Parisian Art Through the Ages; How Political and Religous Changes Shaped Painting from Baroque to Realism

            The 17th century, still scented with a fading aroma of the Renaissances religious reawakening, opened with a bang on the European cultural stage. Individuals and social parties were coping with the effects of religious dissention, a flourishing economy, political turbulence, and an eruption of scientific knowledge. In Paris, hand and hand with this cultural shift, came a period in which artistic expression paralleled the commotion in society. And as the citys inner machinery went through a series of regeneration, so its painting evolved in style.
            French art of the 1600 and early 1700, known as the Baroque period, reflected the Counter Reformation and the use of painting by the Roman Catholic Church to regain faithfulness from the masses. The rising popularity of Protestantism forced the Catholic Church to encourage piety among the faithful and persuade those whose loyalties had drifted to reclaim their divine status. The Baroque style, identified by open compositions in which elements move diagonally through space, reflected the churchs campaign for loyalty by using techniques that were "doctrinally correct and visually and emotionally appealing to influence the largest possible audience."   Artists in the Baroque Period, such as Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, and Simon Vouet, used rich colors and dramatic contrasts of light and dark in order to portray the classical antiquity and rational formality characteristic to their paintings. As subject matter began to drift from the religious spotlight into the focus of a political centralization by Louis XIV, landscapes and still lifes became more coveted by the French Court. Lorraines "Landscape with Merchants" is one of the more famous depictions of atmosphere and light technique in the Baroque period. His use of strong and raking light moves the eye from the pristine forest frame to the lighter middle ground where harsh light silhouettes the merchants in the foreground. The painting embodies a sense of natural tranquility and offers an illusion of something more pure and divine in the distance.      

Picture Courtesy of Illinois State University
           

    During the latter half of the 18th century, as the French Revolution caused the decentralization of political power, the French Court began to resist Italian Baroque and instead replaced it with Classicism; appealing to aesthetic demands of the new democracy. Neoclassicism, whose aesthetic principles emphasized form, simplicity, proportion, and the rationalization of the human form, reflected the aura of new government: discipline and virtue. The Baroque style, because of its association with the aristocracy and its stylistic appeal to their tastes, seemed obsolete as Parisian culture evolved to fit its evanescent political dynamics. Government sought to model itself after Classical Rome, and, to form unity amongst the populace, advertised the value of aesthetic ideals as greater than that of individual expression in Neoclassical painting. Because Neoclassicism seeks to revive an archaic style that goes against contemporary technique, the result is work of technical perfection though lacking life and emotional depth.  
            Jacques Louis David, an avid supporter of the revolution, soon became the leading painter of Neoclassical style. David extolled antique virtues and gave new expression to patriotism, stoic self-sacrifice, masculinity, and austerity. Davids "The Oath of Horatii", painted towards the beginning of his career in 1784, captures the civic sentiment of the age by underscoring the importance of democracy. Stylistically, the people in the painting encompass the stiff, transfixed posture characteristic of classical art. The stances of the three brothers are predetermined and posed while lacking the emotional severity that their actions call for. In the corner, their wives crouch in meek, docile, and submissive positions in the corner of the painting; they are overshadowed by the dominant male forces of the picture and merely rest to the side in a delicate state of enervation. Politically, the painting propagates patriotism and denounces individuality. The three brothers symbolize the forces of democracy and their struggle to seize the empire from the evils of absolutism.

David's "Oath of the Horatii" Courtesy of artchive.com

            As Napoleon came to power in the 1790s, Davids style evolved as he began painting portraits of Martyrs of the revolution and integrated contemporary heroes into his allegories. Napoleon became the focus of many of Davids works and he gave David the status of official painter of the revolution. In "the Coronation of Napoleon", Napoleon is portrayed in an idealized manner as he places the crown on his own head. Although the painting holds no focus in the foreground, Napoleon is the central point of the image; he stands higher than the members of his procession and is grazed with a glowing light.
            In 1793, during the height of the revolution, David painted "the Death of Marat", a leading activist along side David. Because Marat was a personal friend of David, his emotions effected the dynamic of this piece, and though he made Marat into a martyr for the revolution, he abandoned distinct characteristics of neoclassical art. David depicted Marats body as an idealized form in which he used dramatic lighting to convey its depth. The contorted limpness of his upper body strays from the stiff, rational form in his previous classical paintings. Although the subject matter is undoubtedly characteristic of classicism,  Davids new stylistic edge marks a departure into subtle emotion and an exit from a cultural manifestation in Roman and Greek styles.

"Death of Marat" Painted by David

             Romanticism arose in the early 19th century as a rejection of prescribed rules of Classicism but was not fully adopted in Paris until 1830. The romantic movement was sparked by the ideals of libertarianism and egalitarianism from the French Revolution that had been forced upon artists struggling for individuality. Romanticism as a genre is a potpourri of different styles and trends with one common ground: potency of emotional content. The basic guidelines of romanticism were that there werent any; it was a tone of art not a funnel for specific style like Classicism. The basic trends of romanticism were: "a return to nature and to belief in the goodness of man; the rediscovery of the artist as a supremely individual creator; the development of nationalistic pride; the exaltations of the senses and emotions over reason and intellect."  And as romanticism repels the notions of classicism, it simultaneously rejects the idea of rationalism.            

    One of the most famous romantic painters of the period was Theodore Gericault and his radical portrayal of the "Raft of the Meduse" in 1818. Gericault chose to portray the most intense emotional portion of the journey, when the men spotted their rescue shit, opposed to the acts of cannibalism. The painting uses a color scheme that would never be found in a classical painting. The dour lighting fits the emotional state of the scene and highlights the facial expressions of the men as well as their debilitated physical state. There is emotion in every aspect of the painting, from the lighting to the physicality of their pain. The light is used to shape the bodied and highlight the features. The light appears to be coming straight towards the picture while the sky shading remains uniform and does not appear to be supplying the glow. The directional placement of the bodies enhances their helplessness and frailty, while the progression of the bodies upwards emphasizes notions of rising hope. The survivors appear to be caught between salvation and damnation, a departure from the ideal lucidity of classical allegories. Here romantic expression seeks to criticize the new monarchy, and with its morbidity and subject matter, the painting brings a pessimism of human nature. Gericault rejects everything that was held sacred in classicism and contorts it into an individualistic message celebrating freedom of expression. "We are not, Gericault knew from his own experience, the rational heroes of Neoclassical art, in charge of our own fate, but a tiny boat tossed on the stormy seas of life."  This statement became a metaphor for expressionism among all romantic artists.

"Raft of the Meduse"

            By the mid-1800’s, Neoclassicism and its counterpart, romanticism, were becoming outmoded and stale. As the fires of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror were reduced to mere embers, Paris adapted culturally by returning to a peaceful state of its own. As rejection of political rule died with romanticism, realism became the new artistic force. Painting came full circle and returned to the serenity of nature, once again focusing on pristine landscapes and lush colors that had once been idealized in the Baroque Period. However, romanticism had left its stylistic traits to its successors and realism was shifted away from idealized settings. The government was returned to a republic and realism portrayed selected scenes of the poorer classes as a realer representation of Paris’ citizens. Courbet took the idealism of nature and incorporated it in a harsh and realistic manner. He adapted all the styles that had preceded him throughout the centuries and remodeled them into an expressive return to nature.  

 

End Notes:

Quote 1, Quote 3: Art History by Marilyn Stokstad, Harry N. Abrams Inc

Quote 2: Websters Encyclopedia, fifth edition