The Age of Enlightenment and the Romantic Age

Francisco Pesante HUM-102

Objectives:
Identify key examples of art, music, architecture, philosophy, and literature that reflect developments in world events and cultural patterns during the Enlightenment and the Romantic Age.

The Age of Enlightenment

Optimism in eighteenth century. Education as a way to achieve civilization. Reason as a way to dispel ignorance, superstition, and prejudice. Newtonian science: universe as a great machine that operated according to unchanging natural laws.
Laws of the physical universe.

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Rationalist: laws to regulate human behavior.
Natural law, political freedom, free enterprise, and the social contract between ruler and ruled. Social equality and human progress.

Did not affect the lives of the vast majority. But set the path for Western modern and contemporary world.

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Separation from state and church. Widespread of literacy. Growing middle class. Waning aristocracy. Shift in political and social participation. Public interest instrument of social communication:
Newspaper Novel Symphony Satire

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The pen and the musket: instruments to launch the new order . Art and architecture:
Secular Rococo style (aristocratic luxury) Neoclassicism (archeological discoveries)
Rationalism and idealism

Symphonic orchestra

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The Promise of Reason Edmund Halley (1656-1742) studies of a comet over Western Europe skies (1670), let him conclude the comet orbit and predict his future appearance (not a sing of a catastrophe). Objective attitude towards nature during Enlightenment (1687-1789). Newton Principia French Revolution.

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The Political Theories of Hobbes and Locke What was the role of government? Who are the citizens? What were their rights? From where do they come from?

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The Political Theories of Hobbes and Locke The new attention to these themes comes back from the Golden Age Athens, and it was developed again in the context of the rising of European nation-states.
Preeminence of the state (Machiavelli) Divine right of the monarchy (Bodin) International law and nature (Grotius)

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Magnicidio

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magnicidio. (Del lat. magnus, grande, y -cidio). 1. m. Muerte violenta dada a persona muy importante por su cargo o poder.

Reference:www.rae.es

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Tiranicidio

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tiranicidio. (Del lat. tyrannicidum). 1. m. Muerte dada a un tirano.

Reference:www.rae.es

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John Weesop (1649), The execution of Charles I

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The Influence of Locke on Jefferson Aftermath of the English Civil War (1642-1651) Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) through the Leviathan (1651), proposed that the fight for power would lead to a state of disorder. The social contract is based in the way the individuals surrender their freedom to their ruler. The absolute power of the ruler, come from his subordinates.

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The Influence of Locke on Jefferson Aftermath of the English Civil War (1642-1651) John Lock (1632-1704) agreed in part with Hobbes position, but think that the power must remain within the ruled.

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Humans. Are selfish by nature? or tabula rasa?

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The Influence of Locke on Jefferson Selfish nature vs. tabula rasa. Locke proposed that humans by nature have the right to life, liberty and property. Being the purpose of the Government to deal with conflict in this three instance, between the interest of one and the other.

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The Influence of Locke on Jefferson In the thirteen colonies the ideas of Locke appeared in the preamble to the statement declaring the independence of the North American British colonies, from the rule of the British King George III.

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The Influence of Locke on Jefferson Written by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies Declaration of Independence echoes Lockes ideology of revolt as well as his views that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

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The Influence of Locke on Jefferson Social contract between ruler and ruled as the principal means of fulfilling natural law the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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Adam Smith and the Birth of Economic Theory Aside of political equality Adam Smith (17261790) applied the idea of natural law to the domains of human labor, productivity, and the exchange of goods. Natural law: rational and comprehensible principles that ruled the physical and social human life. A nations wealth is not its land or its money, but its labor force. (Reaction to mercantilism).

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Adam Smith and the Birth of Economic Theory In the natural economic order, individual selfinterest guide the progress of economic life, and certain natural forces, such as the law of supply and demand, motivate a market economy. Since government interference would infringe on this order, such interference is undesirable. He thus opposed all artificial restraints on economic progress and all forms of government regulation and control. Laissez-faire

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Diderot and the Encyclopdie Coming from a group of French well educated individuals, called the philosophes. They dominated the intellectual life of the Enlightment (particularly in France, the new hub of intellectuality). Their interest were mainly secular and social. They scorned every form of authority. Some of those who believed in God, think of it as a providential form behind nature and natural law, rather than a Redeemer. They felt antipathy to superstition and religious dogma.

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Diderot and the Encyclopdie Encyclopdie: a thirty five-volume literary endeavor to which many philosophes contributed. Published between 1751 and 1772, and edited by Denis Diderot (1713-1784). The Analytical Dictionary of Science, Arts, and Crafts was the largest compendium of contemporary social, philosophic, artistic, scientific, and technological knowledge ever produces in the West. Two hundred individuals for over a seventy-two thousand entries. Menace to morality and religion?

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The Crusade for Progress Cesare de Becarria (1738-1794), On Crimes and Punishments: torturing criminals did not work to deter crime. Society should seek methods by which to rehabilitate those who commit crimes. It influenced the prison reform in Europe and the United States. Criminals should be tortured or rehabilitated? Do they have the right to vote?

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The Crusade for Progress Cesare de Becarria (1738-1794), On Crimes and Punishments. Criminals should be tortured or rehabilitated? Do they have the right to vote?

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Enlightenment and the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), British intellectual who attacked the persistence of the female stereotypes (docile, domestic, and childlike) as misogynistic (Vindication of the Rights of Woman). She was a great critic of the education given to females of her time and was a critic of women embracing the art of pleasing men. It stands at the threshold of the modern movement for female equality.

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Enlightenment and the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), lived a conflictive life: she had an illegitimate child with and American merchant, tried two times to commit suicide and died at thirty eight after the birth of her daughter, later known as Marry Shelley.

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The Limit of Reason Reason was all too frequently ignored or abandoned altogether. The critical reason, when taken to an extreme, often deteriorated into bitter skepticism and cynicism. Satire: humor as a protest against the discrepancies between Enlightenment ideas and sordid realities. Ex. Jonathan Swift Gullivers Travels.

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The Limit of Reason Obstacles to the belief in the promise of reason lay in the hard realities of everyday life. Science and technology spawned a new barbarism in the form of machines that were potentially as destructive as they were beneficial. Mixed with dangerous working conditions and the exploitation of labor:
Fourteen hour shifts Child labor Mine labor

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The Limit of Reason > The Transatlantic Slave Trade

Begun by the Portugueses in the 15th century, brought millions of Africans to the New World colonies. With Portugal, England play a key role by bringing to the Americas the Africans who were mainly kidnapped or prisoned in regional battles from African countrymen. Estimated at 7 million, with 1/3 who died in the perilous Middle Passage. Industrialization and slavery generated conditions contrary to the Enlightenment ideals.

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The Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century Under the Enlightenment faith in the reforming power of reasons the following political revolutions demonstrated its achievements and limitations in achieving social change. The American Revolution
Following Lockes assertion that government must protect its citizens right to life, liberty, and property, and responding to the British government demands for revenues though taxation, the Americans began a seven years armed conflict.

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The Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century The American Revolution
In 1783 the thirteen colonies achieved their independence. In 1789 they began to govern under the Constitution of the United States of America It leaved several thousand battle deaths and over $100 million in war expenses. Proclaimed by some political theorist as British Thomas Paine (1737-1809) as a great event for the diffusion of the spirit of freedom among humankind.

 The French Revolution

The Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century

The Age of Enlightenment

Influenced by the outcomes of the American Revolution. Allied with the colonial rebels. Main reasons for the revolution: The First Estate (the clergy) and the Second Estate (the nobility; both of which totaled approx. 200,000) controlled nearly half of the land in France; yet they were exempt of paying taxes. In a population of 25 million inhabitants, 4/5 of the peasants income went to pay taxes. Shortages of bread mount to the grievances.
Class inequality Financial crisis because of five centuries of royal extravagances

 The French Revolution

The Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century

The Age of Enlightenment

Louis XVI, after 175 years, called for the Estates General. The Third Estate withdrew and proclaimed a National Assembly. the Estates General. The Third Estate withdrew and proclaimed a National Assembly. July 14, 1789 crowds stormed the Bastille (symbol of the old French regime). Rousseaus Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was adopted as the leading ideas. The National Assembly decrees the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citized (modeled after the American Declaration of Independence).

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The Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century

The French Revolution

Women had an active participation and the new Constitution guaranteed womens rights (until 1793 because of change on the Constitution).
It was followed by the Reing of Terror (1793-1794) were almost 40k were sent to the guillotine.

By 1794 the National Convention established a two legislative chamber and a five-man executive body.

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Eighteenth-Century Art, Music, and Society Rococo: Born in France (1715-1750) it encompassed the elegant and refined style of the aristocracy. Influenced by Louis XVI and the Versailles. Derived from the word rocaille (fancy rock). It displayed the organic vitality of seashells, plants, and flower. It favored the elements of play and intimacy.

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Germain Boffrand, Salon de la Princesse.

The Age of Enlightenment Rococo in Architecture The pursuit of pleasure was a goal of rococo masters of painting. Johan Michael Fischer, Benedictine abbey. Bavaria (1766) It pays tribute to the fleetin nature of romantic love.

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Rococo Painting in France Jean-Honor Fragonard, The Swing (1769).

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Eighteenth-Century Neoclassicism Neoclassical style: Middle-class and its bond to Enlightenments appreciation of Greece an Rome archeological findings. They resurrected the classical ideals of clarity, simplicity, balance, and restraint (following the path of the great Renaissance Masters).

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Eighteent-Century Neoclassicism Discoveries: Excavations of Pompeii (1748) Expeditions to Greece and Asia for collecting antiquities. Museums like Louvre and the Vatican.

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Eighteent-Century Neoclassicism A tour to the city of Washington DC will convince any student of the impact of neoclassicism on the architecture of the U.S. (most of them from the 19th century). Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Third President of the U.S. was an eighteen century uomo universal. Farmer, linguist, educator, inventor, architect, musician, and politician. He studied Renaissance architecture treaties designing the University of Virginia Rotunda (ex. Ref to Maison Carre). His organization and geometrical plan for the campus reflect his neoclassical and rationalist ideas of Enlightenment.

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The Rotunda, Virginia University (1826)

Early Nineteenth-Century Thought

Hegel and Hegelian Dialectic Georg Wilhelm Friederich Hegel (17701831).Professor of philosophy at the University of Berlin. Spirit and body obeyed to and evolutionary process: the dialectic. For every condition (thesis), confronts its opposite(antithesis), generating the synthesis. A revolution in the philosophical principles of reasoning.

Early Nineteenth-Century Thought

Darwin and the Theory of Evolution Charles Darwin (1809-1882). British scientist that spent great part of his life amassing biological and geological data for the development of the Theory of Evolution. A theory proposed before, he had substantiated the process of how evolution occurs. Observing the tendency of certain organism to increase rapidly over time while retaining traits favorable to their survival, evolution operates by means of natural selection.

Early Nineteenth-Century Thought

Darwin and the Theory of Evolution Survival of the fittest. It challenged the ideas of natures and the world order (against the account of Creation. Catholic Bishop James Ussher placed earth creation at 4004 b.C.e.). Nature and its operations were impersonal, continuous, and selfgoverning. It shocked the Renaissance and Enlightenment humanist centrality. Rise of natural history museums which gave evidence of the common order of living things.

Early Nineteenth-Century Thought

Darwin and the Theory of Evolution Oversimplified or misinterpreted. Ex. Social Darwinism. DNA and modern biology had provided direct evidence of Darwins theories. But the origins of the first life are still matter of debate.

The Romantic Age

The Romantic Age

In nineteenth century, romanticism was in love with nature. Was a reaction against the artificiality of Enlightenment and a growing industrialism. In a rural setting they escaped the urban filth and disorder. Nature mood swings was the sublime setting, for their creative and self-discovery process. In nature Roussseaus natural man was close to its womb; distanced from society corruption. A place of mystical bond between earthly and heavenly universe (pantheism).

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The Romantic Style in Art and Music Visual arts and music gave freer rein to the imagination. Nationalist struggles for political independence inspired much of art and music. They abandoned serenity and rationality of the neoclassical in favor of emotion and spontaneity. Romantic artist made room for temperament, accident, and individual genius.

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Romantic Landscape Painting
Landscape painting had a long tradition (from East, adopted by Roman for mythological themes). In the Renaissance it became a subject by itself. In nineteen century it became a primary vehicle for the expression of an artists shifting moods and private emotions. Romantic painters translated their affection for the countryside into scenes that ranged from the picturesque to the sublime.

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John Constable (1776-1837) painted common life, ordinary objects in natural landscapes (ex. Wivenhoe Park)

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J.M. W. Turner The Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying: Typhoon Coming On).

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Heroic Themes in Art Popular Heroism Francisco Goya (1746-1828) worked for the Spanish royal court, but after the invasion of Spain by Napoleon, his art experienced a turn. It reflected the horrors of war (The Third of May, and the Dissaster of War series).

The Romantic Age

Francisco Goya, The Third of May (1808)

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The Romantic Style in Music Ludwing van Beethoven (1770-1827), Vienna. Introduced a new rhythmic vitality. He blurred the division between the structural units of a composition, exploiting textural contrast for expressive effects Ex. Ninth Symphony (Third was dedicated to Napoleon)

References: Fiero, G. K. (2011). The humanistic tradition, Book 4 & 5: The European renaissance, the Reformation, and the global encounter (6th. Ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Sherman, D & Salisbury, J. (2008). Civilizaciones de occidente. Vol II desde 1600. Mxico: McGraw Hill.