Wednesday, March 24, 1999

Announcements:

• make sure you have a list of slides for next week's (March 31) midterm exam; they will be available in section, as well

    Jean-Antoine Watteau

• helped establish Rococo style
• employed a subtle sense of melancholy
• adds to depth, poignancy
• established Fete-Galante (aristocratic outdoor garden party)

• naturalistic, outdoor setting
• other characters, and donkey are present
• though his clothing is comical, his face is very gentle, vulnerable
• provides psychological insight
• clown in usually a "type", but Gilles' face provides insight into personality, emotions, etc.

• court painter, decorator
• almost all of his work was executed for French aristocracy, especially Madame de Pompadour
• becomes single-most important artist in contemporary France when he serves as the King's personal artist

• themes of gods and goddesses prevalent in Rococo style
• for frivolity and eroticism
• frothy
• represented as a human figure, but we are reminded that she is a goddess by the presence of the cherubim
• interest in flirtation, wit, fashion
• stormy skyscape
• texture of jewelry
• Baroque diagonal composition translated into Rococo vernacular

• At this time money is being drained from the national coffers for war and extravagances.
• Boucher removes aristocrats from reality and places them in mythological/fantastic settings.
• this is representative of their complete removal from the difficulties of the real world

• pupil of Boucher
• exaggerates qualities of Boucher

• nature is given over to fantasy
• decorative
• pleasurable
• erotic
• curves
• love for gardens
• mythological subject

• bishop in background pushing her
• baron in foreground (in underbrush) looking up his mistress' dress
• delicate leaves; invented, fantasy leaves
• use of the Baroque diagonal
• harmlessness, playfulness
• scintillating, light-filled brushwork

• Voltaire was an influential thinker/philosopher of the time
• recognized the ultimate power of human reason
• empirical thought
• set laws governed nature, and they could be learned/understood by humans
• was a shrinking back from the carefree Rococo attitude
• Rococo period seen as a time of wanton lasciviousness
• education is an important theme

• painted during "Rococo period", but in an innovative (and different) style
• depicted daily/everyday life
• simplified subject matter
• middle-class subjects

• depicts daily life
• leaves are used in upper and lower corner as parentheses
• the soap bubble represents the ethereal quality of life

• middle-class life

• nearly untouched by Rococo style
• William Hogarth was an influential painter of the time
• emphasized "message" in his painting
• often a moral message

    "Marriage a la Mode" (series of six paintings with an single message)

• satirizes state of modern marriage
• social commentary
• marriage
• boredom of groom
• fathers and lawyer negotiating
• marrying into wealth
• breakfast scene
• aftermath of an all-night party
• bored husband
• house in a shambles

• not satirical, but moralizing nonetheless

• moralizing context
• broken pitcher represents loss of virginity
• disheveled clothing suggests violence

• everyday life
• middle class, villagers

• son returns just after father's death
• like prodigal son story
• extreme gestures by the figures
• melancholy
• moving away from the frivolity of the Rococo style