1800 Art

1800

The Studio Boat Claude Monet

In 1800 the first great artistic movement was the Romanticism.

It developed in the first half of the century and it included many kinds of art: Poetry, literature theatre and music. It represented a mutation of taste and thoughts, a rejection of all the ideals and classifications of Beauty.

The Romanticism gave more confidence to the expression of personal creativity; it started as free expression of every single artist, of his personal and fantastic feelings.

the political and cultural situation in Europe, the French Revolution and the “Napoleonic Epopea” are considered causes and effects of this artistic movement.

The use of classic forms became like a symbol of the Revolution and the use of bombastic forms became the Symbol of “Napoleonic Era”.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann who founded the new scientific Archeology, was a great representative of that period.

Anton Raphael Mengs created a great connection between the style of Raffaello, Correggio and Tiziano and the typical art of the Ancient Greece and Pompei.

In Italy and especially in Rome, the first reaction to the Neoclassicism was expressed by a fraternity called “Nazzareni”. The most important representative of this fraternity was Friedrick Overbeck who claimed an interest for the pureness and the semplicity with mystic allusions.

The aspirations to a naive Primitivism, that refused the late Renaissance did not have a great success, because the destiny of the Neoclassic taste in Italy had a strange development. Rome was the most important city for the art, anyway the Neoclassic Art depended on the French Forms.

The only original Style were the sculptore of Canova (Dedalo and Icaro, Paolina Borghese). that showed a monumentality combined with a full refinement of the forms.

Another important sculptore was Lorenzo Bartolini (La fiducia in Dio).

Fot how to concern the painting , Andrea Appiani was the most important representative, while Giuseppe Piermarini was the greates architect.

The lastest works of Goya in Spain (Affreschi della Quinta del Sordo) represented the change to a romantic taste.

The French Revolution gave Goya some liberal thoughts that made him intolerant about the reactionary atmosphere.

When Napoleon invaded Spain, Goya created his work “I disastri della Guerra”. In 1808 he got inspired by a popular revolution and he painted “Le fucilazioni del 3 maggio” (Museo del Prado).

In 1819 goya created his most significant works, while he was deaf and ill. In his house in the suburb (Casa del Sordo) there were many paintings. He got inspired by terrible nightmares and horrible obsessions (Saturno che mastica i fligli, Sabba delle Streghe).

The Great Britain had an important role in the Romantic Period. Henry Fuselly arrived in London from Rome and he started a renovation of the forms, that became more significant with the activity if John Constable and William Turner.

The big Romantic Battle started in France. In 1819 was announced the Romanticism when Theodore Gericault showed his work “La Zattera della Medusa” a sort of Manifest that gave prominence to a drammatic image. The work was inspired by a real and tragic event.

The innovative factor was the contrast between the human factor and the fury of the storm.

In 1824 Eugène Delacroix (La barca di Dante) showed his style with deep and violent colors. The typical romantic phenomenon developed in France, woth the School of Barbizon (near the Forest of Fontainbleu) where a group of painters made a great revolution of the Painting of Landascapes.

Charles Francois Daubigny was a great exponent of this style, but the most important was Camille Corot, that learned the tecniques of “bright Stains” in Italy.

The political and social situation caused the intense activity of a lot of intellectuals in Europe.

Delacroix had been imitated by some artists like Gustave Courbet (1849, Gli Spaccapietre),Honorè Daumier, Francois Millet.

By the half of the century the Orientation changed dramatically. The scientific discoveries gave prominence to concrete sperimentations. The developments of theScience tried to explain everything, none could accept the supernatural intervention.

The theories about the Evolution developed a big sense of reality.

Coubert said that the painting is something real, that tells concrete and real things.

The Realism was the starting-point for a deeper and creative activity and for the establishment of new values.

Together with the Development of this new culture, the “official” French art was based on the Conventionalism.

The Realism became a very important style all over Europe.

I Macchiaioli Toscani were the best expression of the Realism.

From 1856 to 1861 they started to paint th reality to express their opposition to the strict academic style in Florence.

The most important artists in that period were: Giuseppe Abbati, Odoardo Borrani,

Raffaello Sernesi, Vito d’Ancona, Vincenzo Cabianca, Telemaco Signorini, Giovanni Fattori. The Realism introduced some innovative points about the Representation, but not about the tecniques.

In 1874 started a new style: the Impressionism. Alot of painters who belonged to this style, refused for their all activity to be called Impressionists.

The subjects of that style were usual people, usual landscapes, familiar situations; the portrait “en plain air” represented typical events of the life in Paris. The style was not based on severe and fixed rules, like other movements (Divisionism, Neoimpressionism),

but it followed the feelings and ideals of every single artists.

The antiacademic programm of Manet was the symbol of that artistic period.

The Official Critic did not appreciate Manet and his Style.

In 1870 started the war and many artists decided to join the Army (Manet, Pisarro, Sisley).

Monet and Sisley started a new phase of Impressionism with new tecniques and new experiments.

The Impressionism never had the character of a organized style. After the Impressionism, the Symbolism first started with Joseph Pélodan who was inspired by the oriental magic.

Paul Cezanne was the most important painter of the second half of the century.

Vincent Van Gogh and Henri-Toulouse-Lautrec are also great artists of 1800.

The school of Posillipo woth Giacinto Gigante and the tradition of Naples celebrated the style of “Verismo” with stains and quick touches, but no drawing.

Another important style “La Scapigliatura” in Italy, became very important in that period (Tranquillo Cremona and Daniele Ranzoni).

Antonio Fontanesi was the most important among a group of artists that worked in Piemonte.

The one “Macchiaioli” was absolutely the most important style in Italy. This particular branch of the “Verismo” became the inspiration for a lot of painters: Telemaco Signorini, Silvestro Lega, Giovanni Fattori, Nino Costa, Giovanni Boldini, Vincenzo Cabianca, Francesco De Nittis.

The tecnique called “stain” (macchia) was characterized by strong contrasts between light and shadow, or between tones.

In Great Britain there was first a return to the forms of 1400 and also to a neogothic style. Liberty and the “Art Nouveau” became very important in 1900.

In Austria the Greatest Representatives were Klimt and two Architects: Otto Wagner and Joseph Maria Olbricht. In Spain the Architect Antonio Gaudì had a huge success. In Italy the Liberty art did not have the same success as in Europe, although Galileo Chini, Plinio Novellini, Giuseppe Sommaruga and Gino Coppedè had been influenced a lot by that style.