(LEA) Module Overview

Later Europe and the Americas I

Introduction

Self-Portrait. Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun. 1790 C.E. Oil on Canvas.Rococo was the favored style of French aristocracy and royalty. This style, used primarily in interior decoration, was derived from the French word "rocaille", which means round pebble. This reference refers to the stones and shells used to decorate the interiors of caves; therefore, shell forms became a main motif in Rococo. The paintings are characterized by pastel colors showing frivolous themes of the upper class enjoying their life of ease and elite status. Rococo is known for excessive decoration, ornamentation, and the emphasis on curvilinear and organic forms. Though delicate and elegant, largely it represents a very unrealistic and superficial view of the world. King Louis XIV was one of the greatest supporters of this type of painting. The architecture of his palace, Versailles, also follows the Rococo ideal, which is extremely elaborate, decorative, and even gaudy in its richness.

The Nineteenth century was characterized by three distinctly different art styles. The first of these was Neo-Classicism, which was a reaction to the frivolous style of the French Rococo. Jacques Louis David and his followers represented the ideals of the French Revolution and desired an art form which was dignified and reflected their serious concerns. Neo-Classical work stresses rationality, and it sought to revive the ideals of ancient Greek and Roman art. Neoclassic artists used classical forms to express their ideas about courage, sacrifice, and love of country. The second style is known as Romanticism. This art period sought to portray emotion, exotic locations, and psychological themes. Romanticists generally preferred a more dramatic and painterly approach. Great artists closely associated with Romanticism include J.M.W. Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, John Constable, and William Blake. The last style, Realism, heralded a general move away from the 'ideal' (as typified by the art of Classical mythology, so beloved by Renaissance artists and sculptors) towards the ordinary. In their figure drawing and figure painting, Realists portrayed real people not idealized types.

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

  • Why and how does art change?
  • How do we describe our thinking about art?
  • How does religion influence art and architecture?
  • How has art been utilized to foster political beliefs?
  • Is art a reflection of its culture or a force to form or shape culture?

Key Terms

In this module, we will study the following key terms:

  1. Calotype - A calotype is a photographic process in which a positive image is made by shining light through a negative image onto a sheet of sensitized paper.
  2. Camera Lucida - The camera lucida is Latin for “lighted room.” It is a device in which a small lens projects the image of an object downward onto a sheet of paper.
  3. Camera Obscura - Meaning “dark room” in Latin, the camera obscura is an ancestor of the modern camera in which a tiny pinhole, acting as a lens, projects an image on a screen, the wall of a room, or the ground-glass wall of a box; used by artists in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries as an aid in drawing from nature.
  4. Daguerreotype - The daguerreotype is a photograph made by an early method on a plate of chemically treated metal; developed by Louis J. M. Daguerre.
  5. Memento mori - Momento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished  candles,  rotten spots on fruit, and  a wilting flower.
  6. Neoclassicism - Neoclassicism is a style of art and architecture that emerged in the later 18th century. Part of a general revival of interest in classical cultures, Neoclassicism was characterized by the utilization of themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome.
  7. Plan - A plan is the horizontal arrangement of the parts of a building or of the buildings and streets of a city or town, or a drawing or diagram showing such an arrangement. In an axial plan, the parts of a building are organized longitudinally, or along a given axis; in a central plan, the parts of the structure are of equal or almost equal dimensions around the center.
  8. Romanticism - Romanticism is a Western cultural phenomenon, beginning around 1750 and ending about 1850, that gave precedence to feeling and imagination over reason and thought. More narrowly, the art movement that flourished from about 1800 to 1840.
  9. Vanitas - A vanitas painting contains objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality.
  10. Veduta - A veduta is a type of naturalistic landscape and cityscape painting popular in 18th-century Venice.

[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION