Monday, June 20, 2016

Art History Discussion: Secular Art/Rococo

Secular

There is no longer a focus on religion, there is no religious conotation.

The focus of today's discussion is sex, and how great it is.

Secular love, is not religious love, it is sexual love.

Antoine Watteau's Departure From the Isle of Cythera

This piece portrays a world of sexual pleasure, but the message of the piece is that we are not living in a world of sexual pleasure, that sexual pleasure is fleeting.

We are not living in a heavenly sexual paradise, we are living in our mortal physical world.

Antoine Watteau's Gilles

It was a comedy club advertisement. Gilles was a clown. The piece is actually based on a religious work of art translated to "present the man". "Present the man", was a work of art in which Jesus was presented to a crowd, and people had to choose between killing him or killing Jesus. Gilles is to represent everyman, when someone is put in the spotlight and judged. 

It represents that everyman, when put in the spotlight, isn't measured up to judgement. Gilles is wearing high water pants, he has huge shoelaces, and the man next to him is attempting to tie his shoelaces together, and Gilles is wearing all kinds of ridiculous clothes.

While the image starts off as ridiculous, it doesn't stay ridiculous, it becomes sad. The storyline of Watteau's paintings are always melancholy, and are never Rococo. It shows that man is not perfect, that man is not God, and that once man understands that, man can't take themselves seriously.

However Gilles, takes himself seriously, and Gilles is ridiculous. The painting's goal is to teach you, to not be like Gilles, it is to teach you to not take yourself too seriously.


Rococo

Runs from 1730 to 1785.

Is about having fun.

Ideas and Beliefs of Rococo

  • Philosophy of Deism: God created the world, and all of the world is perfect.
  • God designed the human body, so the human body is also perfect.
  • We should enjoy everything that God gave us.
  • If it feels good, do it.
  • God gave you your senses, and you should be guided by the senses God gave you.
  • We need to believe in reason, and learn how to appreciate our perfect world.
  • Geometry is not divine, everything is divine, everything is perfect. Geometry is beauty is divine, is an outdated idea.
  • Everything fits together perfectly.
  • Enjoying the world you are given, is a huge moral aspiration
How the Ideas and Beliefs are Visually Expressed
  • There is no focal point, because there is no best part, everything is perfect, because God made everything.
  • Lack of geometry, everything flows into everything else.
  • Lack of Symmetry
  • Images flow into eachother, man is shown in harmony with nature.
  • Lack of Hiearchy 
  • Pastel Colors
  • Gently Flowing Line

Enlightenment

Ideas and Beliefs


  • Philosophy of Deism: God created the world, and all of the world is perfect.
  • We have heaven on Earth.
  • We need to believe in reason, and learn how to appreciate our perfect world.

  • How the Ideas are Visually Expressed
    • Geometry is used to represent the divine

    Germain Boffrand's Hotel de Soubise

    There are floor to ceiling windows, that let in light, and full of mirrors with bright walls. Boroque period symbolizes light as being divine. This room is heaven.

    This room is for having fun, and having a good life. The paintings around the Hotel de Soubise, are based on sexual love. This is definitely a Rococo piece.

    Neoclassicism

    Runs from 1770 to 1800.

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