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How to use this content:
As listed on the “Start Here” page for this unit, one of the unit objectives is “Identify Key Historical Facts” This objective will be assessed by the unit quiz. While reading and watching the content in the following links and videos, make note of historical facts and information so you can return to them as needed when working on the unit quiz. Be on the lookout for names of artists, influential people, artworks, important events, trends and values in the culture.
Rococo, Neo-Classicism and Romanticism
Starting with Neo-Classicism, the art from this period marks the beginning of the Modern Era. Artists have always been rivals, competing and showing off for patrons and commissions. But here, for the first time there are competing artistic ideas, ideas about what art means, its role in society, and how best to represent it. The function of the art, its power to convince, naturalize, and play on emotions, is now selected more by the artist and less by the patron. All our conceptions of what an artist is– free thinker, risk taker, opinion shaper — all starts here. To understand where it comes from, an explanation of the Rococo, which was the epitome of the art used by the patron for self-indulgent representation, the very idea that artists of the modern era wanted to move away from.
ROCOCO
The flourish and luxury of the Rococo art style reflects the wealthy consumers with an appetite for fabulous and opulent decorations.
Link #1: Fragonard’s The Swing
NEO-CLASSICISM
Neo-classicism grows from shifting attitudes towards the old heirarchical systems of wealth and privilege, influenced by the ideas of the democratic revolutions of the age.
Link: #2: Discovery of Herculaneum
Link #3: Neo-Classicism
Link #4: David, Oath of the Horatii
Link #5: Canova’s Paulina Borghese
ROMANTICISM
Romanticism is an alternative response to the Classical style of the period, one that values drama, emotion, and intensity over order and reason.
Link #6: Romanticism
Link #7: Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa
Link #8: Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus
Link #9: Goya’s Los Caprichos
Link #10: Goya’s Third of May 1808
More Learning Resources
Remember, since we can’t cover everything about art in this class, these reading assignments are based on the choices I have made for what to include, but there is much more that has not been included. If you are interested in learning more, please remember that our primary source, the Khan Academy, has lots of other videos and articles that explore this time and culture even further. You can explore them at Khan Academy (Rococo and Neo-Classical) or SmartHistory (Rococo/Neo-Classical).