The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment

 Voltaire, Jefferson, Mozart, Beethoven,

Watteau, David, Swift, Goethe, Frederick
the Great & Robespierre
 Intellectually, it was the beginning of real
self determination for the individual.
 Classical music
 Romanticism vs. Neoclassicism
 Politically, discourse led to revolution, and
set the stage for the disappearance of the
monarch
 The Enlightenment
 Steam engines (invented 1699) were becoming
commonplace by the end of the century.
Between 1760 and 1840 England led the way
(Watt improved the steam engine in 1769).
 Agricultural improvements caused food
production to soar.
 More products, bigger cities, more people meant
more roads to get the food from the farm to the
city.
 Old methods of governance were doomed,
regardless of how attached people were to them.
 David Hume 1711-1776
 Newton meets Locke.
 Mathematics is the only
science. Everything else is
subject to doubt.
 He concluded that no
theory of reality is possible;
there can be no knowledge
of anything beyond
experience.
 Questioned cause and
effect.
 Essentially, he revived
classical skepticism.
 Portrait by Allan Ramsay 1766
 Immanuel Kant 1724-1804
 “Foremost thinker of the Enlightenment”
according to Otto Alan Bird, writing for
Encyclopedia Britannica.
 Kant divided the world into two areas of
inquiry, the world of appearances (the
proper area of scientific investigation) and
the ultimate reality beyond.
 This division of fields of knowledge into
science and philosophy has had some
serious consequences.
 Now science and philosophy pursue
almost entirely separate paths--they were
once part of the same discipline.

 Bust of Immanuel Kant by Emanuel

Bardou 1798
 Denis Diderot 1713-1784
 Philosophes (fil oh sawfs)
 Edited the Encyclopedie 1751-1772
 First great art critic
 Ideas
 Proposed teaching the blind to read
by touch a century before Braille
 Proposed a theory of natural
selection a century before Darwin.
He spent 3 months in jail for it.
 He felt free will was a delusion, and
that matter possessed sensitivity--
this accounted for life and thought.
 Bust of Diderot by Jean-Antoine
Houdon 1771
 Jean Jacques Rousseau
1712-1778
 The SOCIAL CONTRACT:
 “Man is born free and
everywhere he is in chains.”
 Men are not equal, and society
just makes them unequal in
new ways.
 Civilization just increases our
depravity and corruption.
 The uncivilized state is no
better, since it is merely trading
one set of problems for
another, and abstract ideas are
less likely.
 We have to find the balance
between decadent civilization
and barbarity.
 Bust of Rousseau by Houdon 1778
 Rousseau
 Social Contract
 a) We must join to protect ourselves.
 b) Each individual surrenders all his natural rights to the
state.
 c) The state gives him civil rights in exchange.
 d) This exchange causes a change in his will. The citizen
begins to think as a member of the group in addition to
thinking as a free agent.
 e) This consent to the general will makes us all free.
 It may be necessary to force some folks to become free.
 f) The state has complete power to implement the
general will, with accountability to the people.
 Man should cultivate his heart, not his reason.
 Man is basically good.
 Voltaire
1694-1778
François-Marie Arouet
 "One feels like crawling on all
fours after reading your work."
Letter to Rousseau
 "I don't believe a word you say,
but I'll defend to the death your
right to say it."
 Approach all ideas with an
inquisitive and tolerant
skepticism.
 Approach all human situations
with a passionate regard for
justice and fairness.
 Believe what you like but "we
must cultivate our garden."
from Candide
 Bust of Voltaire by Houdon 1778
 Voltaire
 Ethics rest on self love and justice. Self
love alone is bad, but humans desire
order, so justice is the logical outcome of
the combination.
 Design indicates God is. DEISM
 Man has free will, but it is conditioned by
the laws of the universe.
 We cannot know if we are immortal. Man
is guilty and God is punishing us, or God
is indifferent. Voltaire tended to the later
view.
 Voltaire
 "It is better to risk saving a guilty
person than to condemn an
innocent one."
 "If this is the best of all possible
worlds, what are the others like?"
 "I have never made but one prayer
to God, a very short one, 'O Lord,
make my enemies ridiculous.' And
God granted it."
 "Common sense is not so common."
 "I am very fond of truth, but not at
all of martyrdom."
 "If God did not exist, it would be
necessary to invent him."
 "I die adoring God, loving my
friends, not hating my enemies, and
detesting superstition.“
 Bust of Voltaire by Houdon
Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire Salvador Dali 1940
 Adam Smith
1723-1790
 Enlightened self interest
 Human labor
 No governmental
interference
 End result: WEALTH
 An Inquiry into the nature
and causes of the Wealth
of Nations 1776
 Posthumous Bust by
Baron Carlo Marochetti
(1805-1868)
Frederick the
Great 1712 - 1786
 Ruler of Prussia 1740 to
1786
 He was fascinated by
Voltaire, and patronized
many artists.
 He insisted on religious
tolerance, and loved
French culture.
 He also gave C P E Bach
a job.
 He abolished judicial
torture.
 Portrait by Antoine Pesne
1739
 Maria Theresa
1717-1780
 Ruler of Hungary,
Austria and Bohemia
1740-1780
 She presided over the
city of Vienna during its
greatest artistic period
(Mozart).
 Roman Catholic who
was terrified of the
ideas of the
Enlightenment.
 She had reason to be
since they cost her
daughter Marie
Antoinette her life.
 Portrait by Martin van
Meytens (1695-1770)
Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826
 U. S. president
1800-1808
 He wrote the
Declaration of
Independence and
drafted The Bill of
Rights
 Influential architect
 He founded the
University of
Virginia in 1819
 Thomas
Jefferson
by Houdon
1789
Jefferson Memorial 1938-43
Monticello 1770-1825
Jean-Antoine
Watteau
1684-1721
Portrait of Watteau by
Rosalba Carriera
1675-1757
The Embarkation for Cythera 1717
 Pierrot
(also
known as
Gilles)
1718-19
Two Studies of the Head and Shoulders of a Little Girl c. 1716-17
 François
Boucher
1703-1770
Portrait by Gustav Lundberg
1741

Next Slide:
Diana Resting
after her Bath
1742
 The
Afternoon
Meal
1739
Madame de
Pompadour
1758
Jean Honore
Fragonard
1732-1806
Self portrait
date unknown
The Swing 1767
Young Girl
Reading
1776
 William
Hogarth
1697-
1764
Self Portrait with a
Pug Dog 1745

Next Slide: From

The Rake’s
Progress
The Orgy 1735
 William Hogarth 1697-1764
From The Rake’s Progress The Orgy 1735
 The
Shrimp
Girl
1740
 Thomas
Gainsborough
1727-1788
Self portrait
1787
Mr. and Mrs. Andrews 1748-49
 Jean-
Baptiste-
Siméon
Chardin
1699-1799
Self Portrait
1771
Pastels
The House
of Cards
1737
 Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
1696-1770
The Education of the Virgin 1732
Self Portrait 1775 Next slide:
Apollo and the Continents
1752-1753
Detail: America
Maurice
Quentin
de la
Tour
1704-
1788
Self Portrait
1751
Pastels
 Elisabeth
Louise
Vigee-
Lebrun
1755-1842
Self Portrait in
a Straw Hat
1782
Jacques-Louis
David 1744-1825
The Oath of the Horatii 1784
Magnificent and effective piece
of propaganda 3 brothers sent
to fight 3 of their enemies
1 of the sisters was betrothed to
1 of the 3 from the other side
David supported the Revolution,

and his battle lines are clearly

drawn "Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity"

Self portrait 1794

 The
Death of
Marat
1793
Napoleon in
his Study
1812
Antonio Canova
1757-1822
Perseus with the head of Medusa
1802
Portrait of Canova by Gaspare
Landi 1806
Next slide: Pauline Borghese as
Venus 1808
Jean-Antoine Houdon 1741-1828

 Next slide: Houdon in his Studio by

Louis-Léopold Boilly 1803 or later
 Houdon would execute portrait busts
of most of the important figures of
the Enlightenment
Voltaire 1781 Franklin 1778
 Alexander Pope 1688-1744
Know, then, thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Bust of Alexander Pope by

John Michael Rysbrack 1730
 Jonathan
Swift
1667-1745
One of the best rules in
conversation is,
Never to say a thing which
any of the company
Can reasonably wish had
been left unsaid.

He was a bold man that first

ate an oyster.
 Swift
A Modest Proposal
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my
acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is,
at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food,
whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt
that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout. . . .we are told
by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a
prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic
countries about nine months after Lent, the markets will be more
glutted than usual, because the number of Popish infants, is at
least three to one in this kingdom, and therefore it will have one
other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of Papists
among us.
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749-1832
FAUST
The end I aim at is not joy;
I crave excitement, agonizing bliss,
Enamour'd hatred, quickening vexation.
Purg'd from the love of knowledge, my vocation,
The scope of all my powers henceforth be this,
To bare my breast to every pang,
To know In my heart's core all human weal and woe,
To grasp in thought the lofty and the deep,
Men's various fortunes on my breast to heap,
And thus to theirs dilate my individual mind,
And share at length with them the shipwreck of mankind.

Next Slide: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein

Goethe in the Roman Campagna
1786
Willhelm Friedman Bach
1710-1784
1733 organist in Dresden
1746 organist at Halle
The "Halle" Bach
40 keyboard works
7concertos
10 symphonies
33 sacred cantatas
He may have contributed to J.
S. Bach’s
Inventionen and Sinfonien
All composer portraits by Thomas
Cobbe, who donated them to the
University of Cincinnati in 1993
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach 1714-1788

Over 200 pieces of

keyboard music
22 settings of The
Passion
Essay on the
True Art of Playing
Keyboard
Instruments
1753-1762
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
1732-1795
The “Buckeburg” Bach
Chamber musician at the
Buckeburg Court from 1750
until his death
Composed:
20 symphonies
6 keyboard concertos
Brutus (opera)
Cantatas
Oratorios

Portraits of J. C. F. Bach
Johann Christian Bach 1735-1782
The “English” Bach
1762 composer to the
King's Theatre in London
Composed successful
Italian operas
Orchestral, chamber &
keyboard music
Social & musical success
Friend of and influence on
Mozart
Franz Joseph Haydn 1732-1809
 Motivic composer
 Taught Beethoven
 His total output includes
 108 symphonies
 68 string quartets
 32 divertimenti for small
orchestra
 126 trios for baryton, viola, and
cello
 29 trios for piano, violin, and
cello
 21 trios for two violins and cello
 47 piano sonatas
 20 operas
 14 masses
 6 oratorios
 Recommended works:
 Later String Quartets and
Symphonies
 Last 6 Piano Sonatas
 The Creation (oratorio)
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756-1791
 Recommended works:
 Fantasias (piano
works)
 Late Symphonies
 The Magic Flute
 The Marriage of Figaro
is the oldest opera still
found in the repertoire
of all opera houses.
 The Great Mass in C
Minor
 Requiem
Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827
 3 periods:
 Early, imitated Haydn.
 Moonlight Sonata
 Pathetique
 Middle, famous period, becomes the
textbook example of the Romantic artist,
self absorbed, brilliant, etc.
 Waldstein Sonata (transitional)
 5th Symphony
 6th Symphony (Pastoral)
 Les Adieux (Sonata Op. 81)
 Late, growing deafness, increasing solitude
and absorption in counterpoint.
 9th Symphony
 Last six Piano sonatas
 Last six string quartets
 Grosse Fugue
 "Music should strike fire from a man."
 "Music is the one incorporeal entrance into
the higher world of knowledge which
comprehends mankind but which mankind
cannot comprehend."