Cultural History of Britain Lecture 7. Timeline 1603-25: Jacobean Period 1567-1603: James VI of...
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Transcript of Cultural History of Britain Lecture 7. Timeline 1603-25: Jacobean Period 1567-1603: James VI of...
The Renaissance II:Britain in the Jacobean and Caroline Periods
Cultural History of Britain
Lecture 7
Timeline1603-25: Jacobean Period
1567-1603: James VI of Scotland1603: Union of Crowns (Scotland and England)1605, Nov 5: Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot (Catholic Resistance)1611: King James’ Bible, the Authorised Version1620: Mayflower, Pilgrim Fathers (New England)
1625-42: Caroline Era1640-49 : Civil War1649-60: Commonwealth Interregnum
General feature: overlap/mixture of medieval (Gothic) and modern phenomena (belated Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Humanism and Reformation, early Enlightenment and Neo-Classicism) in culture
Continental Context: the Advent of Baroque
(1590-1725)
General Features of BaroquePeriods:
C. 1590-1625: Early Baroque 1625-1660: High Baroque 1660-1725: Late Baroque
Historical and Cultural Context: Counter-Reformation, Re-Catholisation Council of Trent (1545-63): arts should communicate religious content in a direct
and highly emotional manner Associated with the expression of absolute power (church and secular)
Stylistic features: Highly decorated (wants to impress with decoration) Exaggerated motion (emotional involvement, drama, tension) Exuberant and clear detail Grandeur Focus on mass
Typical innovations: Architecture: the grand staircase, highly decorated interiors Literature: revival of the heroic epic (secondary epic, e.g. Tasso) Music and theatre: opera as a new genre
Major Baroque Artists and Works of Art on the Continent
PaintingCaravaggioBerniniVelazquezDutch Golden Age painting
Rubens Rembrandt
SculptureBernini
ArchitecturePalaces in Germany, Austria
and RussiaGarden plans
MusicMonteverdiVivaldiJohann Sebastian Bach
Jacobean Britain
Forerunners of Enlightenment: Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam, 1561-1626)
Modern turn in the history of philosophyThe Advancement of Learning (1605)Novum Organum (1620)Aristotelian and scholastic basis, but criticism of both
(approaching the world through abstract notions), rejection of deductions
Advocates empiricismTheology and sciences should be separated, natural sciences
should study the world through empirical methods (observation, experimentation)
Science: pragmatic and utopistic in purpose
James I: Court Patronage, Luxury and Witch TrialsPatronage
Court masquesBanqueting House
French models (Louis XIII) in luxury and patronagePersonal paranoia of murder and witchcraft
From 1590 c. 20 witch trials per year in Scotland (half found guilty and executed)
Treatise on witchcraft1604: new law on witchcraft, but James I’s obsession is rather an
embarrassment Features as a factor in the critique of the oppressor/conqueror in Walter
Scott’s IvanhoeCharles I: continues patronage, “imports” masters
Jacobean Theatre: the Decline of Renaissance Drama
Shakespeare stopped producing new plays c. 1610 and retired to Stratford-upon-Avon
Romantic tragicomedyFrancis Beaumont (1584-1616)John Fletcher (1579-1625)
Sex-and-crime plays passed off as tragedies (Senecan tradition)Thomas Dekker (1572-1632)John Webster (1580-1634)
Leading genre: satirical comedyBen Jonson (1572-37)James Shirley (1596-1666)
Court masques
Jacobean Court Masques: Expensive Royal Entertainment with Professional Assistance
Court masque Occasion for the queen
and ladies to dress up and dance
Mime Songs Spectacular costumes,
props and scenery Ben Jonson Inigo Jones
Surveyor-General of the King’s Works (1615-42)Designs by Inigo Jones: costume for the Queen
(Masque of Blackness, 1604), tribune (Masque of Queens, 1609)
Inigo Jones: an Anticipation of 18th Century Neo-Classicism
Jacobean architecture: continuation of and variation on the Elizabethan one
Typical building: country house (brick)
Hatfield House, south front (1605-12)
Inigo Jones (1573-1652) Professional architect as a new
phenomenon Buildings associated rather with the
architect than with the patron from this time
On equal footing with the patron Studies and travels on the Continent
(Italy, Renaissance) Break with the Jacobean tradition
(Renaissance elements only as decoration)
Palladian style (named so after 16th century Italian architect Palladio)
Principles of design in antique architecture
4 of his authenticated buildings survive, little influence in his lifetime
The Queen’s House, Greenwich (1616-19, 1630-5)
Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619-22)
The Queen’s Chapel (1623-8)
St. Paul’s Church (1631-3) at Covent Garden with Surrounding Piazza
Caroline Era
Painting: “Imported” BaroquePeter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Panels of the ceiling in the Banqueting House
Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)1632-41: Court PainterDisciple of TitianPortraits of the royal and
aristocratic familiesElegance, idealisation, absolute
power, genius in the use of colour, especially shimmering grays
End of career: mannerism
Architecture: Artisan Mannerism – The Country House Introduced by John Smythson,
architect to William CavendishModeled on the modern houses of
City merchants in London Involves Gothic features,
nostalgia for medieval times Introduces the “sham castle”Unique feature: columnar shafts
corbelled out of the wallEstablished as the country-house
style at the beginning of the Caroline Era
Music: Forerunners of Baroque1625: death of Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
Last musician of the Golden AgePolyphony, madrigals, lute songs
Foreign influencesWalter Porter (c.1588-1659)
Disciple of MonteverdiMovement towards harmony and orchestra
MasqueClosest thing in Britain to the typically Baroque opera
John Milton, Comus (1634)
Literature: Metaphysical PoetsMetaphysical conceitMajor representatives
John Donne (1572-1631) Poems published mostly after his
death
Andrew Marvell (1621-78)Minor figures
George HerbertRichard CrashawHenry Vaughn
Civil War and
Commonwealth Interregnum
Civil War and CommonwealthEnd of royal patronageEnd of poetic drama1642-60: theatrical
performances suspended, theatres closed
Puritan objection to elaborate church music (organ forbidden)
Oliver Cromwell, ‘warts and all’, miniature by Samuel Cooper
Works CitedBlamires, Harry. A History of Literary Criticism. London: Macmillan, 1991.
Gaunt, William. English Painting – A Concise History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.
Gelfert, Hans-Dieter: Nagy-Britannia rövid kultúrtörténete. Corvina, Budapest, 2005.
Habib, M. A. R. A History of Literary Criticism and Theory from Plato to the Present. London: Blackwell, 2008.
Halliday, F. E. An Illustrated Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981.
Jenner, Michael. The Architectural Heritage of Britain and Ireland. Penguin: London, 1993.
Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York, London: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.
Tarnas, Richard. A nyugati gondolat stációi. Ford. Lázár A. Péter. Budapest: AduPrint, 1995.
Watkin, David. English Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.