The Age of Revolution

Group 3 Chapter 12

By Kirsten Reamer (Dodge)

The Neoclassical Spirit

France

Jacques-Louis David 

He was the most influential artist of his day, he abandoned the traditional complexities of composition that defined French academic history painting for decades, and substituted a formal balance and simplicity. 

(this is was totally Neoclassical)

His career stretches from Pre-Revolutionary Paris, through the turmoil of the Revolution and its aftermath, and across the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte

His works had a frozen quality to emphasize rationality, and the brushstrokes were invisible to create clear focus and to highlight details. At the same time that this is occurring his works convey a considerable emotional complexity

The Oath of Horatii

Commissioned by the Royal Government in 1784-1785

It is the story of a loyal devotion to the state, it concerns the conflicts between early Rome and Alba, David chose the moment before battle when the Three sons of Horatius swear an oath to their father, promising to fight to the death.

The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons

Commisioned in 1789 

It is an example of a more complex response to the issues of the State. It shares the theme with The Oath of Horatii of a fathers stoic sacrifice of his sons for the good of the State.

As loyal a painter he was for the French before and after the Revolution his paintings are not as straight forward as they may seem.

Napoleon Boneparte

(The Emperor)

Painted by Jacques-Louis David 1800-1801

He gained power in the aftermath of the French Revolution, 1804-1815.

Napoleon was born at Ajaccio in Corsica to parents of noble Italian ancestry. He trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. He rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the First and Second Coalitions arrayed against France. He led a successful invasion of the Italian peninsula. In 1799, he staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul; five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor. In the first decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—that involved every major European power. The Peninsular War and 1812 French invasion of Russia marked turning points in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Napoleon spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, but there has been some debate about the cause of his death, as some scholars have speculated that he was a victim of arsenic poisoning. He is notorious for creating the Napoleon Complex, in which someone uses their shortness as a way to bully or enforce their opinions. 

 America

Like the French, the newly formed Government in the United States took many of their philosophies from the classical precedences. the U.S. would model the Neoclassical society best with a stable, balanced, and rational culture that might imitate their adadmittedly idealized view of Rome and Athens. James Madison was responsible for drafting the constitution itself, and his inspiration came fron ancient Greece and Rome.

Federal Style became the dominant architectural style among the new American Republic. This style was championed by Thomas Jefferson, and this classical style would influence the design, the furniture, and even the gardens of his personal home Monticello. The idea of classical influence was not limited to his personal life, he used classical influence to shape part of our government.

 "Capitol"is derived from the Roman Capitoline Hill 

Monticello

The Capitol

Slavery

When our Founding Fathers were creating the constitution, they came across the issue of Slavery. At the time they believed that slavery should be lumped into the Free Trade category and to limit or eliminate the Free Trade was to go against the American Ideals. One of the Large problems with being a colony of Brittain is that they did not allow free trade from the colonies to the African nations and other countries to promote Slavery. Slavery during the times of the revolution and shortly after was done in a triangle fashion. The ships would export goods from Europe to Africa, there they would trade goods for slaves, the slaves would then be shipped from the African Nations to the West Indies for sugar, cotton, and tobacco. these goods were then shipped either back to Europe or to New England for sale. Because these laborers were providing essentially free labor the profits they received were enormously high. Everyone depended on the slave trade and no port was slave trade free.  

 One of the most famous first person accounts of slavery was from a Native from Benin, in West Africa. His name was Olaudah Equiano, he was kidnapped from his home and enslaved at the age of 11 in 1756. he was freed by a sympathetic owner in 1766, when he was freed he travelled extensively, educated himself and mastered the English Language. His autobiography was publish in England in 1789, and is one of the grizliest accounts of the slave trade and crossing of the Atlantic by the slave ships. 

Slavery became a heated issue during the Enlightenment Period, people became aware of the horrors the slaves faced and could no longer stand to see the atrocities done to the slaves in the name of a Free Market Economy. William Blake was instrumental in depicting an image of how slaves were treated.

William Blake Negro Hung Alive

William Blake 

An English poet, painter, and print-maker