FOUNDATIONS OF MODERNISM IIREVIEW: The Academy of the 18th & 19th centuries was:

A: A school for orphans;B: A dog obedience training facility;C: An important, powerful institution that decided what art was hot and what was not.

Jaques-Louis David (French,1748 – 1825) The oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas, 326 x 420cm

Let’s talk about the Canon of Western Art...

The kind of painting and sculpture created by Ingres, David and Canova was called:

A: Neon Genesis Evangelion

B. Ne-Yo

C: Neo-classical art.

Antonio Canova (Italian, 1757 – 1822) Dance of the sons of Alcynous, 1790 -1792, gypsum bas-relief, 41 cm x 281 cm.

Compare the Canova image with this image we’ve met before, painted 80 years later.

Edgar Degas (French,1834-1917)The Ballet Class, c.1873-1876Oil on canvas, 85 x 75 cm

So on one hand, this Neoclassical style was very popular and Academy approved. However there was another way of looking at the world which emphasised emotion; imagination; the power of Nature vs. the smallness of humankind. Very dramatic scenes were often created. This kind of art was called:

A: Roman civilization;

B: Roaming the net;

C: Romantic art.

Théodore Géricault (French,1791 –1824) The Raft of the Medusa, 1818 -1819, oil on canvas, 491 × 716 cm

Portrait of a woman suffering obsessive envy, 1822, oil on canvas,72 × 58 cm

Head of a Guillotined man,1818-19,oil on canvas, 41 x 38 cm.

Théodore Géricault (French,1791 –1824)

Study of hands and feet, 1818-19Oil on canvas, 52 x 64 cm

Modern era review…(from 18th century forward)• The closer we get to the present day, the faster the pace of change is. • Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.• Railroads; Steamships; • Photography, then film at beginning 20th century;• New forms of steel manufacture allowed new building methods.• Discovery of electricity in 19th cent• Communication across the world by telegraph during the 19th century• Changes in the way people worked; where they lived; how long they lived.

Fox Talbot: Nelson’s column under construction, 1844.

During the 19th Century, new ideas began to infiltrate the kind of art that was being produced. These new ideas ran against the Academy and caused scandal and criticism but were eventually accepted as mainstream. Both Gericault and Fox Talbot show us some of the new ideas. Courbet also took up the new idea of Realism.

Gustave Courbet (French 1819-1877), A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50, oil on canvas, 315 x 668 cm