Enlightenment Ideas Spread

Enlightenment Ideas Spread

Chapter 18: Section 2The Age of Reason

General Timeline

• Chapter 14: Section 5 – Scientific Revolution (1550-1700)

• Chapter 18: Sections 1 & 2 – Enlightenment/Age of Reason

(1700-1800)• Chapter 17: Age of Absolutism (1550-1800)

Setting the Scene

• Heart of the Enlightenment = Paris• Intellectuals debated new ideas and

proposed reforms, examined traditional beliefs and customs.

• “An opinion launched in Paris was like a battering ram launched by 30 million men.”

The Challenge of New Ideas

• Educated people saw the need for reform

• Wanted to achieve a just society

• PRO --- social justice and happiness

• Govt./Church Response: Censorship --- restricting access to information and ideas

• Banned/burned books, imprisioned writers, etc.

• Philosophes/Writers Reaction: disguise ideas in works of fiction

Salons• Informal social gatherings,

where art, literature, science, philosophy were discussed

• 1600s: began in Paris by noblewomen…as poetry readings

• 1700s: spread to middle class --- Madame Geoffrin

• Discussion forums today?

Enlightened Monarchs

• Allowed discussion of Enlightenment ideas in their courts of Europe

• Philosophes tried to persuade rulers to adapt new ideas.

• Monarchs often used power to bring political or social change

• Frederick the Great (II), Catherine the Great (II) and Joseph II were all Enlightened Monarchs.

Frederick the Great (1740-1786)• King of Prussia; son of

Frederick William I• Compared himself to the

philosopher-king M. Aurelius• Enjoyed reading, music

(composed 100 sonatas & 4 symphonies), plays, etc.

• Wrote Anti-Machiavel before becoming King

• Lured philosophers (Voltaire) to Berlin

• Developed Academy of Science

Frederick as King• wanted a strong monarchy and power, but DID NOT

believe in divine right!• Developed a strong military; invaded Silesia (Poland)• GOAL: modernize his lands• Tolerated religious differences (Huguenots, Jesuits, Jews

were all valuable to Prussia)• Frederick spoke his native German, French, English,

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian; he also understood Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

• Died in an armchair in his study at Sansoucci (age 74)• Frederick the Great (Old Fritz)

Frederick the Great & Sansoucci (carefree) Palace

Catherine the Great (1762-1796)• Exchanged letters with Diderot

(protected his writings) and Voltaire• Patron of arts (opera), literature,

education; est. 1st imperial zoo!• Birth name was Sophie Augusta

Fredericka; born to a Prussian (German) general

• Married her cousin Peter III of Russia; negotiated by Frederick the Great, who wanted stronger ties with Russia against Austria

• Her lover, Grigori Orlov, headed a conspiracy that made her ruler…Peter was murdered 6 months after taking the throne!

Catherine as Russian Queen• She often ruled as tyrant; proclaimed herself a lover of

liberty, but oppressed the serfs in her country• Her armies defeated the Turks, the Swedes and Poles in 3

separate wars.• 200,000 miles were added to Russia’s territories• She suffered a stroke while taking a bath (age 67)• Many urban legends surround her death; regarding her

many lovers and sexual “appetite.”• She was succeeded by her son Paul I, who was strangled

and trampled to death at age 47.

Joseph II (Peasant Emperor) 1765-1790

• Hapsburg ruler, HRE and most radical Enlightenment monarch• Son of Maria Theresa and Francis I; brother of Marie Antoinette• Studied Voltaire & Encyclopedists;patron to Mozart & Beethoven• Traveled in disguise among his subjects to learn of their problems• Granted toleration to Protestants and Jews in a predominantly

Catholic empire• Ended censorship, serfdom, death penalty• Tried to bring Catholic Church under royal control…sold

monastery/convent property to build hospitals…similar to???

Joseph II

Empress Maria Theresa1745-1780

• Oldest daughter of Charles VI; mother of Joseph II

• Foe = Frederick the Great• Ruled through the

Pragmatic Sanction• Bore 16 children (11

daughters!) 1 of the 11 was Marie Antoinette, who married Louis XVI of France.

Court art/architecture: 1600s/1700s

• Artists and composers had to please their patrons, who commissioned works and gave them jobs.

• Greek or Roman style OR in the baroque style --- grand, complex

• Baroque paintings: huge, colorful, exciting• Glorified battles or the lives of saints

Artistic Movements

• Classicism (Renaissance period) 1400s: world as it was, little detail --Michelangelo, DaVinci, Raphael

• Mannerism (1550-1600): distorted proportions El Greco (View of Toledo), Tintoretto (Last Supper), Michelangelo (Last Judgment)

• Baroque (1600s): detail, drama, grandeur, emotional – examples on next slides!

• Rococo (1720s France): opulence, grace, lightness, shell-like curves, delicate colors, cherubs, pastoral settings, portraits of nobles

Baroque architecture• From Portuguese word

barrocco meaning an irregularly shaped pearl

• Artists involved audiences emotionally; drama, tension, grandeur, elaborate, detailed, etc.

• “tool” of the Catholic Church during Counter-Reformation

• Purpose: renewal of faith and spiritual feeling

Baroque art examples

• Melk Abbey in Austria• St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome• Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa & David• Rembrandt’s Night Watch• Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring• Velasquez’s Maids of Honor (Las Meninas)• Versailles Hall of Mirrors

Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa & Statue of David

Velasquez: Maids of Honor (King Philip IV, Maria-Anna of Austria & daughter Margarita

Versailles: Hall of Mirrors

Rococo style

• From French word rocaille, a decorative work made from pebbles and shells

• Elegant and charming• Decadent and frivolous, playful, graceful • Bronze, marble, mirrors, etc.• Delicate shells and flowers on furniture and

tapestries

Ottobeuren Basilica (Bavaria) & Jean Antoine Watteau’s Pilgrimage to Cythera

Rococo art/architecture continued• Portrait painters showed

noble subjects in rural settings surrounded by servants, pets, etc.

• Artists preferred small rooms in comparison to vast spaces of the baroque style; also convex/concave exteriors

• Façade of Cadiz Cathedral in Spain (116 years to complete)

New audience

• Middle class merchants wanted portraits painted without frills

• Pictures of family life or realistic town/country scenes were popular

• Dutch painters Rembrandt and Vermeer painted ordinary, middle class subjects

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)

• Dutch painter, engraver and printer who was referred to as the “lord of light” for his use of light in his famous painting The Night Watch (The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch: 11 x 14 feet)

• Painted 60 oil self-portraits of himself

Rembrandt’s Night Watch

Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)

• Dutch painter who also used light in many of his paintings

• He painted only for local patrons

• Specialized in domestic scenes

The Love Letter & The Milkmaid

Trends in music

• Ballets and operas were performed at royal courts

• Eventually opera houses were built to entertain the masses

• Bach, Handel & Mozart were 3 of many famous Enlightenment musicians to make an impact.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

• Devout German Lutheran

• Wrote religious works for the organ and choirs

• Brandenburg Concerto is very well-known

George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)

• German composer who spent much of his life in England

• Wrote Water Music for King George I of England

• Wrote operas• The Messiah is his

most celebrated work.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

• Child prodigy (genius) born in Salzburg, Austria

• Spent much of his life in Vienna, Austria

• Began playing and composing music around the age of 5

• Wrote operas, symphonies and religious music

• Died in poverty: age 35 of rheumatic fever, influenza???

Mozart’s family

• Father: Leopold• Mother: Anna Maria• Sister: Maria Anna –

“Nannerl”• Only 2 of the 7 children

survived!• Married Constanze

Weber; had 6 children – 2 survived: Carl Thomas & Franz Xaver

Lives of the Majority

• Aristocratic or middle-class culture did not affect the majority

• Western Europe was a bit more prosperous than Eastern Europe & Russia, where serfdom (peasants could still be bought & sold with the land) was still the norm.

• 1700s: radical ideas about social equality/justice made their way into peasant villages --- led to unrest and war in many cases