Enlightenment and the Arts
Given what you already know about the Enlightenment, what would you expect to find in the arts? Order Rationality Rules
Dates Art: later part of 1700s Music: 1750-1810 Literature: 1688 (Glorious Revolution) –1789 (French Revolution)
Names of this period Classical (for music) Neoclassical (for art and literature) Reason? No examples in music from Classical Greece/Rome
David’s Oath of the Horatii Oath of Horatii David’s Oath of the Horatii
Characteristics of Neo-classical Art Statuesque figures Moralizing message Clear, orderly Subdued colors Setting “in a box”
David’s The Death of Socrates
Classical Music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Characteristics of Classical Music Balanced phrases (or periodic phrases) “Building blocks” of music Musician as craftsman Aristocratic audiences in salons Patronage system
Characteristics of Neoclassical Literature Purpose of literature: teach and delight (moral impulse) Represent “nature” Orderliness/decorum Rules Those rules of old discovered not devised Are Nature still, but Nature methodized. Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism Genres Heroic couplets
Characteristics of Neoclassical Literature (cont.) Wit and clever language True wit is Nature to advantage dressed What oft was thought but ne-er so well expressed; Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind. Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism Poet as craftsman Humans in society
Genres Drama Unities Action Time Place
Satire Holding up human folly for examination and ridicule Hoping through wit and laughter to bring about correction Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
Novel Some novels had Neo-classical elements In many ways, though, the novel runs counter to many Neo-classical impulses Middle class life Affordable—serialized Middle class readers