Summary
Highlights
The video begins with a rapid review of art periods preceding Modernism. Rococo art, prominent in the 17th century, focused on love, lust, and the aristocratic life, characterized by soft and painterly styles. The Enlightenment period, influenced by thinkers like Voltaire, emphasized progress, rationality, and empiricism, as seen in works depicting scientific understanding like 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump'. Rousseau's influence then brought a focus on the natural and a return to simpler living. Neoclassicism, aligning with Voltaire, embraced Greco-Roman antiquity, civic virtue, and moral living with a style reminiscent of the Renaissance. Romanticism, in contrast, championed feeling, emotion, the exotic, and the macabre, using dramatic colors and swirling lines to convey intense experiences, as exemplified by 'The Death of Sardanapalus'.
The discussion then transitions to Modernism, presented as a new overarching umbrella term reflecting the rapid changes of the mid-19th century. Key factors driving modernism include urbanization, the Industrial Revolution, increased interest in science and empiricism, the invention of photography in 1839, and a more secular attitude influenced by theories like Darwin's natural selection. This era fostered a sense of constant change, a lack of connection to the past, and exposure to diverse cultures. Modernist artists aimed to capture images of their own time and world, moving away from naturalism and illusionism to emphasize the artifice of art, acknowledging the painting as a constructed object rather than a window to another world.
Realism, the first movement under Modernism, developed in France in the mid-19th century. Realist artists focused on depicting only what was real and observable in their own time, rejecting the historical, mythological, or exotic subjects of previous periods. They became champions of the marginalized, portraying the day-to-day lives of the working class and peasants, who were previously deemed unworthy of artistic depiction. This approach differed significantly from earlier portrayals of the poor, such as those influenced by Rousseau, which often idealized peasant life. Realists, like Gustave Courbet, did not romanticize or idealize their subjects; instead, they presented a straightforward, unsentimental view, acting as recorders of societal realities, even if 'ugly'.
Courbet's 'The Stone Breakers' (destroyed in WWII) exemplified Realism by showing rural workers performing a menial and monotonous task, depicting exactly what the artist saw without embellishment. The color palette of browns and grays complemented this truthfulness, starkly contrasting with the vibrant colors of Romanticism. Another significant work, 'A Burial at Ornans' (1849-1850), depicted commoners at a burial, with various realistic reactions from grief to boredom. This painting shocked critics because it lacked the sublime, dramatic, heroic, or theatrical elements expected in such a scene, unlike earlier works like El Greco's 'The Burial of Count Orgaz'. Critics specifically disliked the absence of a 'sublime moment' and the mundane portrayal of a funeral.
Critics also found fault with the style of 'A Burial at Ornans', as it deliberately downplayed illusionism. Realist and modernist painters viewed painting as a pictorial construct, emphasizing the application of paint rather than creating a flawless illusion of reality. A key aspect of this was the use of large dabs of color applied with a palette knife, creating a rough, textured surface. This technique drew attention to the painting's surface and the edge of the canvas, preventing the viewer from looking 'through' the painting as if it were a window into another world. This rejection of illusionism, which had been central to Western painting since the Renaissance, was a radical and challenging concept for 19th-century critics.