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The 18th and 19th
Centuries
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(Neoclassicism,
Romanticism and
Art Styles in 19th century -
Art Map)
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Neoclassicism and Romanticism
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
Georges Jacob
Charles Cameron
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Neoclassical Sculpture
The Italian sculptor Antonio Canova created many works of classical
mythological subjects, pursuing an ideal beauty based on reason,
according to the aesthetic of the day. He was commissioned to sculpt
the monument for Pope Clement XIV (1783-87) in Santi Apostoli, Rome.
In accordance with Winckelmann's canon of "noble simplicity and calm
grandeur", he dispensed with rich ornamentation and the use of
superfluous marble for sumptuous drapery. Nevertheless,
Canova
remained essentially a follower of the Baroque style and tended to
confuse classicism with sentimentality, sometimes veering towards
artificiality. His Three Graces and his statue of
Pauline Bonaparte Borghese as Venus demanded a visually three-dimensional perspective.
This contrasted strongly with Bertel Thorvalsden's
(1768-1844) Three Graces, Hebe (1816) or Ganymede with Jupiter as the Eagle (1817)
which are essentially-static, fixed, and frontal. Denmark's most
important Neoclassicist and one of the leaders of the movement, Thorvaldsen spent the majority of his working life in Rome,
preferring to work from copies rather than live models. Such was the
admiration for his statue of Jason (1802-03) that the sculptor was
ensured a constant stream of commissions. Thorvaldsen was not a
profound observer of character, and his work has been criticized by
some modern critics for being rather cold and devoid of feeling.
However, Thorvaldsen still deserves to be ranked alongside
Canova
and John Flaxman as one of the greatest Neoclassical sculptors.
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
The Three Graces
1851
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
The Three Graces
Accademia di Brera,
Milan
The theme of the Three Graces was a popular subject in
Neoclassical art, calling as it did for the portrayal of three female
nudes, their arms entwined around one another, each figure depicted in a
different pose.
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Bertel
Thorvaldsen
(b Copenhagen, 13 Nov 1768 or 19 Nov 1770; d
Copenhagen, 24 March 1844).
Danish sculptor and collector, active in Italy. He spent most of his
working life in Rome, where, after the death of Antonio Canova in
1822, he became the foremost Neo-classical sculptor. Although the
heroic quality of his early Roman work was later modified by certain
naturalistic features, he never abandoned his fundamental,
classicizing ideals. His pan-European reputation led to commissions
from public and private patrons in many countries, and in order to
supply these he ran a large and well-organized studio. His
collection of contemporary paintings was probably the finest in
19th-century Rome and, together with many of his sculptures, is now
housed in the Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen (opened 1848). (Unless
otherwise stated, the models and versions of the works mentioned in
this entry are there.) In the decades after his death, the taste for
Neo-classicism, and thus his reputation, declined, and it was not
until the mid-20th century that his art was re-evaluated.
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
Ganymede Waters Zeus as an Eagle
1817
Marble, height 93,5 cm
Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen
The artist portrays the dialogue between
the beautiful Trojan youth Ganymede,
and Zeus in the guise of an eagle,
with a restrained tenderness and delicacy.
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
Hebe
1806
Marble, height 156 cm
Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Ganymede
1816 |

Bertel Thorvaldsen
Jason with the Golden Fleece
1803-28
Marble, height 242 cm
Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Cupid
with a Lyre
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
Venus
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Bertel Thorvaldsen
Shepherd
Boy with Dog
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Achilles and Briseis
1803
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Priam Pleads with Achilles
1815
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Cupid
1827
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Lion of Lucerne
1821
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 Bertel Thorvaldsen
Lord Byron
1831
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Georges Jacob Louis XVI Style Armchair

Georges Jacob
Pair of Armchairs

Georges Jacob
Chair
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NEOCLASSICAL FURNITURE
The elaborate decorations, smooth curves, and gilded ornamentation
of Rococo furniture was followed by the straight lines and austere
geometric motifs of Neoclassicism. Robert Adam was the first to
embrace the new colours and tones, embellishing his furniture with
delicate Neoclassical motifs. Georges Jacob (1739-1814) became the
emperor's highly acclaimed cabinet-maker; he substituted maple, oak.
beech, cherry, and apple wood for the more fashionable mahogany,
which was difficult to obtain because of the ban on importing goods
from the British colonies. Palmettos, small rose windows, acanthus
leaves, and sphinx heads were the most popular bronze decorations. Pompeiian tripods were used as bases for tables and small pieces of
furniture: chairs were modelled on the curule chair (used by the
highest civil officials of ancient Rome); and beds on the triclinium
(dining couch). English and French Neoclassical furniture was
adopted throughout Europe. In Russia, for example. Catherine II's
Scottish architect Charles Cameron (1745-1812) designed fine pieces
in Adam's style.
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Georges Jacob
(b Cheny, 6 July 1739; d Paris, 5 July 1814)
arrived in Paris in 1755 and became a Maître Ebéniste on 4 September
1765. His first business was in the Rue de Cléry, Paris, from 1767
and the Rue Meslée from 1775. At the start of his career he produced
curvilinear models often decorated with carved flowers and foliage
(e.g. 1777; Paris, Louvre), characteristic of chairs at the end of
the reign of Louis XV. His reputation rests on the production of
numerous, sometimes innovative varieties of high-quality seats in
the Louis XVI and Empire styles, for which his work was seminal. He
was probably the first to use the common Louis XVI form of tapering,
fluted legs headed by a rosette within a square (e.g. of 1780–90;
Paris, Mus. Nissim de Camondo), and he introduced console-shaped
legs that terminated in a volute below the seat rail (e.g.
fauteuil de toilette, 1770; Paris, Louvre) and promoted the use
of baluster-shaped arm supports (e.g. fauteuil à la reine;
Paris, Mus. A. Déc.), also using them on the later Empire-style
seats.
He was one of the first, following the English, to use mahogany for
seats. His production, which included beds, console tables and
screens, and later cabinet work, strongly featured carved
decoration, ranging from the standard Louis XVI motifs of twisted
ribbons, foliate rinceaux, stylized acanthus leaves,
guilloche, beading and fluting to the Turkish-style suite of
furniture (Paris, Louvre) supplied in 1777 to Charles, Comte
d’Artois (later King Charles X), and carved by Jean-Baptiste Rode
(1735–99), which prefigured the Empire style . Much of the carving
and gilding was executed by the Jacob workshops, but on certain
occasions outside craftsmen were used.
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Robert Adam, commode.
Adam's furniture is famed for its
intricacy of detail and
overall balance of design and painted
decoration.
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Cameron Gallery in Tsarskoe Selo
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Charles Cameron
(From Wikipedia)
Charles Cameron (1743-1812) was a Scottish
architect who introduced the Adam style into Russian
architecture. Little is known about his early life in
Europe, except for the fact that he studied in Italy and
France. Having read his book about Roman thermae,
Catherine the Great summoned him to Russia to
reconstruct her summer residence in Tsarskoe Selo. In
that village, he designed the so-called Cameron
Gallery with the Agate Rooms, the Hanging Gardens,
and the Cold Baths. In these structures, Cameron
skilfully reproduced the colorful decoration of Roman
public baths. Sophia Cathedral was the only notable
church designed by him. For the future Emperor Paul he
built an extensive residence, the Pavlovsk Palace,
somewhat plain in exterior appearance but dazzlingly
luxurious inside. In 1799-1803 he rebuilt the Razumovsky
palace in Baturyn, Ukraine.
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Cameron Gallery in Tsarskoe Selo
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Cameron Gallery in Tsarskoe Selo
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Cameron Gallery in Tsarskoe Selo
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Simeon Chiflar, plate from the Guriev service
showing a cossack from the
Black Sea, c. 1817.
Imperial China Factory, St Petersburg.
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THE DECORATIVE ARTS
Many leading artists made a significant contribution to the
decorative and applied arts during the Neoclassical period. The
Empire style was developed by two French architects,
Charles Percier
(1764-1838) and Pierre-Frangois-Leonard Fontaine (1762-1853), who
produced designs for fabrics, metalwork, furniture, and other
crafts. Compatriot Pierre-Paul Prud'hon applied his skills to the
design of the cradle for Napoleon's son, the infant King of Rome. In
England, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) had a considerable influence on
the growing demand for china in the Neoclassical style. In 1775, he
invented a dense hard stoneware known as jasperware, which he used
as a background for applied decoration.
John Flaxman created designs
for Wedgwood, while the Adam brothers designed for Matthew Bolton,
famous for his Sheffield steel plating and his objects in gold and
silver plate. Classically inspired wallpaper also became very
popular during this period, not in the usual dark colours but with
specially created lighter-toned designs and patterns.
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Contemporary copy of the carpet in the throne room at
the Tuileries Palace, 1807-09.
Musee National du Chateau de Malmaison,
Rueil.
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