...11/8/13 Napoleon Crossing the Alps at Saint Bernard Pass, 1800 The painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps at Saint Bernard Pass is truly a magnificent and unique work of art for its time. It is an oil painting on canvas which was painted by JacquesLouis David. The work was first started in October of 1800 and completed just four months later in January of 18011. However, there were a total of five different versions of the painting created, with the last version being completed in 1805. All five versions are located at several different locations throughout Europe. The work was painted at the Château de Malmaison, which at the time was a government building just outside of Paris, France. The painting is approximately 8’6” in height and 7’3” in width2. The work depicts General Napoleon Bonaparte horseback along with his troops traveling through the Alps while on a military campaign against the Austrians.3 Ironically, Napoleon didn’t actually lead his troops through the Alps but rather followed several days behind them for his own safety.4 There were many historical trends and forces after the French Revolution which played a roll in this particular work of art. Because of the upheaval that was occurring in France during the French Revolution, the country was vulnerable to threatening outside countries and armies. This influenced Napoleon to become part of the Consul. Shortly after the French Revolution, 1 2 smarthistory.khanacademy.org/davids-napoleon-crossing-the-alps.html...
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...most important French Neoclassical painter”, created paintings that yielded a movement that changed the course of history. Being both artists from different places and periods, the artworks that they produced differed in the various way: in message, style, and composition. The Baroque and Neoclassicism are different periods that influenced art and artists and created a provenance that is visible until today. Marked for having a totally different emphasis and...
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...Early cave paintings around the world depict animals such as bison, wild cattle, horses and deer. These paintings were made using charcoal and other organic materials over thirty thousand years ago. While the reason is still unclear, these paintings most likely signify daily chases early man took part in (historyworld.net). Since then, artists have used paintings to represent and respond to many ideas throughout history. Passionate, dramatic and complex paintings, such as “The Colossus” by Francisco Goya of the Romanticism movement characterized the early nineteenth century. A struggling political and social time in the Romanticism movement sparked a need in artists to document the ordinary world instead of grandiose and dramatic scenes, and the Realism movement began. This movement developed and popularized these depictions of scenes from the ordinary world without any flourish, as seen by Honoré Daumier with “The Third-Class Carriage”. Realism originated as a reaction to the social and political characteristics of the Romanticism movement, as seen in various literary works, impacted the art world greatly. The late eighteenth century began the Romanticism movement, which prevailed as the dominate artistic movement through the nineteenth century. It directly revolted against the Enlightenment period, by “challenging the excessive rationalism” and “stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience” and came about as a result of the effects of the French Revolution...
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...Symbolism: Regeneration of French Society The Regeneration of French Society came from the revolutionaries’ aggravation with the government of France. King Louis XVI was an incompetent and ineffective ruler. The Monarchy and nobility engaged in political conflict over reform of the tax system, leading France to bankruptcy. In order to regenerate French society the revolutionaries had to reform the main leading figure and symbol of power, King Louis XVI and the absolute monarchy. Although the revolutionaries at first did not intentionally try to inspire nationalist symbols from the events of the French Revolution, the republican ideals of liberty, freedom, and equality that arose from the fighting, nevertheless came to be embodied in French art as powerful symbols that helped to further drive the revolution. The events of the French Revolution were not intended to create nationalist symbols, and only later developed symbolic significance, they were at the time rational acts in attempt to reach a goal. Nevertheless, paintings of the events reinforced republican ideals and symbolism and artwork became a visual aid to the revolution. The artwork was a way for the revolutionaries to visually express nationalism and their goals in a coterminous fashion, combining the two and linking them. French art in a way advertised the revolutionary ideals and the events which publicized the French Revolution. In July 1788 the announcement that the king was going to make the Estates...
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...The Enduring Symbols of Revolution: The Emotional Connection to French Republican Art History 2: Revolutions December 15, 2011 Towards the end of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant and many other influential philosophers during the Enlightenment stated that people should be rational in their approach to life, including politics, economics, and society. Rationalism was one of the main themes of the Enlightenment, and it played an important role in the French Revolution. One aspect of rationalism that was important in the French Revolution were rational symbols of power. However, these rational symbols of power ultimately were disfavored in revolutionary France in favor of more enduring artistic symbols of the Revolution. Although the revolutionaries also sought to regenerate French society through rational symbols of power, their use of Roman, Greek and republican art, were the most enduring symbols of a new French society because of their stronger portrayal of liberty, fraternity and equality. The rational symbols of power that the revolutionaries sought to introduce into French society included the revolutionary French Republican calendar, the revolutionary French Republican clock, and the metric system. For the reasons noted below, each of these symbols ultimately were not accepted in French society. Even though the revolutionary French Republican calendar, one of the important rational symbols, did have a strong basis in reason, it lacked public support and was not...
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...Romanticism gained fame and momentum as a movement of art in the early 19th century and flourished till the 1850s. It was popular in France and Britain. Romanticism, which emerged as a reaction to the disillusionment with enlightenment involving order and reason after the 1789 French revolution, stressed on emotion and imagination. In romantic art, nature provided an appropriate alternative to the thoughts of enlightenment. In this case, nature was considered as unpredictable, had a great potential for extreme disasters and had uncontrollable power. The terrifying and violent images of nature invented by artists during the romantic period recalled the 18th century aesthetics. In British and French paintings of the early eighteenth century, the presentation of the struggle of man against the power of nature highlights this sensibility. Romanticism, which cannot be expressed using a single technique, attitude or style, is characterized by a highly subjective approach, such as visionary quality and emotional intensity (Tekiner, 2000). The context of romanticism can be equated to a reaction against the enlightenment age. It is believed that there is a big relationship between Romanticism and the French revolution that started in 1789. It can be said that most romantics were basically progressive in their opinions although others had conservative views because nationalism in many countries was associated with Romanticism (Noon, 2003). Realism Realism in literature and visual arts...
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...Neoclassical period eliminated the heavy use of vibrant colors and busy compositions. The Neoclassical artists focused on techniques more uniform by using formulas and perspectives that were more exact. The subjects in many of the paintings from this time period looked shiny or glossy due to the artists attempting to hide their brushstrokes to make their artwork simulate the polished look of a marble sculpture. During this time period the American colonies claimed independence from Great Britain and the French Revolution broke out in Paris. The 1700’s marks the industrial revolution in Britain as well. This time period is referred to as the Age of Reason. It was a more stable and a traditional time and there seemed to be a general respect for authority. The Romanticism time period and has been defined to have been between the years of 1800 CE and 1850 CE. Romantic artists wanted to focus on emotional experiences instead of looking into their past for their art themes. These artists tended to view the world around them and focus on the contemporary events and not focus on the ancient events or their past. Romanticists would artistically portray their emotions, which would include their political and/or social beliefs because of the revolution going on around them. The Romantic era seemed to prosper artists that...
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...American Intercontinental University April 20, 2013 Abstract This paper is to contrast and compare three works of art, showing their similarities. This is in an effort to evaluate and analyze the artwork. Neoclassicism As the French revolution began in 1789, the French Court’s luxurious life ended quite suddenly. The French court society ended and was transformed quite suddenly. Taste changed along with the social structure. Jacques-Louis David, a painter was an artist that was instrumental in change and led the way to the revolutions in the way of art and politics. He believed that art should serve a beneficial social purpose during social and governmental reform (Frank, 2011). David was a French painter in neoclassical style and considered to be the premier painter of his era. When David painted “The Oath of Horatii” he began a style of art called Neoclassicism which is an emulation of Greek and Roman art. The Oath of Horatii is about virtue and the willingness to die for liberty. This work is oil on canvas painting created in 1784. David was commissioned by the Administrator of Royal Residences. The painting is of three brothers from Roman legend. The scene is of them saluting their loyalty and patriotism before waging war against the Curatii brothers representing Alba Longa, settling a conflict between the states. One sister were engaged to one of the Curatii brothers and wept when she got the news...
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... Both Romanticism and Realism were art movements that began in the 19th century, during a time of war and revolution. Romanticism focused on emotions, injustice, and extraordinary, while Realism characterized the world without glorification. Both began as a response to historic ideas, but they vary in terms of artistic style and political views. In the first part of the 19th century, a new art movement began—Romanticism. Romanticism arose in retaliation of Neoclassicism, which placed restraints on artists and “rules-driven orderliness”. Romantic artists focused more on perception and impression, rather than on the specific object. They included “passion, emotion, and exotic settings with dramatic action”. Their attention was on the Romantic hero (archetype) who rejected normal life and focused on himself. The subjects in their paintings showed the preposterous and untamed side of humans. (Mindedge, 3.18) To display emotion and style, the artists used somber paint colors and displayed Gothic elements. The color red was used quite often as a sunset or in the person’s clothing, while black and gray were used for the skies to display impending doom. The main goals of Romanticism were to portray the battle between man vs. nature and man vs. himself, and also show certain political issues. The types of media used were oil paints and watercolor. The painting techniques used were 1) impasto which is “where the artists applied paint in a thick manner with a palette...
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...of rigorous contours, sculpted forms, and polished surfaces; history paintings, such as his Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons (Musée du Louvre, Paris) of 1789, were intended as moral exemplars. He painted in the service of royalty, radical revolutionaries, and an emperor; although his political allegiances shifted, he remained faithful to the tenets of Neoclassicism, which he transmitted to a generation of students, including Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, François Gérard, Baron Antoine Jean Gros, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. In the late 1790s, a group of David's students, known as the Primitifs (Primitives) or Barbus (Bearded Ones), rejected the values of Davidian classicism in favor of an art whose linear purity and simplicity recalled archaic Greek vase painting as well as early Renaissance art. These challenges to the primacy of David's Neoclassical style set the stage for a radical redefinition of history painting around 1800 in France. Before the Revolution, David's major history paintings, though often invoked in relation to contemporary events, drew upon subjects from ancient history (2009.423) and distant civilizations (Death of Socrates, 31.45); his approach was in keeping with that of the French Academy, which placed history painting at the top of its hierarchy of subjects while scenes from contemporary life were relegated to the bottom order. However, after 1789, the Revolution and its heroes came to the forefront in the art of David and his contemporaries...
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...(MindEdge 3.03; 2014) Some of these movements were an escape or a rebellion against the norm of mythological or glorified subject matters. Two movements whose painters are often times considered to be members of both genres are the Realism and Impressionism movements, such as Edouard Manet and Edward Degas. However, what influenced one movement was not necessarily the reasons for the characteristics, style or subject choices of the other. Visual art and artists, during the mid to late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, observed many changes take place in France. The changes experienced with the 1848 Revolution brought about a consciousness of what was depicted in the paintings of the Romanticism movement. Emotion and imagination, more exotic than common, of the individual used to express the forces of nature and human behavior captivated Romanticism artists. (Galkitz, K.C., 2004) The revolution brought about the downfall of the monarchy of Louis-Philippe and the formation of the...
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...Revolutions 159 Revolutions 1688-1815 Chapter 15 W Louis XIV’s bedroom in Versailles. Each day officially began with a ceremony of getting him out of bed, his “rising,” and ended with a similar retiring ceremony at night. The small fence was to keep the onlookers at a safe distance, somewhat like a fence at a zoo. hen William and Mary ascended to the British throne in 1688 it was hailed as “the Glorious Revolution” for no blood had been shed and the British had a nation with greater political freedom than any other in Europe. Their ascent to the throne was quickly followed by a Declaration of Rights which guaranteed things like trial by jury and parliamentary representation to all British citizens. John Locke, the author and philosopher who supplied much of the intellectual foundation of the glorious resolution wrote in his Second Treatise on Government: “Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men…” Locke further contended that the role of government is to preserve these rights and that the power of government is a result of the individual citizens collectively agreeing to be ruled. In July of 1776 Thomas Jefferson would modify Locke’s treatment of natural...
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...The momentous Western developments of the early nineteenth century were industrialization, urbanization, and increased economic and political interaction worldwide-matured quickly during the latter half of the century. The industrial Revolution in England spread throughout Europe and to the United States. Because of this dramatic expansion, the third quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the second Industrial Revolution. While the first Industrial Revolution centered on textiles, steam, and iron, the second was associated with steel, electricity, chemicals and oil. The discoveries in these fields were the foundation for the development in plastics, machinery, building construction, and auto motive manufacturing. These finding help paved the way for later development in the invention of the radio, electric light bulb, telephone, and electric streetcar- still seen in modern day California. The most significant invent during industrialization was urbanization. Western cities grew dramatically during the later part of the nineteenth century; mainly do to migration from rural regions. The widely available work opportunities in the cities, especially in the factories, were also a major factor in this migration. An increasing emphasis on science was another characteristic of this period. Advances in the industrial technology reinforced the enlightenment’s footing on rationalism. The connection to science and progress advancing seemed obvious to many, both...
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...Europe undertaken by mainly young, rich European men), it became fashionable to collect antiquities as souvenirs, which spread the Neoclassical style through Europe and America.This style would be in direct opposition to the former Rococo style. For example, in Rococo architecture the emphasis was on grace, ornamentation and asymmetry. Neoclassical architecture is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry. During this time there were two major movements going on, The French Revolution, and the enlightenment period. Both of which had a huge influence in how the art would be viewed and created. I am going to explain how the two events influenced artworks, and the techniques used by the artist. Neoclassical Art Paper...
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...In 1787, Napoleon and the people of France began to fight what would later be known as “The French Revolution”, it was Napoleon’s rise to power that brought victory. Yet, years later they were back under a monarch, and a revolution started again. Napoleon’s revolution not only brought forth the idea of a revolution, but proof that revolting against a monarch was possible. Looking a Source 1, the first you notice is the flag. The bleu, blanc, et rouge of the flag of France was a rallying point for the revolutionaries. It provided common ground, and something for people to associate with their home. Flags have history of representing their countries, and the French flag was no different, providing a feeling of National pride for whomever saw...
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