#Romanticism art view of death series#

Andrew Stewart’s, “David’s ‘Oath of the Horatii’ and the Tyrannicides,” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. Weber’s American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World (The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2013), is a wonderful source with chapters dedicated to addressing West’s grand tour and his art collecting practices, along with a wonderful essay about the masterpiece The Death of General Wolfe. Judy Egerton’s George Stubbs, Painter: catalogue raisonné (London: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2007) and George Stubbs, 1724–1806: Science into Art (Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, 2012).įor Neoclassicism, Emily Ballew Neff and Kaylin H.

#Romanticism art view of death series#

1 (March, 1982), 75–88, unveils the mysteries behind Fragonard’s The Swing.įor the Enlightenment, I recommend a series of texts that are more focused upon specific artists. Donald Posner’s article, “The Swinging Women of Watteau and Fragonard,” The Art Bulletin, Vol. One of the most accessible surveys highlighting the Rococo is Robert Neuman’s Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture (Pearson, 2013). Knowing an artist’s background and training becomes useful in visual analysis as well as-as one moves closer to modern art-what artists reject about the establishment.Ī useful source to set the stage about the French Royal Academy is Christopher Allen’s French Painting in the Golden Age (Thames and Hudson, 2003). Government control of the French Royal Academy standardizes the education of artists to a point. Themes to stress throughout the lecture include patronage, education, materials, and modernity. Also, the types of art associated with royal and religious patronage would remain dominant-especially in the case of history painting-which artists would continue to aspire to. Here it is also important to stress that many of the institutions that Louis XIV developed-such as the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (hereafter, French Royal Academy)-carried over into the reign of Louis XV.

These similarities reflect a standard in French royal portraiture that would last a century, making for an eerie consistency that would not carry over into the rest of the art world. The props are also similar: crown, sword, and scepter are visible in both images, as well as the swag of red drapery. Comparing the two Rigaud paintings, students should be impressed at the consistency of the clothing: both monarchs are wearing similar white hosery, a blue velvet mantle with gold fleur-de-lis and ermine, and the chain and cross of the order of the Saint-Esprit. They are looking at the first official portrait of Louis XV (1710–74) at the age of five, a painting made shortly after the death of his great-grandfather, Louis XIV (1638–1715). After a quick debate over if the sitter is female, or a queen, or a child, give the sitter’s identity. The conversation always gets interesting when they begin to surmise the unknown sitter’s identity. Students should comment on the formal aspects: the color, the symbols, the drama – all features they have recently learned to associate with the Baroque, especially Rigaud’s other portrait of Louis XIV.

My favorite work to use is Hyacinthe Rigaud’s portrait of L ouis XV in Coronation Robes at the age of five. For this lesson, I like to use the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and Romanticism as my bookends.Īssuming that students will have just finished learning about French Baroque art and architecture, I like to begin class with an “unknown review.” By this, I mean a work of art that contains many of the features of the French Baroque but, also provides a way to set the historical stage for the next art period that we will be covering. A lesson that covers the eighteenth through early nineteenth centuries will-at minimum -deal with Rococo, the Enlightenment (which encompasses the advancements in the sciences and Neoclassicism), as well as Romanticism.