What’s on CourseLecture / symposium

Diploma lecture series 2012

Absolutism to enlightenment: European art and culture 1665-1765

In the late 17th century, Europe was animated by a new scientific spirit. New discoveries in the physical and social sciences permeated all aspects of human existence. A new age was born. It is the age of the triumph of reason: the enlightenment.

The art and architecture of this period belong in broad terms to the late Baroque. But in France particularly, and in the decorative arts especially, Baroque exuberance is replaced by a style of delicacy and whimsy known as the rococo. The great painters of this time, including Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard, speak a language of refined eroticism as exquisite as a set of variations by their German contemporary JS Bach.

The 18th century is the moment at which life itself becomes a work of art, as reflected in everything from a frock coat to a tea cup. The opening of trade routes with the east bring the novelties of porcelain and chinoiserie, while exotic animals, birds and plants are seen and classified for the first time. The mood of scientific enquiry translates into an exuberant curiosity and hunger for understanding which also sees the birth of the museum.

This course traces the art of the enlightenment to the height of the rococo style. At a time around 1765 the rococo is rejected in favour of neo-classicism. Just at the time the enlightenment sees its proudest achievement in the last volumes of Diderot’s great encyclopedia, there are voices of dissent. Reason is not everything. A new course is set which will end in romanticism.

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Full year • Term 1 • Term 2 • Term 3 • Individual lectures: see below

Richard Beresford