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Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784
-Romanticism - cultural movement, reaction to Enlightenment and Age of Reason
-travel to Italy gave inspiration to Romantic artists
-story from ancient Rome
-Horatii is fater, 2 sides send 3 men to fight each other to death |
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Henry Fuseli, The Artist Moved to Despair by the Grandeur of Antiquity, 1778-9
-ancient art seen as too great and distant
-modernity=consciousness of being fundamentally different and severed form the past |
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Theodore Gericault, Race of the Riderless Horses during the Roman Carnival, 1817
-horses = forces of natural energy
-man trying to control nature
-light an dark |
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Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Portrait of Germaine de Stael as Corinne, 1808
-nature as the truth we try to hide from
- Painted as the character Corinne in the novel she wrote
- She acquired a European wide reputation and travelled to Italy
- An Italian poetess who was expert in the art if improvised verse
- This women was regarded as a poetic genius who was divinely inspired
- She constructed a novel around this character, novel is seen as an important work in the emerging consciousness of women in Europe in the modern period
- A woman as someone who is innately in touch with the truth of things who could speak a pure truth outside of herself thru her voice – appealing idea to romantics
- In this portrait: The author is having herself painted as the character she wrote
- Poetic language may not be rational but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true
- Ability to feel irrational truth and give compelling power to its expression – romantic appeal |
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William Westfall, Portrait of George Gordon, Lord Byron, 1813
-Lord Byron - notoriously restless poet
-wrote CHilde Harold - long autobiographical poem describing Child Harold (euphemism of Byron himself) who wanders restlessly all over Europe reflecting on his experiences ~ begins in Venice, standing on a bridge that connects Doge's medieval palace to a prison … an indication of a metaphor for Byron of an uneasy sense of fate – being constricted, imprisonment being reflected of his own sensitive self as a reminder that he in many ways was in a self-imposed exile out in Italy
-similar route as grand tour but he focuses on different things
-meditates on art, natural beauty, and ancient ruins; coliseum as a reflection of time and ruination that everything is subject to
-recognized tragic nature of life ("ruin among ruins") but still saw something valuable in it
-travels to Italy to study human condition |
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Friedrich Overbeck, Italia and Germania, c. 1830
- Tradition of foreign artists coming to Italy continues…
- NAZARENES = German artists who wanted to go back in time to late middle ages, the moment when Christianity was still a force producing art of spiritual authenticity and purity
- They admire this art because it was skilful and deeply Christian in spirit
- Style doesn’t look modern (looks like 15th century German painting), this is deliberate
- Wanted to take art back to a purer time – late middle ages and early Renaissance
- They felt that art did not develop during the renaissance
- Idea that real art was deeply sincere only when reached back to a simpler. More authentic time, i.e. the moment before the renaissance
- A counter-modern strategy , they are looking to be radically back in time
- Reaching back in time, can be a modern idea
- Although they were opposed to the modern world, they were modern in their own way, in the phenomenon OF Nazarenes
- Just like interpreting antiquity
- Infuse qualities of Italian art and German art (exemplified primarily by Durer) in this picture
- Italian girl with dark hair, German with blonde
- Landscape at back is Italian behind the Italian and German gothic behind the German |
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J.M.W. Turner, Venetian Scene (watercolor), c. 1840
-modern aproach to landscape - captured effects of light
-boats seem to hover in space suggesting the fragility of existence
-interest is not in capturing specific buildings like most painters
-Venice challenges Turner to think about himself as a painter
-thought less about physical objects and buildings and more about the mood and emotion |
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J.M.W. Turner, Venetian Scene, 1842
-recognizable buildings (unlike previous one)
-takes care to leave center foreground empty
-top and bottom are same color to rob you of senses of architectural stability
-dematerialization of the city; more like a vision |
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J.M.W. Turner, Boats on the Venetian Lagoon, c. 1845
-public didn't know what ot make of Turner's pictures with no substantial subject
-insubstantiality of paintings was poetic; dissolved forms, no concrete objects
-Turner trying ot pain the way light dissolves foms
-caught in a state b/w sea and sky similar to being caught between mind and physical realm |
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Santa Croce, Florence, begun 1294, facade added c. 1860
-neo-medieval facade as well
-interior - frescoes from mid ages and ren
-famous florentines buried inside
-ignored until revival of interest in mid ages
-chapels decorated w/ frescoes by GIoto
neomidievalism:
-early 19th cent, interest in medieval art and arch is revived
-frustrated with reason, wanted to return to a time before reason took over (Mid. Ages)
-gothic architecture seen as portraying Christian values, a way of identifying Christian architecture untainted by Protestantism |
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San Miniato, Florence, begun 1015
-authentic middle ages church (even facade)
-by mid 19th cent, it had fallen in disrepair
-it was carefully restored |
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San Gimignano
-midieval town
-discovered in 19th cent and is now big tourist attraction |
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John Ruskin
-popularized neomidievalism
-championed Turner and gothic art
-his writings helped popularize middle ages
-wrote "Stones of Venice" about Venetian architecture
-in mid ages, venice was at heart of its cultural and economic power
-midieval venice as a model of healhty maritime society - compare to Britian; social criticism of Britian
-said that gothic architecture is better b/c product of individual craftsmen each doing a part of the buildling - no overarching design that governs teh entire buildings
-as a result, midieval architecture is kind of jumbled but Ruskin sees it as more creative and free than modern arch.
-midieval arch=pre-capitalist; alternative set of values tha modern capitalism |
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Jacopo della Quercia, Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, Cathedral of Lucca, c. 1410
- Ruskin wrote about this sculpture and his descriptions of it is ecstatic
- Power of his prose is evident in subtle descriptions
- Sensitive/delicate descriptions of art
- Ruskin’s engagement with Italian art transforms
- Reorientation in the modern world; Ruskin sees Italian art as a critical tool with which to come to a clear sense of what modernity is losing
- Fundamental to ones evolving consciousness |
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Fra Angelico, Annunciation, San Marco, Florence, c. 1440
- Fresco from monastery in San Marco
- Angelico was a Dominican monk who lived there and decorated walls there with frescos
- Angelico tends to be regarded as quaint and admired for sentimental reasons
- Naive directness, sincerity, originality made Angelico an ideal artists to many realists
- Not as technically accomplished, but sincere
- Ruskin admired this
- Monastery of san Marco now made into a museum
- Emphasis on extreme simplicity and vulnerability |
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Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Until 19th century when modernity hits all at once “Risorgimento” = resurgence , used to refer to Italian unification
- Up until this point Italy was not a single nation state, it was a patchwork of territorial states
- Papal states, Sicilian states, etc
- But in 1840s a nationalist movement gathers momentum and breaks out
- Popular and beloved military leader
- He become hero of the modern nation after it was over
- He didn’t want his popularity to distract from the democratic process so put himself into self exile
- This gesture was viewed as heroic |
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Giovanni Boldini, Portrait of Giuseppe Verdi, 1886
- Great opera composer , painted in Paris while he was supervising production of one of this operas
- Some of his operas were sympathetic to Italian democratization
- They were relevant to the modern situation
- Expression of Italian longing for freedom = opera
- It was a ritual for national identity, is operas were a vehicle for the emergence of the process of liberation
- People would sprawl his name Verdi on walls as graffiti – as a call for liberation and national unity
- He became a nationalist hero in this way |
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Giuseppe Sacconi, Altar of the Nation (Victor Emmanuel Monument), Rome, 1885-1911
- SITUATED on north east of Capitoline hill not far from capital where Marcus aurelius’ statue is
- Grandiose attempt to show that unified modern Italy is capable of building on grand scale of ancient Rome
- Shows passion of national identity
- Nationalism and modernization happened simultaneously unlike Britain or France
- They were nations before they modernized
- Also, embankments built around river Tiber ~ muddy banks come right down to water which is how Rome had been since ancient times. So when Tiber would flood the cities around it would too but in 1870s there was a campaign to build modern embankments |
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Telemaco Signorini, The Old Market of Florence, 1882
Florence was also transformed…
- gigantic set of peripheral walls triangular in shape built in 14th century built much larger than the size of actually inhabitants
- but urban fabric of Florence grew to fill in the area of the medieval walls
- but at this point they were not needed so they were taken down
- conversion of urban space from a popular market and picturesque, but then sanitized and converted into a nationalist center
- historic character of Florence was destroyed by this urban development project (people argued)
- Paris was the model here
- buildings were built similar to Parisian architecture, cafes were based on Parisian cafe |
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Giuseppe Mengoni, Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, Milan, 1865-78
- another type of modernization project are gigantic commercial shopping centers i.e. malls or Gallerie
- made of stone but has iron sub-structure and glass vaults
- Italian artists were sensitive to urbanization (not the travelers who were always looking for the medieval Italy)
- Italians are aware of organic nature of modernization process but tourists are still in some ways stuck in the idea of experiencing the Italy of the past
- and the Italy they were taught to appreciate |
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| Giuseppe Primoli, Unemployed Workers in the Sun, 1889 |
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J.A.M. Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Silver: Venice, 1880
AESTHETICISM
- philosophical study of beauty in the late nineteenth century that was popularized
- Whistler is not interested in anything but of art being simply about itse
- A good representative of Aestheticism
- An artificial construct = Venice
- Captures a mood, not a description of particular scene
- Compare to Turners scene of Venice: similar; but unlike: not interested in capturing brilliant affects of sunlight – no energetic determination to describe the way light bounces off water – instead it seeks to capture a different mood whereas turner was obsessed with sunlight (whistler was obsessed with twilight, powerful mysterious and deep)
- A simple, sketchy stroke of pastel to evoke a mood ~ making us aware of subjective contribution that he as a person makes when he registers optical ~ distilling his sensations to make a mood and inviting you to participate in it
- The means by which he makes that mood ~ an adventurous art
- In context of England, this was a radical form of art, and challenged the whole system of art |
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J.A.M. Whistler, Venetian Canal, 1880
- Fixation on individual detail ~ not focused on recognizable scenes and big monuments
- Whistler would look for unfamiliar spots ~ but just typical of mood of city
- Venetian canal here, houses and gondolas ~ a typical visual moment, not a noteworthy subject but it registers a mood
- There is something that engages you however; everything has some kind of interest/beautiful in some way
- Fixation on isolated detail ~ characterizes aestheticism is finding beauty in everything |
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J.A.M. Whistler, Venice: The Riva, 1880
- Foreground empty, same effect ~ meditating on insubstantiality of experience of Venice
- Hangs from top of picture (full of buildings), bottom is empty space…reversing expectations, playing with composition ~ giving you the sense that you are right there
- Idiosyncratic way of experience – selective, careful effect of being there but at the same time detached as though just observing a spectacle
- Poetic approach, suggestive of the mood you experience as you walk thru Venice, for instance
- Remarkable aesthetic environment |
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Friedrich Nietzsche
- German philosopher
- physical condition that sapped his health and sanity and killed him
- he resigned and spend time travelling in Italy just writing, fend off his illness
- he loved Venice; a friend of Wagner’s
- “birth of tragedy” – an interpretation of the origins of tragedy in Greek ritual ~ nature/drama/tragedy evolves from rituals
- Climate of Venice aggravated his condition~ travelled around during few years that remained to him in his active working life
- he led a tortured existence in beautiful locations
- these places enabled him to evolve an original philosophy on Wagner’s music and other things
- his philosophy: fundamental critique of Judeo-Christian morality ~ he completely rejected the idea that weakness is in fact strength (as indicated by bible), is for him an inversion of values~ he thinks people who are weak are, in fact just weak.
- critique of Christianity was bound up by the critique of modernity
- he thought Christianity was used to create an oppressive system of social values
- he questions very basis of the meaning of life, the way society is based on certain values
- goes thru Italy brooding on these thoughts
- greater truthfulness to reality which means also being open to suffering and living authentically:
- Italy offers you the unvarnished truth of life, offers an inner freedom and strength |
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Wilhelm von Gloeden, untitled, c. 1900
- He saw in living Sicilians a direct living link with the classical past – the vision of arcadia, the pastoral ideal
- He took contrived but sincere photographs of Sicilians who’s physical beauty was appreciated by him
- He was gay, and a lot of his photography was about the beauty of the male body
- Italy made it possible to understand how homosexuality was not repressed in ancient times
- He probably would not have gotten away with taking pictures like this in Germany
- He was fond of shepherd boys
- He liked dark haired, dark eyes lean Sicilian types
- His attempt to retrieve the classical ideal ~ in his photos of naked boys
- This environment helped to create that particular kind of beauty thru ages
- As if he wee using his own orientation to retrieve an aspect of the classical world and of the beauty of it and the classical idyllic life that he otherwise would not be able to express as fully or directly
- Compellingly sincere effort on the part of a gay man to rep his desire in the most dignified possible way, as an engagement with the classical ideal |
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Thomas Mann
- Text that most complexly embodied the aesthetic ideal “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann , a German writer
- He died of an inflammation of the brain – venereal disease
- Drove him insane;
- Romantic figure who pays the price for the boldness of his thinking which adds authenticity to his story and depth of conviction to his writing
- He criticized Greek religion and Christianity?
- For intellectuals, he was a warning/heroic figures – someone who dares to think boldly even though there are repercussions
- Wrote a story in 1912: inspired in large part by Nietzsche’s story; fictional account of German writer who lives and works in Munich but takes a vacation in Venice – has an intense experience – watches a young boy from afar and apprecietes his beautfy
- Strove hard to achieve classical ideal in his writing
- Fusion of Gloden and Wagner ~ realized the boy is like an ancient sculpture
- He enters into a fantasy ~
- Story of a search for profound truth, discovering it, and the fatefulness of that discovery
- Brings in classical learning
- He never actually speaks to this boy; just watches him and has an ongoing dialogue in his mind that takes the form of a platonic dialogue: ~ last stages of his own delirium also. Evocative of Nietzsche’s collapse. Attempt to enter into Nietzsche’s way of thinking in the last stages of him going insane.
- The paradox in aestheticism between the desire to experience the here/now and to grasp thru that experience something internally classical. |
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Horatio Greenough, George Washington, 1832
- Monumental figure of George Washington; dressed like a classical statesmen of ancient Rome
- Washington was likened by many people to a roman hero – story was that he was a farmer until there was a military emergency and fought heroically in battle and people awarded him but he rathered to return to his farm: so a great man who is not interested in power ~(Garibaldi)
- Greenough imagines Washington on the model of the Olympian Zeus – work by Thydius a Greek sculptor
- To execute this statue in this way was to show that the great Greek tradition could be translated to America
- Passion of his dedication to art, and reason for depicting Washington in this way was to reflect that the relationship between America and ancient Greek ~ that America might succeed in realizing a political and social ideal where even ancient Rome (great as it was) ultimately failed
- Sculpture like this speaks to that idea to revive the greatness of Rome and maybe even transcend it – an idea we have encountered before |
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Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: Desolation, 1836
-painted a series of 5 paintings
- Landscapes that illustrate the cycles of history directly inspired by Byron’s Child Harold
-landscapes with a philosphical message
- Byron talks about how history moves in cycles, empires rise and fall – sense of long time of history being something that the contemplation of ruins gives one access to
- Idea of nature obeying the law that transcends the violence of human passion – Byron’s meditations were something that Cole had meditated upon as well
- This was an example of serious American art (skill, etc)
-desolation: city crumbesl nd nature is recaliming it's place; |
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Albert Bierstadt, The Roman Fish Market, 1858
-theme: granduear of Roman ruins and squalor of ordinary life
-comic juxtaposition of American toruist in bakcgorund
-sleeping man is parody of ancient statue "barbarini fawn"; sleeping Roman guy is modern day version of fawn |
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Harriet Hosmer, Sleeping Faun, c. 1865
- One of her most famous sculptures is a sleeping fawn, skillful classicizing marble carving similar in configuration To the Barbarini faun
- Hosner worked on this when Hawthorne met her in Rome – basis of character Hilda formed from this
- Hosner is someone other Americans goes to visit – she herself is one of the noteworthy things to see in Rome
- Another e.g. that she too can create something as skillful as her contemporaries |
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Frank Duveneck and assistants, Tomb of Elizabeth Boot Duveneck, 1889
-tomb for his wife
-classical feeling
- Exquisite treatment of drapery – inspired by tomb of __?_ in Lucca (15th cent, that Ruskin adored and wrote ecstatic descriptions of)
- As a result of Ruskin’s love for sculpture it became a monument of model for design
- Duveneck tries to create a monument for his wife that has the same kind of chasteness and purity that Ruskin admired in the tomb in Lucca
- Lovingly tribute to wife but also a wonderful fusion of sense of classical (classicalism) beauty and the way in which that resonates with late medieval early resonance sculpture (realism) |
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John Singer Sargent, Venice on a Gray Day, 1880
-same pier as Whistler's pastel
-style diff't form WHistler;s
not picky about details but more recognizable than Whistler's
-gray day - not as extremem as WHistler, doesn't reduce formsto absolute minimun like W does
-still has poetic charm |
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John Singer Sargent, Venetian Scene, 1880
- Feast for the eyes.. probably took him a half hour .
- Capture of effective light/shadow
- Way in which reflects off water
- Finding picturesque and visually interesting in little things
- The way Sergeant’s view of the world participates in aestheticism
- affect of light and shadow |
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John Singer Sargent, Venetian Interior, c. 1890
-lavish, dark decorations and bright light streaming in illuminating figures
- American family that rents a Palazzo
- Family shown in Palazzo ;captures dark quality of interior with lavish decoration even though you cant see the detail of it there is a richness in the dark shadows and atmospheric quality ; bright light from canal penetrating the dark interior
- Also a group portrait – the space helps to give drama to the figures, their identities etc |
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John Singer Sargent, In a Venetian Alley, c. 1882
-loves opulene aof palazzi and aristorcrats but also average people and the charms of the Italian lifestyl
-beauty of seemingly insignificant moments and details of everyday life
- We don’t know what’s going on in this encounter but your sense of not having access to what’s going on it still stimulates your imagination, there is a mystery of the place and the interaction of the people in the space |
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Giacomo Balla, Streetlamp, 1909
-modernism hit Italy hard and dramatticaly
-change in physical env, social dislocation and urban poverty
-ITaly makes important contributions to modernism and art -> futurism
-Balla = leader of futurism movement
-streetlamp = homage to electricity coming to Italian cities
-brushstrokes left visible - suggests light eand envergy eminating from light
-streetlamp is brighter than the moon, makes moon obsolete
-futurist view that technlogy helps man overcome nature; changes relationship between man and nature; technology is a postivive thing
-futurists believed art need st omove fomr indebtedness to the past |
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Umberto Boccioni, A Futurist Evening, c. 1910
-futurists invented performacnce art; different from popular theatre
-wanted to get away from customs and myths of the past
-drawing of "evenings" = events of performance art
-paintings displayed and perfomance; blended elements of traditional art forms but in a new way |
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Giuseppe Pagano, et al., Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, Rome, 1935-42
-"house of Italian civilization"
-fascist architecture = blending of classicism and modernity
-square = modern
-arches = classical ie coliseum |
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Giuseppe Terragni, Casa del Fascio, Como, 1932-35
-fascist party headquarters
-modern, squares |
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Scene from Federico Fellini, La Dolce Vita, 1960
-cinema as art |
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Alfa Romeo Spider, 1959
-cars as works of art |
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| Elsa Schiaparelli, Handbag, c. 1938 |
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Gianni Versace, Evening Dress, 1991
-Princess Di in Versace = scope and importance of Italian fashion
-clothing as art |
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