the age of enlightenment and the romantic age

The Age of Enlightenment andthe Romantic Age

Francisco PesanteHUM-102

Objectives:• Identify key examples of art, music,

architecture, philosophy, and literaturethat reflect developments in worldevents and cultural patterns during theEnlightenment 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 tounchanging ‘natural’ laws”.– Laws of the physical universe.


• 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 andcontemporary world.

The Age of Enlightenment• 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


• The pen and the musket: instruments tolaunch the new order .

• Art and architecture:– Secular– Rococo style (aristocratic luxury)– Neoclassicism (archeological discoveries)

• Rationalism and idealism

– Symphonic orchestra


The Promise of Reason• Edmund Halley (1656-1742) studies of a

comet over Western Europe skies (1670), lethim conclude the comet orbit and predict hisfuture appearance (not a sing of acatastrophe). Objective attitude towardsnature during Enlightenment (1687-1789).

• Newton Principia – French Revolution.


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?


The Political Theories of Hobbes and Locke• The new attention to these themes comes

back from the Golden Age Athens, and it wasdeveloped again in the context of the rising ofEuropean nation-states.– Preeminence of the state (Machiavelli)– Divine right of the monarchy (Bodin)– International law and nature (Grotius)


Magnicidio


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


Tiranicidio


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

Reference:www.rae.es


John Weesop (1649), The execution of Charles I


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 forpower would lead to a state of disorder. Thesocial contract is based in the way theindividuals surrender their freedom to theirruler. The absolute power of the ruler, comefrom his subordinates.


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 powermust remain within the ruled.


Humans. Are selfish by nature?or tabula rasa?


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 theGovernment to deal with conflict in this threeinstance, between the interest of one and theother.


The Influence of Locke on Jefferson• In the thirteen colonies the ideas of Locke

appeared in the preamble to the statementdeclaring the independence of the NorthAmerican British colonies, from the rule of theBritish King George III.


The Influence of Locke on Jefferson• Written by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),

“and adopted by the Continental Congress onJuly 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies Declarationof Independence echoes Locke’s ideology ofrevolt as well as his views that governmentsderive their just powers from the consent ofthe governed.


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 thepursuit of happiness.”


Adam Smith and the Birth of Economic Theory• Aside of political equality Adam Smith (1726-

1790) applied the idea of natural law to thedomains of human labor, productivity, and theexchange of goods.

• Natural law: rational and comprehensibleprinciples that ruled the physical and socialhuman life.

• A nation’s wealth is not its land or its money, butits labor force. (Reaction to mercantilism).


Adam Smith and the Birth of Economic Theory• “In the “natural” economic order, individual self-

interest guide the progress of economic life, andcertain natural forces, such as the “law of supplyand demand”, motivate a market economy. Sincegovernment interference would infringe on thisorder, such interference is undesirable. He thusopposed all artificial restraints on economicprogress and all forms of government regulationand control”. Laissez-faire

The Age of EnlightenmentDiderot and the Encyclopédie• Coming from a group of French well educated

individuals, called the philosophes. Theydominated the intellectual life of the Enlightment(particularly in France, the new hub ofintellectuality). Their interest were mainly secularand social. They scorned every form of authority.Some of those who believed in God, think of it asa providential form behind nature and naturallaw, rather than a Redeemer. They felt antipathyto superstition and religious dogma.

The Age of EnlightenmentDiderot and the Encyclopédie• Encyclopédie: a thirty five-volume literary endeavor to

which many philosophes contributed. Publishedbetween 1751 and 1772, and edited by Denis Diderot(1713-1784). “The Analytical Dictionary of Science,Arts, and Crafts was the largest compendium ofcontemporary social, philosophic, artistic, scientific,and technological knowledge ever produces in theWest”.

• Two hundred individuals for over a seventy-twothousand entries.

• Menace to morality and religion?


The Crusade for Progress• Cesare de Becarria (1738-1794), On Crimes

and Punishments: torturing criminals did notwork to deter crime. Society should seekmethods by which to rehabilitate those whocommit crimes. It influenced the prisonreform in Europe and the United States.

• Criminals should be tortured or rehabilitated?• Do they have the right to vote?


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?

The Age of EnlightenmentEnlightenment and the Rights of Woman• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), British

intellectual who attacked the persistence of thefemale stereotypes (docile, domestic, andchildlike) as misogynistic (Vindication of theRights of Woman).

• She was a great critic of the education given tofemales of her time and was a critic of womenembracing the “art of pleasing men”. It stands atthe threshold of the modern movement forfemale equality.


• Enlightenment and the Rights of Woman• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), lived a

conflictive life: she had an illegitimate childwith and American merchant, tried two timesto commit suicide and died at thirty eightafter the birth of her daughter, later known asMarry Shelley.


The Limit of Reason• Reason was all too frequently ignored or

abandoned altogether. The critical reason,when taken to an extreme, often deterioratedinto bitter skepticism and cynicism.

• Satire: humor as a protest against thediscrepancies between Enlightenment ideasand sordid realities. Ex. Jonathan SwiftGulliver’s Travels.

The Age of EnlightenmentThe 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 werepotentially as destructive as they were beneficial.

• Mixed with dangerous working conditions andthe exploitation of labor:– Fourteen hour shifts– Child labor– Mine labor

The Age of EnlightenmentThe 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 bringingto the Americas the Africans who were mainlykidnapped or prisoned in regional battles fromAfrican countrymen. Estimated at 7 million, with1/3 who died in the perilous “Middle Passage”.

• Industrialization and slavery generated conditionscontrary to the Enlightenment ideals.

The Age of EnlightenmentThe Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century

• Under the Enlightenment faith in the reformingpower of reasons the following politicalrevolutions demonstrated its achievements andlimitations in achieving social change.

• The American Revolution– Following Locke’s assertion that government must

protect its citizens’ right to life, liberty, and property,and responding to the British government demandsfor revenues though taxation, the Americans began aseven years armed conflict.


• The American Revolution– In 1783 the thirteen colonies achieved their

independence. In 1789 they began to govern underthe 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 BritishThomas Paine (1737-1809) as a great event for thediffusion of the spirit of freedom among humankind.


• The French Revolution– Influenced by the outcomes of the American Revolution.– Allied with the colonial rebels.– Main reasons for the revolution:

• Class inequality• Financial crisis because of five centuries of royal extravagances

– The First Estate (the clergy) and the Second Estate (thenobility; both of which totaled approx. 200,000) controllednearly half of the land in France; yet they were exempt ofpaying taxes.

– In a population of 25 million inhabitants, 4/5 of thepeasant’s income went to pay taxes. Shortages of breadmount to the grievances.


• The French Revolution– Louis XVI, after 175 years, called for the Estates

General. The Third Estate withdrew and proclaimed aNational Assembly.

– the Estates General. The Third Estate withdrew andproclaimed a National Assembly.

– July 14, 1789 crowds stormed the Bastille (symbol ofthe old French regime). Rousseau’s “Liberty, Equality,Fraternity” was adopted as the leading ideas.

– The National Assembly decrees the Declaration of theRights of Man and Citized (modeled after theAmerican Declaration of Independence).


• The French Revolution– Women had an active participation and the new

Constitution guaranteed women’s rights (until1793 because of change on the Constitution).

• It was followed by the Reing of Terror (1793-1794) werealmost 40k were sent to the guillotine.

– By 1794 the National Convention established atwo legislative chamber and a five-man executivebody.


Eighteenth-Century Art, Music, and Society• Rococo: Born in France (1715-1750) it

encompassed the elegant and refined style ofthe aristocracy. Influenced by Louis XVI andthe Versailles.

• Derived from the word rocaille (fancy rock). Itdisplayed the organic vitality of seashells,plants, and flower.

• It favored the elements of play and intimacy.

Germain Boffrand, Salon de la Princesse.


Rococo in Architecture

The pursuit of pleasure was agoal of rococo masters ofpainting. Johan MichaelFischer, Benedictine abbey.Bavaria (1766) It pays tributeto the fleetin nature ofromantic love.


The Age ofEnlightenment

Rococo Painting inFrance

Jean-HonoréFragonard, The Swing(1769).


Eighteenth-Century Neoclassicism• Neoclassical style: Middle-class and its bond

to Enlightenment’s appreciation of Greece anRome archeological findings.

• They resurrected the classical ideals of clarity,simplicity, balance, and restraint (followingthe path of the great Renaissance Masters).


Eighteent-Century NeoclassicismDiscoveries:• Excavations of Pompeii (1748)• Expeditions to Greece and Asia for collecting

antiquities.• Museums like Louvre and the Vatican.

The Age of EnlightenmentEighteent-Century Neoclassicism

• A tour to the city of Washington DC will convince anystudent of the impact of neoclassicism on the architectureof 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. Hestudied Renaissance architecture treaties designing theUniversity of Virginia Rotunda (ex. Ref to Maison Carrée).His organization and geometrical plan for the campusreflect his neoclassical and rationalist ideas ofEnlightenment.


• The Rotunda, Virginia University (1826)

Early Nineteenth-Century Thought

Hegel and Hegelian Dialectic• Georg Wilhelm Friederich Hegel (1770-

1831).Professor of philosophy at theUniversity of Berlin. Spirit and body obeyed toand evolutionary process: the dialectic. Forevery condition (thesis), confronts itsopposite(antithesis), generating the synthesis.A revolution in the philosophical principles ofreasoning.


Darwin and the Theory of Evolution• Charles Darwin (1809-1882). British scientist that spent

great part of his life amassing biological and geologicaldata for the development of the Theory of Evolution. Atheory proposed before, he had substantiated theprocess of how evolution occurs.

• “Observing the tendency of certain organism toincrease rapidly over time while retaining traitsfavorable to their survival, evolution operates bymeans of natural selection”.

Early Nineteenth-Century ThoughtDarwin 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 JamesUssher placed earth creation at 4004 b.C.e.). Nature and itsoperations were impersonal, continuous, and self-governing.

• It shocked the Renaissance and Enlightenment humanistcentrality. Rise of natural history museums which gaveevidence of the common order of living things.


Darwin and the Theory of Evolution• Oversimplified or misinterpreted. Ex. Social

Darwinism.

• DNA and modern biology had provided directevidence of Darwin’s theories. But the originsof 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 Roussseau’s “natural man” was close to

its womb; distanced from society corruption.• A place of mystical bond between earthly and

heavenly universe (pantheism).

The Romantic Age

The Romantic Style in Art and Music• Visual arts and music gave freer rein to the

imagination. Nationalist struggles for politicalindependence inspired much of art and music.They abandoned serenity and rationality ofthe neoclassical in favor of emotion andspontaneity. Romantic artist made room fortemperament, accident, and individual genius.

The Romantic Age

Romantic Landscape Painting• Landscape painting had a long tradition (from

East, adopted by Roman for mythologicalthemes). In the Renaissance it became a subjectby itself. In nineteen century it became a primaryvehicle for the expression of an artist’s shiftingmoods and private emotions. Romantic painterstranslated their affection for the countryside intoscenes that ranged from the picturesque to thesublime.

The Romantic Age

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

The Romantic Age

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

The Romantic Age

Heroic Themes in Art• Popular Heroism• Francisco Goya (1746-1828) worked for the

Spanish royal court, but after the invasion ofSpain by Napoleon, his art experienced a turn.It reflected the horrors of war (The Third ofMay, and the Dissaster of War series).

The Romantic Age

• Francisco Goya, The Third of May (1808)

The Romantic Age

The Romantic Style in Music• Ludwing van Beethoven (1770-1827), Vienna.

Introduced a new rhythmic vitality. He blurredthe division between the structural units of acomposition, exploiting textural contrast forexpressive effects

• Ex. Ninth Symphony (Third was dedicated toNapoleon)

References:• Fiero, G. K. (2011). The humanistic tradition,

Book 4 & 5: The European renaissance, theReformation, and the global encounter (6th.Ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

• Sherman, D & Salisbury, J. (2008).Civilizaciones de occidente. Vol II desde 1600.México: McGraw Hill.

the age of enlightenment and the romantic age

Documents

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age of enlightenment

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political freedom

andthe social contract

jefferson aftermath

english civil war

thomas hobbes