability of the family. It is a clean, orderly, humble setting in an enclosed space, quite a contradiction to Boucher's paintings of nubile ladies carouseing in nature. With his somber, moralizing paintings Greuze would be the bridge between Rococo and Neoclassicism.
Francois Boucher, Shepherd and Shepherdess Resting, 1761
(Wallace Collection, London)
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Bride, 1761
(Musee du Louvre)
Francois Boucher, Marquise de Pompadour, 1756
(Alte Pinakothek Museum, Munich)
After the death of the 'Sun King', with another child king on the throne, the nobility fled Versailles and the strict and restrained life that was exerted by Louis XIV on his courtiers. Since Louis XV was only five years old, Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, nephew of Louis XIV, who had a reputation as much for being accomplished in his understanding of literature, philosophy as a debauchee, philanderer and a rake acceded as Regent to the throne. He moved the seat of government as well as the court back to Paris.1
This was a time when the aristocracy indulged in a very liberated and pleasurable life style. The backdrop for their witty repartee and enlightened conversations was the intimate rococo interior. The word Rococo comes from the French word for shell or rock, rocaille; this motif can be seen in many of the ornate and playful interior decoration that emerges specifically in the townhouses of aristocrats in Paris in the second part of 18th century. The high ceilings with large mirrored walls where the juncture between the wall and the ceiling seems to blend in, organic forms gilded of gold, arrangements of cupids, flowers, vines and figures, all very sinuous and fluid, forming arabesques are all typical motifs of the rococo style.
This was the time of the Enlightenment, philosophers, writers and artists believed in the power of reason which could explain all natural phenomena. The playful libertine spirit of the age stimulated a new freedom of thought, and a willingness to challenge the convictions of the past.
Mme. de Pompadour became Louis XV's mistress in 1745 and ruled the king and the country for two decades. She was a refined patron of the arts and literature who entertained Voltaire and Diderot, a connoisseur of "good taste". She was also the special protector of the Encyclopedie, which was edited by the writer- critic- philosopher Diderot and the mathematician D'Alembert.2
In this portrait by her favorite painter, Boucher, she is shown with a book in her hand which points to her aptitude for learning, the feather in the drawer by her side points to the fact that she writes as well. Books and manuscripts are strewn everywhere from the armoire behind her to the floor underneath the nightstand, all the signs of her interest in bettering of self. The sumptuous, satin dress she is wearing, decorated with satin bows and flowers, the cupid on top of the armoire behind her, the luxurious, excessive curtains and the roses at her feet are all the typical rococo elements of this painting. Her feet peaking underneath her dress point to her promiscuous nature since no lady of good breeding could show her ankles in public.
Although, France benefited greatly form her influence on the arts and architecture (Louis XV had no particular interest in literature, or music or the arts until she came along) the French hated Madame de Pompadour because of her origins. She was borne Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, to a bourgeoisie family and had captured Louis' heart with her looks and wit. She was well educated and her influence extended to all levels of government. After her demise, she was replaced by a pretty prostitute called Jeanne Becu, later Comtesse du Barry, who completed the corruption of Louis' court where sex had become the principal occupation. 3
1 Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris, Vintage Books, New York, 145-148 2 Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 25-26 3 Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris, Vintage Books, New York, 148-149
For the next couple of months, I am going to be discussing Realism and the art movements that preceded it, Romanticism and Neoclassicism. I feel that in order to comprehend what prompted these works of art, we need to understand the events that were taking place at the time and it's affects on the people of that period. No study of these movements can be started without first getting to know Louis XIV (1638-1715) 'the Sun King' and his form of government, absolutism, the absolute monarchy.
Louis was not yet five years old at the time of his accession to the throne, after his father's death in 1643. His mother, Anne of Aurstria, with Cardinal Mazarin acting as first minister ruled France until Louis turned thirteen and came of age. This was a time when Paris had been reduced to a state of anarchy, misery and hunger due to the fronde, the uprisings that had started four years ago first of which was contended to principles and the second which was concerned mainly with the rivalry of competing princes. The humiliation and the threat he suffered during this time would cause him to be vigilant when it came to his subjects and affect the rest of Louis' reign.
Once order was restored, Louis promised a general amnesty and assured office holders would get paid off with pensions and lands, parlement renounced its claims to have a voice in political and financial affairs. With the end of the revolution, all power resided in Louis alone and it was the beginning of the absolute monarchy. There is a story that in 1655, Louis heard Parlement was meeting without his knowledge while he was out hunting; legend has it, he rode back, forbid the meeting to continue and uttered the famous words "L'etat, c'est moi" (The State, it is I.)1
Louis XIV loved spectacles and to take part in them. For the birth of his firstborn he mounted a great spectacle that evoked medieval times where he dressed as a Roman emperor wearing sun on his shield with the inscription Ut vidi vici ("As I saw, I conquered.") This is supposed to be the beginnings of the myth of the Age of the Roi Soleil. 2
The reign of Louis XIV was a great time for the arts to flourish. This was the age of Racine, La Fontaine, Moliere and Boileau and Lully, the father of the french opera (see below). By the end of the seventeenth century,Comedie Francaise had 10,000 to 17,000 regular patrons.3 Louis was the first of France's monarchs to offer consistent support for artists and writers. The Academie de peinture et de sculpture had been founded in 1648, the Academie Royal d'Architecture in 1671 and under the control of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's finance minister, the academies worked to the glorification of the sun king. La Gloire and sheer spectacle were to be embraced as essential components of the style of this era.
This painting by the court painter Hyacinthe Riguad, is probably one of the greatest examples of royal propaganda. The long, massive wig hiding a receding hairline and short stature, the coronation robe embroidered with fleur de lis and lined with ermine, the red high-heeled shoes only nobility were allowed to wear and all the other accouterments of a king are present along with the look of arrogance from his position high up above the viewer. Even though it was meant as a gift to the King of Spain, Louis was so enamored of this likeness, that he kept it and had his subjects show the same reverence to the painting that was to be afforded to the king himself.
Louis XIV had removed his family, his ministers and the whole court to Versailles in 1682 where he could keep them close and exercise complete control over them. He demanded total obedience and infinite loyalty. The French aristocracy, was to live in seclusion surrounding the king with only card games, hunting and gossip to relieve the weariness.
His actual rule of 54 years, that started after Mazarin's demise, was full of grandeur and prosperity for France. He launched a very ambitious building program, shipbuilding developed, the army modernized and expanded, mines, foundries, mills, refineries and the wool trade thrived, and the prestige industry from Savonnerie carpets to France's superlative Gobelin tapestries were launched.
Unfortunately, the seventeenth century was also a time of hardship and recession for the French peasantry, the erratic weather conditions and the archaic agriculture practices producing years of unsatisfactory harvests. Combined with the Church, landlords and bureaucrats exploiting the peasantry caused revolts against taxation and regular bread riots which never amounted to much due to the power of the absolute monarchy.4
As the grand siecle came to a close tragedy struck Louis one after another. His first grandson died at birth, then he lost three dauphins within one year and in 1715, four days before his seventy seventh birthday, Louis XIV died after being on the throne for seventy years. The court could finally move back to Paris, after a thirty-three year separation which set the stage perfectly for Rococo.
1 Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris,Vintage Books, New York, 109 2 Ibid., 110 3 Ibid., 132 4 Ibid., 121-124
"First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me, delight my eyes afterwards, if you can."
- Denis Diderot
I just found this quote by the 18th century French philosopher, writer and art critic of the Enlightenment, Denis Diderot. He was calling out for a new art from the excessive,depraved style of rococco that was favored by the aristocracy during the reign of Louis XV.
This impassioned statement resonated within me and I started to think, "Of all the works of art I studied, which stood out and could be the answer to this plea?" After hours of contemplation, I came to the conclusion for me, it was Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin's sculptures that made my heart tremble, weep and shudder... so much feeling, so much passion, so much pain...
Camille Claudel, The Age of Maturity, 1899
(Musee d'Orsay)
