ARTKABINETT social network celebrates Bastille Day with a brief overview of art in the time of the French Revolution... a time when noble collectors easily lost their heads!
In the eighteenth century, the philosophies of the Enlightenment applied Newtonian mechanics to political philosophy. Newton described the mathematical laws of the universe; the philosophes described the laws of nature as they applied to human living in communities.
John Locke's Second Treatise on Government discussed the natural, inalienable rights of men: the right of life, liberty, and property; Thomas Jefferson argued the same position in the Declaration of Independence when he stated that all men are created equal, and have the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The French reiterated these points in their Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, where again it was argued that men are born equal and have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and freedom from oppression.
These ideals ignited revolution in France, a country ruled by an absolute monarchy for centuries. In France under Louis XIV, there was no liberty, no representation, no freedom of speech, and no rights to due process.
People were often picked up off the street for speaking against the monarchy, and detained for months or years in the Bastille in Paris. Louis XIV controlled the Parliaments, the courts, and every aspect of France.
Peasants suffered from a shortage of bread, France was in such debt that fully 1/2 of its revenue went to pay just the interest on its debt, and those who could most afford to help France in its hour of need, the nobles, refused to pay even the taxes they were required to pay.
The ideas of Locke, Jefferson, and other thinkers of the Enlightenment inspired the French to seek a more representative form of government, and so began the French Revolution in 1789.
The revolution began on an idealistic note with the convening of the Estates General, and disappointed many in its early days for its failure to fully implement the ideals of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Citizens were distinguished from one another on the basis of property: there were active citizens and passive citizens, and women were lost in the shuffle.
Early idealists such as Marat were disappointed in the intial reforms, and remarked when the constitution was created in the wake of the Declaration that "the worst has happened." France had not achieved the radical democracy Marat and others, such as Robespierre, had wanted.
In 1793-1794, France was under attack from many at home who believed the revolution had actually gone too far, rather than not far enough.
European monarchies, threatened by the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, were at war with the French. Robespierre instituted a "reign of terror" in which all suspected of being counter-revolutionaries were sent to the guillotine.
After the reign of terror, there was a conservative reaction, the Thermidorian Reaction. Many wanted a restoral of the Bourbon monarchy.
Early revolutionaries, such as the Abbe Sieyes, called for the restoral of order from above. In the midst of such chaos, Napoleon Bonaparte began his rise to power.
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was flanked by two artistic styles, Rococo and Neo-classicism. Rococo is a decorative style of the early to mid-18th century derived from the French word rocaille meaning shell. Rococo primarily influenced the ornamental arts in Europe, especially in France, southern Germany and Austria, and is marked by asymmetry, naturalism, pastel colors, light-heartedness and delicate shell-like and watery forms.
In France the aristocracy built elegant town houses (in French hôtels) that became salons—intimate areas for the exchange of conversations, intellectual gatherings and entertainment. The work of Jean-Antoine Watteau exemplified the French Rococo style in painting with scenes described as fête galantes or elegant outdoor entertainments.
François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard are associated with the spirit of the mature Rococo with their creation of erotic mythological and genre scenes. Other paintings can also be associated with the Rococo age such as the morally instructive genre scenes and still-lifes of Jean-Siméon Chardin.
Leading up to and following the French Revolution, Neo-classicism was the predominant artistic style in France (and in Europe and the USA from about 1750 to 1830).
This classical revival of the later 18th century was distinctive for its emphasis on archaeological exactitude, the result of the period's unprecedented level of knowledge of the art and architecture of the ancient world.
Factors such as the scientific study of surviving artefacts begun by scholars, the Grand Tour, the systematic excavation of the Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii and the exploration and recording of the monuments of the Greek islands and mainland which were all accompanied by the publication of large-format illustrated books, considerably expanded the repertoire of artistic models available to artists.
The heroic phase of Neo-classical painting resulted in Jacques-Louis David’s most pivotal works, Death of Marat (seen left) and Oath of the Horatii.
These works embodied the Enlightenment thought of Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau, namely the ideas of basic human rights, modern scientific investigation, rationalism and moral rectitude.
