THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Repeated from last time The

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (Repeated from last time) • The “Enlightenment” or Age of Reason, of rational thought and questioning of old beliefs • The Industrial Revolution • Political Revolutions: American Revolution, 1776 French Revolution, 1789

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784 The painting represents an early phase of Romanticism, usually called Neoclassicism.

ROCOCO Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717 ROMANTIC / NEOCLASSICAL David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784

ROCOCO Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717 BAROQUE Rubens, Garden of Love, c. 1638

BAROQUE Poussin, Judgment of Solomon, 1649 ROMANTIC / NEOCLASSICAL David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784

Oath of the Horatii Detail: the Horatii (sons of Horatius)

Oath of the Horatii: detail of women and children David, Oath of the Horatii

David’s Oath of the Horatii showed the potential of art to engage with politics. His Death of Marat, painted nine years later, showed this even more directly by representing an actual contemporary event. David, Death of Marat, 1793

Detail: Charlotte Corday’s letter of introduction David, Death of Marat, 1793

This comparison suggests that Marat — and David — were trying to replace the Catholic Church with the new secular religion of the State. Italian (c. 1605), Pietà (dead Christ reclining against his mother) David, Death of Marat, 1793

Excerpt from a speech delivered at a tribute to Marat about two months before his assassination: “Oh thou, Jesus; Oh thou, Marat! Oh sacred heart of Jesus; Oh sacred heart of Marat! You are both equally deserving of our homage. . Let us compare the son of Mary’s works with those of the Friend of the People . . Jesus was a prophet, but Marat is a god. ” David, Death of Marat, 1793

Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the “Medusa, ” 1818 -19

Raft of the “Medusa, ” 1818 -19 Rubens, Raising of the Cross, 1610 -11

Raft of the “Medusa” A range of emotions, from hope, joy, and exultation to suffering, agony, and despair Detail: first sighting of the rescue ship

Raft of the “Medusa” Detail: father supporting dead son

J. M. W. Turner (British), The Slave Ship, 1840 The painting was based on two unrelated sources: (1) a contemporary poem about a slave ship caught in a typhoon, and (2) the true story of the slave ship Zong, which took place in 1783. Turner’s original title was, Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and the Dying: Typhoon Coming On.

The Slave Ship Detail: manacled bare leg and monstrous fishes

The Slave Ship Detail: the ship

The Slave Ship Detail: sunset at sea

Francisco Goya (Spanish), The Third of May 1808, 1814

The Third of May Detail

Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799 (El sueño de la razón produce monstruos) Not a painting or a drawing, but one of 80 prints in a series called Los Caprichos, published by Goya at his own expense (and at a financial loss). A capricho (capriccio or caprice in English) is a freak or whim or fantastic notion.

Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799 Goya explained the meaning of the print by claiming that “Imagination, united with Reason, is the mother of all arts and the source of all wonders. ” However, “Imagination deserted by Reason gives birth to impossible monsters. ”

Goya, Untitled (Saturn Devouring One of His Children), c. 1819 -23 This late work by the artist is one of his socalled “black paintings” (pinturas negras): a series of 14 large pictures that Goya painted right on the plaster walls of a farmhouse near Madrid (nicknamed La Quinta del Sordo – “the Deaf Man’s House”) which he purchased in 1819 at the age of 73. When the building was torn down in the 1870 s, the paintings were rescued by a Frenchman and taken to Paris, where they were widely disparaged. A British critic of the time described them as “the vilest abortions that ever came from the brush of a sinner. . . incomprehensible. . . revolting. ” And so they were taken back to Madrid.

Goya, Untitled (Saturn Devouring One of His Children), c. 1819 -23 Detail

Rubens, Saturn Devouring. . . (Goya’s source of inspiration? )