Mini Assignment - Video Quiz - The Enlightenment and Neo-Classical Art (15 min)

All right, so as you guys learned, the enlightenment is this intellectual movement that emphasizes rationality, it emphasizes reason above everything else, and it's sort of rooted in the late 1600s and Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity, his discovery of the movement of the planets, and his invention of calculus, to name a few of the many, many things he did. But what Newton basically sort of proves is that the world can be understood through reason and rationality, through researching and using logic one could understand the very mechanics of the universe. So there is very much this belief that if we approach the world with this kind of reason, we could make it a better place, not just in the realm of science and technology and engineering but also in the way we construct our societies.

Then we also see the rise of these thinkers, philosophers, like the English man John Locke, who comes with this doctrine of empiricism that knowledge comes from sensory perception, but he also says that humans are basically good but it's society that corrupts us. He also said that there are certain laws of nature that grant every human, not just kings or rulers or the aristocracy but every human being, and we are all given these gifts by God: the right to life, liberty, and he said property. Later on, in the United States, we will change that property to the pursuit of happiness, but you can see here how the enlightenment is going to really influence the revolutions that will come later in the 1700s.

And in France, there were a group of thinkers called the philosophes who believe that, you know, they all had slightly different ideas, but there is this idea that we should better ourselves, there is this doctrine of progress that we should all strive for what's better in our lives, and that this is so we can become better and more moral people and that we can be perfected, that we can sort of attain a kind of best version of ourselves.

So the art of the enlightenment reflects this interest in science and empiricism, and to me, this is a painting that is really illustrates this fact. This is by an English artist named Joseph Wright of Derby (I know it looks like Derby, it's pronounced Darby), and Joseph Wright here has painted very much in the style of the Baroque artist Caravaggio with his dramatic tenebrism. But whereas Caravaggio used his light to represent the light of God, here Darby, Joseph Wright I should say, is using light to reflect the light of reason and science and knowledge. This is an orrery, an orrery is a model of the solar system, it's like a clockwork machine that you kind of wind up, and the planets spin around, and this was sort of based on the principles that were discovered by Isaac Newton. But the idea here is that once again, the world can be observed through empiricism, through observing it and recording data, and we can understand things that way, not through superstition, not through even faith really, but through observation.

So the enlightenment inspires a style of art we call neoclassicism. Classicism or classical art, or classical culture in general, refers to Greece and Rome, and Greece and Rome are going to have a huge influence in the enlightenment because many of the political concepts that we have now absorbed into our modern systems of government were derived from Greece and Rome, like Greek democracy, and of course, democracy is a Greek term meaning rule by the people, and Roman republicanism, which is a representative form of government where senators are elected to represent their constituents. And you know, these are humanist ideas, right? Neoclassicism and the enlightenment in general is very humanist because it believes that human reason, human rationality, human thought, human observation, human empiricism is this sort of will lead us to the path of enlightenment.

So along with this interest in science and reason and all this stuff, there's also an interest in classical Greek and Roman ideas and art and culture because those cultures are seen as sort of the exemplars of moral and rational, you know, reasonable thought, stability, and balance, and order. This is a work by the great neoclassical artist Jacques Louis David. It's called The Oath of the Horatii, and it is a painting that is based on an event from Roman history that was actually made into a play by a playwright named Pierre Corneille (Corneille, pardon me), and he, it was based on the Roman historian Livy. It is the story of a family called the Horatii family or the Horatii who have been chosen by their country of Rome to fight against the city of Alba and to fight a family called the Curiatii family. Their Curiatii family and the idea here is that this is meant to illustrate something called the social contract. The social contract was espoused by several enlightenment thinkers and basically the social contract is about how as citizens of a country or a society, we have an obligation to our fellow citizens. Um, and it's sort of the whole united we stand divided we fall, right? And the idea is that we must always be putting ourselves in service of the greater good. That is the social contract. And so you know, the basic idea is that governments exist for the betterment of their people, right? And governments wouldn't exist if it weren't for us, and we wouldn't have sort of the raw materials to build a good society without our governments. Um, so for example, the government provides things we need to be prosperous. They give us roads and infrastructure. They provide police and military to protect us. They provide schools to educate us, and we in turn provide, well, we pay taxes, right? We follow those laws. Um, so you know, the idea is sort of give and take. Um, to get something, you have to give back, but also vice versa. The government has to promise to be not corrupt. They have problems have to promise to have sort of the best interest of the people at heart. And if the government does become corrupt, then the social contract is broken, and we have a right to elect new leaders or, you know, take control of the government back. Um, but you know, military service really plays into this, for instance, right? If your country is threatened, then you have a moral obligation to the other people in your society. Uh, that if your government calls and asks you to fight, just like Rome asked the Horatii brothers to fight, then you take up arms and you fight. And if you don't do this, then the whole social contract is broken, and society falls apart. So if the government becomes corrupt, things fall apart. If the citizens don't do their share, then things fall apart. It is basically saying that the individual is less important than the whole is what the social contract is about.

And so these three men, these three brothers, are swearing an oath that they will fight for their country, but David is saying that sometimes that sacrifice, these we have to make for the greater good is the ultimate sacrifice. It is our lives, but also we, it that that sacrifice can affect other people. Because what you now know is that the brothers that the Horatio are fighting, the Curiatii brothers, the youngest Horatio brother is married to a Curiatii sister, and one of the Horatia sisters was engaged to a Curiatii brother. So there is familial connections between the two families, and so one of the brothers is going to lose a wife and one of the women is going to lose a fiance. And David is saying that sucks, but that's what the social contract is about, that we must put the needs of the many in front of our own personal needs if it is required by the state, if it is required by society at large. Because if we are selfish, then the social contract is broken and society falls apart, and nobody benefits. Heavy stuff, right? Um, it's a long way from a girl on a swing kicking your shoe and a guy hiding in the shrubbery down below, isn't it? And if you look at the painting, it's very serious in its design and its layout. It's very stripped down. It's very simple. We have this very almost black and white sort of background with these very severe Roman arches and Greek Doric columns, and look how the figures are lined up up front in a very easy to read manner. You don't even have to know this story to be able to read it pretty quickly. Three men are swearing an oath to fight, and these women are sad about it. It's all right there in front of you. It's very clear. It's very concise. It's very rational and reasonable in the way it is presented because, like most neoclassical art, there is a moral message being delivered here, and so that moral message has to be clear. It cannot be vague. It cannot be clouded.

Uh, this is a work by Angelica Kauffmann, who was a Swiss artist working in England who is also allowed into the British Royal Academy of Art. Um, this is an image from also Roman history about a woman named Cornelia who is approached by this wealthy noblewoman who asked Cornelia, well, let me see your jewels. Here are my jewels, and she pulls out this sort of beautiful necklace, and Cornelia looks at the lady and says, well, here are my jewels, and she points to her children. So this plays into this enlightenment idea that, um, you know, you know that we sort of saw before that, you know, family is important and there's something noble about, you know, sort of caring for one's family and raising good, responsible citizens as children, but also here, there's obviously a rejection against greed and a rejection against sort of the desires of the upper and wealthy classes here.

Okay, let me move my little picture over here. So neoclassical um is also in is also a style that influences architecture, and I could show you many examples, but we're going to look at an American example by Thomas Jefferson. This is his home, Monticello, but Thomas Jefferson designed many buildings. He was our architect, not just this country, but an actual architect who designed buildings and also contributed to the overall look of Washington DC. And when our founding fathers of this country started designing the buildings of this young nation, um, they looked to ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration, with the idea being that if our the ideas of this country are Greek and Roman in origin, um, literally, you know, democracy is a Greek word, then the buildings that reflect those principles should be Greek and Roman in their design. Um, and so, uh, this Monticello is very much based on the work of Palladio, the Venetian architect and his Villa Rotunda, and of course, as you guys know by now, that that building is based on the Roman Pantheon, and you can see very clearly the use of a Greek pediment of Greek style Doric columns of a Roman style arch and rotunda that this is very classical in its design. Also, notice there's no hardly any ornamentation. Everything is simple and stripped down and reasonable and rational, and of course, reasonable and rational or sort of the buzzwords for moral in the enlightenment. Um, there's a lack, there's a rejection of extravagance here. So, um, you know, this architecture is not just designed for design sakes but it's meant to reflect the sort of moral and intellectual ideas and the moral intellectual nature of the enlightenment principles.